and hospitality although job gains did broaden in this report in a way that, i think, surprises. maria: were you surprised to see a decline in job in mining and lodging? >> no, not really. that sector's pretty maul and a little bit volatile. but i was very surprised by these huge numbers in business services. over the year business support services have lost jobs. maria: okay. well, we were at the lows of the morning on stock, dow industrial thes down 141, the nasdaq has all but given up a huge rally in place earlier. the nasdaq's up still about 60 points. thanks, everybody, julia, steve, tiffany, charles, rebecca, cheryl. we so appreciate it. i'll see you tonight on "wall street." have a great weekend, everybody. "varney & company" begins now. ashley webster in for stuart. take it away, ashley. ashley: good morning everyone,

indeed. 353,000 jobs added in the first month of the year. unemployment stays at3.7%. what a blowout report. let's talk a look at a big tech as a well. amazon and meta if surging after their latest earnings reports, and look at the gain for meta. beautiful, up 16 plus percent. look at the gain for apparently the cutting costs for meta a -- is working. amazon, meanwhile, helped by holiday shopping, up 6.26%. and then there's apple, the laggard as you can see, down 3.5%. is it just a china problem, or is there something bigger going on? we'll get into that as a well. take a look at how the markets are digest ising all of this news. the dow off 130 points, the s&p essentially flat and the nasdaq losing some of its steam in the premarket, still up about four-tenths of a percent. take a look at the 10-year

treasury yield up a whopping11.6 basis points, 3.99. take a look at the 2-year by comparison, the 2-year treasury yield up to 4.37%, up 17.4 basis points. the markets certainly reacting to the jobs report. now, remember this, remember the video that we showed you of migrants awe tacking particulars in -- attacking particulars in new york city? they were released without bail causing a lot of pushback. now we're hearing those migrants possibly on the run. there are reports they are on a bus headed to california. meanwhile, mayor with adams says he is spending another $137 million to house illegal migrants in new york city hotels. we'll get into that. the question is, when will we see the tipping point in all of this? is guess what? we're going to talk to a former mexican cartel member who is comparing border gangs to george is soros. we'll explain. that a great show ahead, as

always, for you, lawrence jones, tammy bruce with, brian brenberg among orrs. it is friday, february the 2nd, and if you think this is all just strangely flaker you're right. it's groundhog day. "varney & company" about to begin. ♪ ♪ ♪ it's just a job i do. ♪ 'cuz the harder you run, the harder you fall ♪ ashley: little bit of genesis for you, or phil collins and company back in the if day lacking at -- looking at a wet sixth avenue on this groundhog day. all right, let's get right to the jobs report. 35 if 3,000 the jobs -- 353,000 jobs added in january with. that took everyone by surprise. good morning, lauren simonetti. take us through it. lauren: yeah. that was the most in a year,

ashley, good morning. and december was revised higher to 330,000 jobs created. november revised higher to 182,000. right side of the screen, unemployment rate falls 3.7% in january, wages up averaging $34.55 an hour. they're up 4.5% in the past year. finish inflation is running at 3.4%. where are the jobs? if you look at health care and social assistance, the most there, more than 100,000. retail, 45,000. government, 36. manufacturing added jobs but mining and logging fell, declined by 6,000, ashley. ashley: remarkable report though. all right, next one for you, lauren. amazon, apple, meta, all reporting after the bell. what did they do? lauren: all double beats, right? profits, revenue stronger or than expected. so let's start with the biggest of the companies, which is apple, and then we'll talk about why the stock is down 3.a 5 before the opening bell. the problem is iphone sales in

china. they came up short. overall, pretty strong. nearly $70 billion in revenue, in overall revenue just shy of $120 billion. and then tim cook, he did a big a.i. release this year, but investors are unfazed, they're focused on china. flip the screen to amazon. this search is surge -- stock is surging right now on huge volume. the strongest profit at amazon in two years. all that cost cutting paying off. ceo andy jassy's moving the needle on e e-commerce but also on the clowned, overall revenue close 14% to $170 billion. last one, meta. they cut a fifth of taffe last year. ceo mark zuckerberg's zero of -- year of efficiency, it paid off. their profits trimmed in the last gater. they're paying out a dividend for the first time. look at the reaction. investors are, like, yes.

the stock is up 16.5%. and then they guided for the current quarter, they said revenue at the low end will still be 20 percent% more than first thought. ashley: wow. impressive, indeed. lauren, thank you very much. let's get back to the markets again, about 25 minutes before the opening bell on wall street. the dow off 144 points, the s&p, as we said, flat. nasdaq up about four-tenths of a percent in the premarket. let's bring in kenny polcari. i'm going to have to start with the jobs report. how much should we read into this? if what are your thoughts? >> listen, today was a blow blow outnumber. they raised november, they raised december, so there's no way -- you can kiss a march rate cut good with bye, a may rate a cut good-bye with. unemployment goes lore, and i think you have to dig through it. i haven't had a chance to actually go through the whole thing, but on the face of it,

it's a very strong report. and the two upgrades from the month before in november and december only add to that strong, robust story which does not scream for jay powell to cut rates at all. ashley: and the markets reacting to that with the dow down 142 in the premarket. kenny, i have to talk about the big tech names. you said that big tech led us down, then they led us higher or. where does big tech go from here? clearly, some amazing numbers, met the in plamplet did you buy at all on the dips? >> so is, listen, i don't with own meta, i never owned meta. i just don't like facebook, so that was a miss for me, right? if i own amazon, i own apple, i own microsoft, i bought them all on weakness, and apple i'm waiting to see. it just pierced the trend line, so i think we could see apple down to the mid 170s, and that would take it down 12% off the,

from the december high of nearly $2000. there would be another opportunity to tart to add to some apple. but, yes, on the weakness last week, i did add to the three that the i own. ashley: it's interesting with regard to apple, a lot being said about their weakness in china. it's a very competitive the market. how much of a concern is that for you? very quickly. >> i am zero or concerned about china. i don't care what happens. they earn $20 billion in china versus $23 billion, i'm not getting my, the hair on the back of my neck to stand the up because of china. absolutely not. apple's a buy. if. ashley: well, if you're feeling good about it, then i am. kenny, great job, as always. thanks for joining us. >> have a great weekend. ashley: let's tush to politics now -- turn to politics now. new polls out of georgia and wisconsin on a trump-biden matchup. lauren, what do they show us? lauren: trump gets more than half of the vote including with

independents and young voter under the age of 35. remember, biden won georgia by less than an point back in 2020. flip if it to, this is a dead heat, trump and biden tie, 47% support each. the number one you should shaw to voters in wisconsin is not immigration on the border, it is still the economy followed by election integrity. erik ash all right. lauren, thank you very much. lawrence jones -- joins me now. great to see you. >> hay, brother, how you doing? if. ashley: so more bad news for biden? both of these states he won in 2020. more concern for his campaign based on these poll numbers? >> well, i think it's concerning not just from the poll, but i always say when average americans are saying the same thing that's reflected in the polls, the candidates should be concerned. i think they got the president on the road right now talking with people, but it's more they,

you know, pre-interview segment where with he already knows who these people are. they've already vetted these people. and that's not really getting the president out there in america meeting people, talking about the issues that they're facing day-to-day. there's no shortcut to understanding america. -- americans. you've got to go out there and talk with them. so the president i don't think knows right now what the american people are feeling because the staff is not giving him the room or space to be able to communicate with the american people p. they feel like the president is, you know, weak and frail right now, he's not the same old joe biden who was once considered the greatest retail politician there was. he's lost a step. and i think it makes it hard to get a real lustic campaign done -- realistic campaign done that way. ashley: yeah. that that's what happens when you have him living in a bubble, to your point, lawrence. >> that's right. ashley: i want to get back -- you just got back, that is, from your migrant tour across the country. got a few clips, then i'll get your comments.

watch this. >> at what point does your city reach its breaking point? >> yeah, i think our city is very closes to its breaking point now, and we've been talking to leaders in d.c., around the country about why we need to take action here. >> it's an invasion, you know? they're using asylum, and some of them are saying, look, we were living better where we were. so if you were in fear for your life, how could you be living better where you were? ashley: you know, it's interesting, lawrence, you know, certainly a breaking point is close in many of these cities. is that the general tone of what you found on your tour? >> yeah. we talked to mixed people, that first chip you had the mayor of denver who wasn't really -- really critical of greg abbott. that criticism has changed ever since now he has the migrants there in his city, and he understands the frustration of the governor and residents of texas. he wants to work with them now.

then you have all the men who's upset in chicago about what's happening. yesterday i talked with a mother in boston who said you're shutting down our community center? i have four boys. this is supposed to be a community center that keeps them out of the street, and you have prioritized illegal migrants. so the democrats have a huge problem. you already have hope elessness in cities. you already have people that have been impacted by the economy, broken education system, and now hay prioritize illegal migrants? expect voters to show up and let their voices be heard on election day or they may just decide if they don't like the other party to stay at home. either way, it's bad if for joe biden. ashley: it is, indeed. and it's becoming the issue of the campaign. lawrence, great stuff, as always. great to see you. >> you got it, brother. ashley: appreciate it. with all right, coming up, a target store clerk blamed the governor of california, gavin newsom, for the surge in shoplifters, but what she didn't

know was the governor was actually in the checkout line at that store. we're going to the tell you how he responded. it's been nearly a week, and the white house has yet to respond to the iran proxy attack, but president biden will play consoler in chief today. he'll be facing the families of the fallen soldiers who are coming home. we'll have have a report on that next. ♪ if (fisher investments) at fisher investments we may look like other money managers, but we're different. (other money manager) how so? (fisher investments) we're a fiduciary, obligated to act in our client'' best interest. (fisher investments) so we don't sell any commission-based products. (other money manager) then how do you make money? (fisher investments) we have a simple management fee, structured so we do better when our clients do better. (other money manager) your clients really come first then, huh? (fisher investments) yes. we make them a top priority, by getting to know their finances, family, health, lifestyle and more. (other money manager) wow, maybe we are different. (fisher investments) at fisher investments, we're clearly different.

ashley: all right, now this, it's been six days without a response to the iran proxy attack that killed three u.s. soldiers. alexandria hoff joining me now from the white house. all right, alexandria, what's

the latest? >> reporter: with the latest here today is that president biden will be awe attending the event that will bring these three u.s. troops home. i mean, this is the reason that the u.s. has been looked to for this immediate response, because three of do our and brightest were taken from this country, and the president is going to be there as their bodies are returned. he's in new castle, delaware, he'll depart for dover air force base this afternoon. once he arrives, he and the first lady will meet with the families of sergeant william rivers, kennedy sanders and bionthat moffett all based in fort moore, all killed on sunday in a a drone attack in jordan. the president will participate in the dignified transfer this afternoon. he spoke to the families by phone on fuse, the white house say -- on tuesday, the white house says it was agreed he should be there. today the world and these families are waiting to see how the administration is responding to this attack or how they will.

here are the parents of kennedy sanders earlier this week. >> we just continue to pray for them, you know, whatever is decided. i trust that it'll be a good decision that keeps everyone in the safest position possible. >> in the best interests of the united states. >> reporter: so the white house and defense officials, they blame the attack on an umbrella group of iran-backed proxies. strikes against iraq and syria, they are currently being weighed. defense secretary lloyd austin said the u.s. response will be multitiered. [no audio] >> they risked their lives and lost their lyes to keep their fellow -- lives to keep their fellow americans safe from global terrorism. the president will not tolerate attacks on american troops and neither will i. >> reporter: no response

action has been carried out. there was some thought maybe something would take place last night but, ashley, that was not the case. ashley: all right. alexandria, thank you very much at the white house this morning. those iranian-backed terrorists responsible for the deaths of the three u.s. service members have reportedly evacuated their positions after the administration leaked their response plans to the media. former state department official christian whiton joins me now. all right, kris christian, how does that leak hurt our ability to respond with any if effectiveness? if. >> yeah. for all the talk about classified information going wayward in washington, this is real classified information. this isn't just some bureaucrat writing a memo to another bureaucrat and stamping it top secret to sound important. this is the most vital information, military plans that are active. and the fact that this has made it to the public domain p tipped off our adversaries and now we're going if to be bombing

some empty buildings, dog nothing to degrade these capabilities. also look back to what was said earlier with, there's no strategy here. what we really need before we start dropping bombs, and we should have responded already, but we need the president to look the american people in the eye and explain what the strategy is here and dispense also with this game of falling into iran's game of believing that there's a difference between what tehran wants and does, what the houthi are doing and what these terrorist groups in iraq are up to. ashley: so you think any response by now is too little too late, basically. enter there needs to be a strategic shift. why do we have these poorly-defended outposts in iraq? i thought we got kicked out of iraq. we got kicked out of iraq because president obama put joe biden of extending that back in 2010 and '. we went back to defend isis, the

isis are essentially defeat. we need to focus on back footing iran through sanctions and military deterrence, should be more based on the 2345e6 and aviation that would also work to deferer the china -- deter china. a fundamental shift away from counterinsurgency. we're just getting none of that. and if you look, the two countries that should be with us most, the that houthi, again, just another iranian proxy same as these others, they are the not involved in the military operation we're undertaking x. that just shows this is not a serious earth. effort. ashley: next one for you, christian, joe biden signing an executive order yesterday that imposes sanctions on israeli accelerates involved in violent attacks against palestinians. what do you make of that? >> you know, biden has really made the palestinian issue great again. when donald trump was in office, we had transcended that, we had moved past this fiction that the only way to solve the middle

east is first by solving israel and palestine. and what trump and the arab a gulf states had done is said, no, the real culprit is iran. iran exports terrorism, and bind came in determined to revive this, to turn back the clock and revive this issue. he gave money to the palestinians, he gave money to unrwa which actually the employs terrorists, and so what are we doing here? would could you imagine in 1939, britain's at war with germany, well, we want you to win, but you had better not commit any war crimes against the nazis. it's a bizarre message. the israeli authorities themselves are acting out when these settlers conduct violence, and it just shows we're trying to balance these two things rather than say we want the good guys to win. ashley: yeah, we certainly do. christian, thank you so much for joining us on this friday. and always a for your expertise. >> thank you, ashley. ashley: thank you. a former trump national security adviser has a warning for president biden on his middle east policy p. what's he saying,

lauren? lauren: it's john bolton, and he says biden should not recognize palestine as a state. >> if joe biden wants to lose the election this november, go ahead and recognize the palestinian state. go ahead. make donald trump's day. you know, we're not recognizing a tate of mind -- a state of mind. to recognize a state, there actually has to be one in compliance, and right now -- existence existence, and and right now there is no palestinian state. lauren: bind is in a pickle because democrats are divided on the the issue. biden's support in michigan among the arab and miss lumbar population way down, down to the teens from 80% back in 2020. ashley: wow. a pickle, indeed. lauren, thank you very much. let's take a look at the futures. well, we've seen the dow take a downward fall once we got that strong jobs report. nasdaq still positive. but guess what? the opening bell is coming up next. ♪ my mom would beat me senseless

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ashley: all right, less than two minutes now til the opening bell if on this friday. the tow off nearly 150 points -- dow -- nasdaq up 59 points. let's bring in mark mahaney. good morning to you. you're keeping your outlook on google. outperform with $160 price target. we've had quests on here who have said get out of google, so what are you seeing that they're not? if. >> well, to put the context around it, you know, we do prefer amazon and meta, those are two of our top three pix, google's down the list. but google's going to participate in the same trends that meta and amazon are seeing. their increasing improving demand trends here, you know, for these tech companies. revenue growth is accelerating. that's what happened to google, it just didn't hit quite the high level of expectation that the street had. and there's also another message that i think google is going to finally get which is they need to be more shareholder-friendly with their cash. they have over $10 billion in -- $100 billion in cash, and one of

the reasons meta is up so much this morning, they declared a dividend. google should have declared a dividend a year ago. there's aal catalyst up ahead for alphabet, so you want to stay long alphabet. ashley: talking of meta, your price target was 425. based what you've heard in the last earnings report, you still sticking with that or perhaps go higher? >> no, we went much higher. we're up at 550 now. ashley: wow. >> i really love the fact that they're paying a dividend, and you're seeing acceleration in revenue growth. they've got all these wonderful product cycles coming together. i like meta, it's one of our top picks. ashley: thank you, mark. sorry it was so quick, but it was incredibly value -- valuable, as always. mark mahaney if. on this friday, groundhog day, have we been here before? does it all look forward? --

familiar? pushing the button and and off we go for today's session. taking a look at the big board and the dow 30 stocks, a lot more red than green right out of the gate as you can seement -- see. we have at the bottom apple, home depot, nike. there you have chevron, travelers, salesforce.com on the top. let's take a look at the s&p if we can, it was pretty flat in the premarket. there you go, we're up 10 points, about a quarter of a percent on the s&p 500, 4917. and let's take a look at the nasdaq, the big tech index. up quarter of a percent if, modestly so, up 41 points at 15,403. of course, the blowout jobs report has cast a bit of a paul over -- pall over the market. big tech names, meta, amazon, microsoft all moving higher. meta, look at that, up 15, 16%. and then we have alphabet and

apple, the laggards. apple, as we know, with problems in china or at least sales not as good. all right, let's get to this, tesla just announcing a massive recall. lauren, what are we talking about here? lauren: 2.2 million cars. that's basically every car it sold in the u.s. including the cyber truck. but here's the issue, it's with the warning light. the national highway traffic safety administration says the font size that you see on the screen, that's the dashboard, is too small and that increases the risk a driver can't see it and increases the risk that the drivers crash. okay. i never knew it needed to be a certain font size or color, but the good news is even though the stock is down 2%, quick software update over the air. ashley: that's the beauty of those car, just fix it with a software update. lauren: to have to bring it in. ash yeah. i know. don't have the take it into the garage. moving on, who does morgan stanley think the top u.s.

automaker is? what are they saying? lauren: ford. because they say ford understands that their old ev strategy going all in is not sustainable, so they're pumping the brakes, and bank says ford can, quote, act to mitigate the source of value destruction adding that capital efficiency is a priority with capital discipline. morgan stanley says it's entirely possible for shares now to be at $21 a share. at 12 now. ashley: interesting. let's move on to the oil pa patch, the big names reported before the bell. let's begin with chevron. lauren: they expect that production for this year to be as a much as a 7% higher than louisiana year, and then they plan to -- last year, and then they plan to achieve a million barrels of production a day in 2025. revenue for the last quarter or, over $47 billion. exxon i'm going to talk in 2023 numbers because they're huge, just about $345 billion in revenue, $36 billion in profit

for last year with, and they distributed 32 billion of that to shareholders. we take both of these oil giants together, they made huge acquisitions last year. exxon in the permian basin, chevron in the back withen and guyana, and they basically want the ability to pump more to meet demand if when they're restricted in so many ways. they figure size helps. ashley: it certainly does, and i'm sure bernie sanders and elizabeth warren will be crying foul saying they're too profitable. anyway, i move on. a judge dismissing disney's lawsuit against governor desantis. has disney responded to this, lauren? lauren: disney plans to appeal. the florida governor, ron desantis, says just move on. a judge dismissed disney's lawsuit against the state of florida. disney sued when florida took over that special governing district that disney had since 1967. disney called the action retaliatory because they the opposed as a company the

governor's laws banning discussion of sex, gender and race in the classrooms. ashley: all right. if let's move on from disney and desantis to peloton. more bad news, i guess, although the stock is up 2.33. lauren: it hit an all-time low yesterday with. where is this turn around? i mean, two years with the ceo promising a turn around a, and it's not a happening, not even over the holiday quarter. so when peloton was reporting for the fourth quarter, they warned that this year full-year revenue is going to come in light as a well, and their goal of generating positive free cash flow, not going to happen that. so as investors are patient, but this is a $4 tock now, and the news is -- stock now, and the knew is bad. ashley: a it is bad. but on the other hand, we could talk about chlorox. big with gain. what's going if on there? if. lauren: 6%. really good forecast for the year with. so they were taken out by a cyber attack last year. they're getting production back

online because their factories were impacted. wall street thinks that color to rocks can recover -- chlorox can recover lost market share. the company said looking at the fourth quarter sales grew in every single category, the bleach, everything they sell, sales grew overall by 16%. ashley: a remarkable. lauren simonetti covering everything including the kitchen sink. [laughter] let's take a look at the dow winners if we can. thank you, lauren. the dow, as you can see, down 123 points. thereabouts. taking a live after we with got that very strong jobs report that was a blow blowout that investors worry now means because it was too good, the fed will not be cutting rates at least not in march. but as for the dow winners, lauren talked about it, chevron. you also have microsoft, way to go, stu. travelers, merck and jpmorgan chase. let's take a look at some of the best performing stocks, if we can, on the s&p. meta, as we know, blowout earnings report.

amazon doing very well, up 6.55%. chlorox, we just spoke about. there are are the rest. and cig. that what about the nasdaq? where are we there? meta, amazon, top performing. datadog, up 3. advanced, amd up 2.33% and nvidia up 1.8%. all doing very well. if let's take a look at the 10-year treasury yield, if we can, and this always a hells -- tells the story especially for the nasdaq. when this goes up, the nasdaq normally goes down. the yield at a 3.999%. just needs just a little tap, and it will be at 4, up more than 11 basis points. as for the price of gold, down $26.60 at $2,044 per troy ounce. take a look at what bitcoin is doing in this environment right now. bitcoin is u survey says, down $278 at $42,721. meanwhile, the price of oil, be interesting to see what oil is doing.

it's down $1.35 at $72.38 a barrel. natural gas, we always like to keep track on natural gas especially in the wasn't time, essentially flat at a $2.07. and, by the way, the average price for a gallon of regular gas, $3.15 across the can country. for diesel, mercifully it's come down, it's at $3.93. so a little less expensive for those big rigs to fill up but not by much. all right, coming up, comedian larry davis -- i'm laughing, but, hey -- shocked the nation after attacking elmo on live tv. roll the tape. >> wait, wait, what -- wait, wait -- >> oh! >> oh, my gosh! you love, elmo, don't you? >> oh, my god. >> elmo liked you before! [laughter] if. ashley: larry david was asked to apolo if eyes to elmo if shortly

after. there you go, there's that story. then there's this, americans may be feeling slightly better about the economy, but it hasn't translated into biden's lagging poll numbers. economist peter morici will be here on the tate of the economy 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 -

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ashley: well now this, it seems we've been talking more and more about layoffs recently. and, lauren, come in here. you've got the updated numbers. take us through them. lauren: it's only february, and the numbers are pretty alarming. so there were 82,307 job cuts last month according to challenger gray and christmas. so that doubled december.

look, 136% month over month. it is down 20% from last january. so where are we seeing these layoffs? if of course, technology, right? 15,000. it's one of the reasons that meta and amazon are so profitable, cost cutting. finance, they lost -- or plan to cut 23,000 jobs. that's just in the month of january. and one more thing, journalists. print journalists at papers like "the washington post," they were laid off too to the tune of 528 workers last month. ashley: a yeah, it's been tough in that industry, for sure. lauren, thank you. i want to get back to this morning's jobs report coming straight out of what lauren told us. 353,000 jobs added. 3.7% unemployment if rate. peter morici joins me now. great to see you with, peter. certainly stronger than expected, so is the economy stronger than a lot of people think? >> yes. i think, again, economists are

being frustrated. we expected the economy to slow down in the first quarter with. these are not slowdown numbers. i would point out to lauren in response to what she said, these job cuts that have been announced, they're going to take place over many months. so if you look at 80,000 jobs stretched out over 5-6 months, and you're running -- this jobs report was outsized. let's suppose the equilibrium is 250,000. we're still talking about 220,000 a month? that's well above what it takes to keep any kind of growth in the labor force going. this is a job market that might not be super red hot, but it's still pretty warm. there are 1.5 jobs being advertised for every 1 unemploy pd person, and ben bernanke estimates because of the structural changes in the economy that ratio actually needs to be below 1 to get inflation to 2%. translation, jay powell would only cut interest with rates at this point to help joe biden.

ashley: ah. well, there's a proto beingtive comment -- provocative comment. i want to get to this one, peter. new polling shows americans are starting to feel better about the economy. the latest ap poll showing a 55% uptick in the number of -- 5% uptick in the number of people who say the economy, yep, in good shape. those numbers not helping biden's approval numbers, so the same poll puts him at just 38% approval. so, pete, i guess my question is why the disconnect? >> i think the most important lesson i've learned in washington over the last 50 years has been that the american people are fundamentally more moderate than the people that govern them. we swing from reagan to obama, from reagan to obama, back and forth. americans are moderate. ask them if they think bide going is the a good thing. and they think about the unions and the protectionism and they go, no, not a good thing. it's the very thing that defeated donald trump. donald trump in a lot of way

withs was too extreme in his rhetoric and tried to be in the way he governed, you know? it's a swamp there, we've got to get rid of all the crocodiles and everything. so in comes biden, we've got to get rid of all the capitalists and all these greedy companies and everything. he makes war on the very companies that are generating all the wealth, you know? they can't stop criticizing meta and apple and all the rest at every available turn, bringing lawsuits and all the -- it's great for lawyers when they come to town, it's not good for ordinary people. they don't like it. it's that simple. ashley: so where do we -- i understand that, peter. where do we go from here? for a year or more we were talking about a recession. is it going to be a soft landing, a hard landing. where do we stand on that count? >> well, let's not repackage what a soft landing is. a soft landing would be 2% inflation without a recession. we probably will avoid a recession, and the economy has to slow down because people are

running out of money to spend. the pandemic savings are almost all gone, and their credit card balances are starting to get to the point where where they were just before the pandemic began. you know, if you look at credit service, you know, what they have to pay out of their paychecks. so we're starting to get to the point where they can't increase spending quite so rapidly so, you know, things are going to slow down a bit. but i don't think we're getting to 2% unemployment. the most important number from today's jobs report, 5.5%, wages up. excuse me, .055 up. that translates into about 6.8% a year. there is no way you can contain wage inflation in the services sector with that kind of, with those kinds of increases. ashley: right. >> the second thing is joe biden hasn't done anything about the high cost of housing, because he hasn't done anything about all the kind of local regulation we have that keeps us from building houses. so housing, which is a third of the cpi, is going to continue to

be in short supply. so people -- let's think about what's too expensive. college is too expensive -- ashley: yeah. >> and we all know what goes on at colleges now, it's not very good things. housing is too expensive. has joe biden -- the price of milk is up 25%. and go to a restaurant. you know, eggs have gone -- ashley: right. >> -- down, but the prices are still up. people are not happy for a reason. ashley: we hear you, peter. we hear you loud and clear. you're absolutely right. peter morici, as always, terrific insight. thank you, peter. now this, president biden once again passing off blame for high prices at the grocery store. so question is, lauren, who's he blaming now? lauren: the grocery stores. it's the food stores' problem. he tells them stop overcharging customers, and you're making way too much money. [laughter] >> -- to bring prices down, there are still too many corporations in america ripping people off. price gouging, junk fees,

greenflation, shrinkflation. [laughter] lauren: okay. so what are the chances that his ftc doesn't allow albertson's and and kroger to merge? i think pretty high. you're looking at cpi, overall inflation since biden took office. it's 17.6%. so is everybody price gouging them, not just the food stores? ashley: well, according to biden, breed-flation, that's a new one. lauren, thank you very much. [laughter] >> coming up, oh, yes, it's friday. send in your feedback. e-mail your questions, comments, critiques, criticisms to varneyviewersfox.com. oh, by the way, or it's groundhog day, and punxsutawney phil has made his prediction. will there be six more weeks of winter, or will spring come early? yes, please. janice dean is in gobbler's nob, and she's going to tell us if phil saw his shadow right after

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ashley: today, oh, yes, it's groundhog day. that means punxsutawney phil has emerged from his burrow to

proclaim east an early spring or six more weeks of winter. janice dean, hi to you. okay, shadow or no shadow? [laughter] >> reporter: no shadow because if phil had seen his shadow, he would have been scared, and he would have ran back to the burrow. i mean, i am on the stage where where this historic event has a taken place for 138 years now. but, ashley, the funny thing about this is that people are here at 3 pam, and the prediction happens around 7:25, and then they leave, and it's empty. it's totally empty, which is one of the great est things that the i love experiencing here in punxsutawney, pennsylvania. i got to ask a lot of folks around here before they exited the building if they loved it and what they thought of this early spring. >> we got here at 3 a.m. i thought it was awesome. we always loved watching it on tv, and i had the chance to come out today. it was great, beyond

expectations. >> my favorite part was when everybody was chanting for phil. >> reporter: happy ground hog day. [cheers and applause] [laughter] ashley, i've got to tell you, this is a bucket lust. if you haven't done it, i highly recommend it. it's, like, 40,000 people in a town of 5,000. they get all of their a business on this day. we have to support punxsutawney, pennsylvania. i love coming here. and the fact that it's an early spring, the it's only happened 21 times in the 138 years of groundhog day, so i'm excited to be here. i think it's time though that i exited the building for a nice if mimosa. that's a -- back to you. ashley: aww, god bless you, janice. [laughter] love the hat. i want to be there next year. i want to vibe the spirit of bill more if ray. >> reporter: yes! i want you to come. ashley: thank you, janice. good stuff, as always. e! tammy bruce, leo terrell, brian brenberg and new york

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