or varney and company. stuart is back. stuart: it is not over. a collapse in oil prices rolls on. happy new year and good morning everyone. it is really great to be back. especially when the good news keeps coming. airline tickets keep slipping. an average price for regular under $2 a gallon. oil is poised to drop below $50 a barrel. varney and company is about to begin. ♪ stuart: it is monday morning. check that the board now.

oil is down too much. we have had a huge run-up. we are off 232 points. look at the stocks that are leading. caterpillar. chevron. the cell ibm. those five dallas .combining. the price of oil. that is where the real news is this morning. very close to what we call a for handle. $50. $2.35. to gasoline. the national average for gas to dollars $0.19.

aaa sees u.s. drivers saving $75 billion on gas this year. look at the map. the $1 club expands to seven states. sound the trumpet. the cheapest gas in the land. $1.42 for regular. almost worth driving there. airlines are getting a huge benefit from tumbling prices. southwest is rewarding travelers. >> you have a big meeting. >> southwest is having a sale.

fares as low as $73 one-way. stuart: i thought that was an ad for starbucks. [laughter] look who is here. cheryl casone. cheryl: there is a forecast out there. about 5% that we will see a drop in air fares in 2015. stuart: they are under great pressure to do this. i think that they well. some airlines will be dropping prices for spring and summer travel. >> somewhat. they are stuck. we have that big drop at the end of the year. also, they are holding on to record profits.

we have a little bit of a monopoly now. it is for carriers. four. why would you see a big rush to lower prices? stuart: i like your expression. capitalism is not supposed to work that way. lots of competition. we do not have that at the moment. maybe we will get some modest haircuts. let's bring in steve boyer. steve. i say that -- i will use the word, the collapse in the price of oil the biggest shot in the arm for u.s. and global economies that we have seen in years. how much of this is president obama's doing? >> first of all happy new year.

great to be with you again. i paid $1.79 per gallon for gasoline. you will see one of the big sources of growth. i think it is a total positive. the fracking technology is getting so good, they can still

compete with prices as low as $40 a barrel. >> i never answered your question about obama. he has done everything he possibly can to prevent this. he hates fossil fuels. he is not allowing drilling on federal lands. you may have seen last week, six new regulations coming out of epa. where is there any evidence that he should take a bow for this? stuart: we are running a banner underneath you right now. greece oil hits stocks. the price of oil is beginning to become a negative for the stock

market. why is the market down 200 points there. >> a medium and long term. low energy prices are a huge boost for the stock market. we have really seen reductions in oil and gas prices. we saw the big room in the stock then. the reason that low oil prices are good for the stock market is everything is now much more efficient and cheaper. that is good for stocks. how is that bad for stocks? i do not even understand the argument about why this is something people would find as a negative. stuart: what about inflation? you hear that word all the time.

job the client and basic commodities. especially oil. >> that is good. >> the fact that gold prices are falling you have commodities falling. it is good deflation. >> a 5% expansion rate. i think we are now up to three-three and a half% on a sustainable level. stuart: thank you very much, sir. the gop takes control of the senate today. the keystone pipeline will be one of the first issues that they tackle.

listen to chuck schumer's argument on why we should not build keystone. >> it is really not true at all. it creates several thousand temporary construction jobs and only 35 permanent jobs. stuart: only 35 permanent jobs. cheryl: that is absolutely not true. the economic impact are 20- $80 billion for the positives. the upside by 2011. stuart: you are talking keystone. cheryl: talking about the actual building.

the republicans are saying -- he is disagreeing on the wrong point. schumer is absolutely wrong on that one. >> the big financial story. forget the stock target for a second. it is fitting teslas stock. an electric car company. >> we are seeing tesla stocks down about 4%. the dream of electric vehicles, there are concerns about carbon emissions. it is not a previous. the tesla is a fancy car. we are seeing the stock to the

downside. the stock down today and down for the last three months. stuart: okay. we will take that. would you buy for $100,000 an electric car made by tesla? >> .when not when you have gas at $1.79 in phoenix arizona. >> you would save the planet with electric cars. >> you cannot make the climate argument over and over.

they are not stopping production. stuart: it is a feisty cheryl casone this monday morning. cheryl: i slept a lot over the weekend. welcome back, by the way. their corporations are paying out sharpton. making sure he does not call them racist. the judge is next. ♪

stuart: monday morning. that is a selloff. we just got this in from bill gross. he is with janice now.

he says cheap oil means the fed will not raise the interest rate until late 2015 if at all. that is a direct quote. >> they do not believe him either. >> i think you are right. down 251. u.s. sales in september of 19%. it's has been the best december sales in seven years. they sold 74,000 of those x series truck. it is a key number.

ford and gm, both of them down. the new york post says that the reverend al sharpton has been shaking down corporations for years. donate to the national action network or we will call your company racist. all rise, judge andrew napolitano is here. >> inappropriate and nearly criminal. quite frankly just to be serious about it, this on top of all the awful things in new york city. if this is true i would want to see which documents reflect its redemption to writing. eight corporations like general motors they will not just pay

him. they will have to do something to generate that tape. stuart: couldn't he just go in and say we may have a problem with your company. >> he is so controversial. if this as the post says it is, it has the air makes of the shaikh down and it is awful. two of these corporation is whatever you are paying it. >> we will give you some good advice. >> if you were the ceo of a 50 or six the billion-dollar

corporation and you are concerned about some of the characters calling you personally or your corporation racist, that could be a very and expensive way to direct that pull. in that respect, this is a good business budget. stuart: it is an awful comment on what i would call the race industry. the race business. >> people that use the race card to increase their own wealth. stuart: if a corporation was shown to contribute money it would be extremely bad publicity for that corporation. >> not necessarily.

i do not know everything that he does. let's say that he does perform positive services for a politically underrepresented portion of society. camber corporation finance that legally? answer yes. stuart: politically, it looks absolutely dreadful. absolutely awful. i believe the commissioner said it was a mistake. as if he was in the hierarchy of authority.

another way to look at him is the way the post refers to look at him. i am sure that the truth is somewhere between the two. >> i am sure that it is. >> it gets under your skin. if it is true, it really does get under your skin. you want those corporation spending money on things like this? >> no, i do not. what else is new? [laughter] stuart: check out this video. a couple put on the kiss cam at a basketball game. the man too busy. he is talking on his phone. as you can see the lady is

clearly upset. look at that. [laughter] ♪

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stuart: well, we're down a little more in the last few minutes. now we're off 250 points. that is about 1 1/2%. i still think that the big story of the -day on the markets is the price of oil. look at it. it is getting close to breaking below $50 a barrel. please remember back in june it was about 110. that's a drop 1/2. oil stocks getting hit some more. chevron's down 4%. same story with exxon down 3%. conocophillips down 4 1/2%. big drops. we first brought you the discussion of digital dieting and spending less time with technology. last friday, we'll take a look at latest example why we think cutting back on technology could be a good idea. roll that tape. >> wow.

stuart: know, i wonder if that was staged or not. cheryl: i think it was staged. later on the mascot picks her up and away from him. i'm taking your girlfriend. stuart: we get the point. spending too much time on technology. we asked you if you would go on digital diet in the new year. first of all lori, skeptical. try to make everyone turn off their phones at the next family get together. heck take them into the bathroom with them. it's a crazy. barney ads this, i think technology will be the downfall of the human race. people can not keep away from computers, phones, games et cetera. a little bit far i think. listen to what digital trends editor jeremy kaplan had to say about digital dieting. >> pared down everything i got i swear i'm going to do this. one gadget too many.

probably have four, five 10 gadgets too many. i'm cutting them out. stuart: this is the editor of digitatren evebody chyl: becse tre isa g concnow. this disssioisappeng i e brdros aoss eric at eloye i particular are not engaged. they're not coming to meetings and paying attention. companies are suffering because their employees are too connected digitally and not contributing to the next big idea for the company. stuart: i think there should be discipline imposed on use of gadgets during meetings and in the work place. i got that. we have to come to term with the new technology. i carry this thing everywhere. i enjoy being on loops with everybody. i enjoy it. i do it all the time and i like to do it all the time and i have no problem when my kids and grand kids do it. how about that? cheryl: even at christmas dinner, you didn't, if your grandkids are o bother you? stuart: i draw the line on occasion and that is where i draw the line. some are calling this play a

real mess-up by the ref or refs plural. last night's wildcard game between the lions and cowboys. stafford throw as pass to the tight end pettigrew. anthony hitch ends gets in the way. he is called for pass interphones. that is great for the lions he gets a first down and great field position. surprisingly the refs reversed call. dallas wins the game. look at this hugging cowboys owner jerry jones when the cowboys won the game. christie known cowboys fan. are confused about this one. cheryl: i watched thi live. i'm a cowboys fan. the call it stood we won. everybody need to move on. but i will say as far as chris christie goes is in down there fund-raising in republican territory. cowboys fan or not he is looking for money come on. stuart: is there a presidential candidate doing that, watching a

football game, i don't think that puts you in very good position to run for president. cheryl: chris christie doesn't have trouble keeping his emotions on guard. he will lose his temper openly. he much. he had trouble at press conferences during hurricane sandy. people making a lost jokes on twitter, about chris christie's behavior and still a lot of anger about the call we should say. it was pass interference. they picked up the flag off the field. that never happens. they picked it up and walks away. that was a change in the game for the cowboys. stuart: look at this, we were at 50.05. this is the price of oil. we're at 50.08. in real danger, whether that is the right word i don't know, we're in a position you could see in the next few minutes a drop below $50 a barrel in the price of oil. now that i think is a very, very big deal. we're told that just momentarily the price of oil did drop to

49.95 then bounced back a little above 50. bottom line here is, the the price of oil collapsed in the last six months. big deal, collapsed. we have millenials, they're not starting businesses like they used to, not going into business for themselves. we will discuss next. these ally bank ira cds really do sound like a sure thing but i'm a bit skeptical of sure things. why's that? look what daddy's got... ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!! growth you can count on from the bank where no branches equals great rates. want to know how hard it can be... ...to breathe with copd? it can feel like this. copd includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. spiriva is a once-daily inhaled... ...copd maintenance treatment... ...that helps open my airways for a full 24 hours. you know, spiriva helps me breathe

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stuart: now we're down 259 points. i happen to think that a more important story is the drop in the price of oil. it is a virtual collapse. earlier, and i mean by that moments ago, oil touched 49.95. now can you say it's bounced to 50.11? that is hitting oil stocks of course. all the big majors are down 3 4%. when you're talking percentage terms you know it is a selloff. exxon, conoco, all of them down 3, 4%. natural gas down again 2.19. i was a way couple weeks. before i left it was about 2.40. now it is 2.19. the one dollar club has expanded to seven states by the way. that is where the price of gasoline averages below $2. texas is one of those states. aaa sees u.s. drivers saving $75 billion on gasoline this

year. that is flat-out money in your pocket. as i said, i would have put the map up for a second. these are the states which are in the $1 club. that is below two bucks on average for regular. now look at this, 1 heroin $42 that is the cheapest gas in the land. it is found at the marathon station in craw fordsville, indiana. a buck 42. who would have thought? not me. cheryl: it was a buck 99 in phoenix two weeks ago. stuart: a buck 95 in jersey earlier today. new republican-led congress is back to work. first issue on the docket, building the keystone pipeline. rich edson is with me on this one. do you want to give a timeline, rich? >> it will take longer in the senate. soon to be majority leader mitch mcconnell says republicans will allow amendments to a bill approving keystone pipeline. if the senate changes the bill it will have to go back toes house.

supporters believe they will have enough to get the bill to the white house. stuart: then the president will probably veto it. so the next question is do they have enough votes to override a presidential veto? >> doesn't seem likely. supporters are short that many votes. 2/3 of the house and senate are what's needed. they probably don't have that. a bill approving keystone pipeline is ultimately with the president who had the power to determine the fate of this project all along. stuart: he will veto it. they can't override it. so it will not be built that is your probable bottom line here, right, rich? >> probable. the president hasn't said he would veto it. he has not said many nice things about the pipeline of late in the public so. stuart: rich edson. thanks very much. by the way you did a great job sitting in this seat, well-done young man. >> thank you, stuart. i'm a poor substitute for the regular anchor but i'm glad i could carry enough water for two hours. stuart: you were very popular. so popular you will never do it again. rich edson, great to see you

back. something serious. the number of young people who own their own businesses or who have a stake in a small private business, that is at a 24-year low according to analysis from the "wall street journal" 3.6% of the people under the age of 30 have ownership stake in a business t was 10% in 1989. ashley pratt spokesperson for the young americas foundation joins us. ashley you got to give me your interpretation as to why there is this dearth of young entrepreneurs. >> well, i honestly think stuart, that in this "wall street journal" article there were a lot of factors that were mentioned such as millenials don't want to take a huge risk because there is such a bad economist. they're not making enough money so why invest their own savings in starting their own business or creating a startup. i don't think the article went farther enough to the point they explored governor regulations placed such significant burdens on small business industry. there was a article in the

survey done by "inc." magazine where they showed that 54% of small business owners cited government regulations as biggest hindrance to their success. along with government regulation, lack of innovation when it comes to the younger generation looking to create startups but they don't see the risk there when they're going to make investment with their own money and i think that is one thing we should look at. stuart: it is the environment in which young people may or may not start businesses, as opposed to entrepreneurial spirit itself right? >> definitely. i think, young people are definitely huge risk-takers. they are entrepreneurs. i think they embrace the values of a free market civil. when you go through college and going through high school how often is the free market, these ideals being expressed to young people. there is very anti-free market attitude in schools that is definitely affecting young people as well. if they're not being told hey this is something you should invest in or hey, the government is a great thing.

washington helps us all the time. we need regulation and need government to interfere. what we're seeing first-hand from small business owners look, health care impacted them. the atrocious obamacare bill definitely has when it comes to small business. they can't afford certain things anymore. they can't afford to hire. big government equals less innovation. once government gets off the backs of young people we'll start seeing a lot more startups. we'll see a lot more coming from this generation who have a lot of ideas. they don't see opportunity to create those ideas. stuart: well-said. ashley thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you happy new year. stuart: to you too. wall street, whoa, wildly unpopular, even with the recent rally. will that ever change? should it? senator elizabeth warren certainly does not think so. >> democrats don't like wall street bailouts. republican don't like wall street bailouts. the american people are disgusted by wall street bailouts and yet here we are,

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your fox business brief. right now the dow jones industrial average down 232 points sitting at 17,600. that is a loss of 1.3%. the s&p 500 down 27. the nasdaq down one percentage point as well. some dow laggards include caterpillar which jpmorgan cut its price target and moved to underweight and oil dropped below $50. that is worth noting. chevron and exxon down. chevron down 4%. exxon down 2.9%. jpmorgan and goldman sachs each under pressure chopping more than 2%. energy dropped below 50 bucks. right now at 50.35. look at some of the energy names. schlumberger down 3.2%. polo loco. lululemon got an upgrade. three up arrows for you.

stuart: if i were to say the market is coming back a little that is a minor exaggeration. it is down 230 instead of 260. let me bring you what i think is the more important financial story of the day. that is the price of oil. earlier today it touched 49.95. it is hovering right around $50 a barrel, first time we've seen that since 2009. the repercussions of this are extensive to say the least. then we have france. we always have france. it's got a 75% super tax on the rich which by the way is in its final weeks.

cheryl casone is with us. gerard depar due, coming back home from russia? i didn't know they were ending this tax? >> it was supposed to be only two years and became gutted. french court took the large part of the it out. this is when you have a french socialist tries to institute economic policy. stuart: it didn't bring in more money, did it? cheryl: no it did it. it affected anybody making over $1.2 million. they went at employees. any money you make x-amount, 1.2 million. there was a big fight in france about it. people like gerard depardieu was leaving. americans working in derivatives trading in paris ended up going to london. stuart: time they learned the lesson just because you think you can tax the rich some more that you will get more money coming into your treasury.

it really doesn't always work like that. it rarely works like that. you get more money for treasury if you cut taxes people work harder, longer and declare what they have made. cheryl: if you try to institute it it means moving to another country as gerard did he has russian citizenship now. stuart: great to have you on the show, cheryl. we're in such agreement here. cheryl: oh gosh that is horrible though. let me come up with ways to disagree with you. i will work on it. stuart: try hard. let's bring in winthrop lynch. former merrill executive and son of one of the firm's founding partners. welcome to the show. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: i will get to your book in a second. i think wall street has a terrible public relations image if you want to put it like that. i want to know what you guys on wall street, what you think is the first thing you should do to in the public's good graces? >> remember, stuart, i'm ex-wall street now. stuart: okay.

>> that is actually a point. i live on main street. i am appalled of my 28 years on wall street. i was proud of what my father did. main street abhores wall street and they're shocked and shocked for a number of reasons. stuart: wait a minute. what should wall street do to change that? >> the way merrill did knit 1940 the old-fashioned way. it will take time. they have to re-establish their credibility. they have to get back into the communities. the leaders of wall street have to talk to the language of people on main street. they have to educate people how to invest. fast trading may not be anything wrong with it but perception is terrible. stuart: flash trading should they stop it and say we'll not do it anymore? >> i don't know but they have to understand what is damage doing it. they have to understand the paying people exorbitant salaries when they ruin companies. stuart: i don't think it will work. >> stuart, i disagree with you. look in my book.

1940 thought the same of wall street. they thought they were rogues and they were rogues. the average american couldn't invest in stocks. what did merrill lynch do in those days? getting rid of conflict of interest. took brokers off commissions. separated research. trained brokers and went out to the community and educated people on their own nickel. they published something how to read a balance sheet. they gave it to schools. they educated kids. they educated teachers. they wrote a book how to invest in stocks. fun fun things. that is what wall street should be focused more and more on today. advisors are doing. individual advisors are doing that. they need greater support of their institutions to establish greater credibility. stuart: what do you think of elizabeth warren, senator warren who thinks wall street is a dreadful place and should be tightly regulated and hung out to dry, basically? >> it scares the hell out of me. i think she is saying something truthful. stuart: do you think she could win? >> i don't know. i'm not a politician. if she does i think it worries

me because her solution will not fix the problem. wall street has to re-establish its credibility. stuart: the book is, "catching the lightning in a bottle. how are the son of merrill pierce fenner in merrill lynch. >> i am. they were partners for 25 years. they came up with the strategy bringing wall street to main street. by doing that they brought main street to wall street in the '40s and '50s. that was powerful force in the economy. stuart: i'm skeptical. i hope you can do this i would love to see things turn around. people miss ad golden opportunity to make money. >> that's a tragedy. stuart: that is tragedy. winthrop smith. >> thank you very much. stuart: data theft at a big financial company. morgan stanley says it has fired an employee for stealing account information from up to 10% of its wealth management clients. account names numbers, of maybe 900 of those clients briefly posted online.

no passwords or social security numbers were included. morgan stanley has notified law enforcement. the company's stock is down. big deal. we have doughton abby, a turning socialist that is change in subject. say it ain't so. more on this next. >> he asked if i could give another luncheon. oh dear. why the lamentation. you don't have to see him if you don't want to you. >> make it sound so easy. >> there is nothing simpler than avoided people you don't like. avoiding friends is the real test. if you're taking multiple medications does your mouth often feel dry? a dry mouth can be a side effect of many medications. but it can also lead to tooth decay and bad breath. that's why there's biotene available as an oral rinse toothpaste, spray or gel. biotene can provide soothing relief

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stuart: season 5 "downton abbey" began last night. didn't see it. didn't see the premier. members of my staff said they watched it and filled with references to changing government including this from lord grantham, quote. what worries me our government is committed to the destruction of people like us and everything we stand for. michael comes in on this one. host of in the fox light. this is all about socialism isn't it? >> it is. stuart: context of the 1920s they're saying these socialists will ruin us the aristocracy.

>> if you feel compelled to refer to me as your lordship during this segment by all means, to ahead. stuart: yeah yeah. >> what makes the show fascinating it is steeped with historical context. episode one i binged all three thanks to you guys. starts off with sinking of titanic and sets events in motion this is kind of the next step. the series starts off season 5 1924. socialist government taken hold. the they are worried about the family estate being taxed to death. we're coming closer to the big crash of 1929. stuart: social system the issue. that was on the rise in england at that time. "downton abbey" deals with that. >> we'll see how the family reacts to that. a social it is invited to dinner. stuart: confrontation. >> there was confrontation. they have a lot of dinner on the show. notice that? a lot of dinner. cheryl: if you notice the younger characters, writers are trying to put the progressives,

progressive mind set in. these are hollywood types in london, to be fair here. >> yeah. cheryl: in younger characters. we should do things different dad. come on dear old day. that is the way of the dinosaurs. i think they're creating conflict on the show. >> be interesting what lord grantham goes, if he will be a more fdr type figure. stuart: we'll see. fdr? not going to happen. >> could be. stuart: michael. your assinment is to watch it. >> i will. stuart: the sony hack is the big one. our next guest says he predicted big one. john mcafee shows us how he thinks the hackers got into sony. i'm waiting for the big hit when bag guys come on strong and really disrupt everything, you know. >> it will this be year, i promise you. stuart: this year?

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stuart: on this program six months ago a guest said watch out, the big one is coming. the guest was john mcafee, computer security guy. he was referring to the big hack the major league disruption that would shake us all. he says the attack on sony was the big one. in a moment, you'll meet john mcafee again. he will show us how he thinks the sony attack went down. he says he knows how it was done. you'll be surprised. it was not sophisticated operation which only a supergeek could pull off. no. mcafee says it was a phone job. people impersonating the fbi to get into sony's phone and computer systems. you can decide if he makes a good case. what is not in dispute is that the sony hack was a very big deal. ♪ ♪ stuart: i'm just waiting for the big hit when the bad guys really

come on strong and really disrupt everything. you know? >> it will be this year i promise you. stuart: this year? really? >> it will be this year. stuart: all right. that was john mcafee back in june claiming the big one was coming. now he says the sony hack was the big one. now, john demonstrated for us exactly how he says it was done. we recorded this during the commercial break in our last hour. take a look at in this. >> first thing i'm going to do is i'm going to call into your voicemail system hack into your voicemail, and your voicemail system is going to call you. you may think that's weird but in a few minutes, the phone will ring, and it says that voicemail is calling you. whether or not you answer that phone is insignificant. stuart: it's ringing right now, john. it's -- my voicemail is calling me. now what? >> that is correct. now, you can answer it or not, it makes no difference. right now i'm into your voicemail system. i'm now into your contacts list. what i'm looking for, varney, is

something that says fox headquarters, chairman of fox news or something so that i can then call you, which i'm going to do now on my second phone hang up the phone because i'm calling you from fox headquarters. stuart: okay. hang up that phone, all right. okay. >> so you should receive a call momentarily from fox headquarters. stuart: there it is. that's as if the call is coming to me from fox headquarters not from you. >> absolutely. stuart: well it went on from there. john, you say that this is what happened at sony and that they impersonated the fbi who called up people and said hey, we've got a break in your system give us your personal passwords, and they did. and you say that's how the sony hack went down correct? >> absolutely. it's -- all hacks of this nature are a combination of very low technology, but a high social engineering factor.

had you answeredded that call -- and the -- had you answered that call, your phone said fox headquarters i would have said, hi i'm with the federal bureau of investigation, there's been a security breach within the fox corporation, we've taken other all communications. to verify your identity, please give us your password we will give you a brand new password afterwards. what is your password, sir to verify it. half of the people will give up that password. dozens of people were called simultaneously, and over half the people would have given up the passwords. if you do this properly almost everyone does. we then give you a new password like the new password is iamafool like i'm a fool whatever. under no circumstances are you to contact anyone, including coworkers, about this breach until further notice from myself. so during that period of time

it only takes -- stuart: you're saying that's how, that's what happened at sony? that's exactly how it went down? >> i'm not sure it was the fbi, but certainly it was the impersonation of some government agency or some internal control agency. this is how all hacks of this nature are perpetrated. no one bothers varney to try and electronically or through computer technology find out what the passwords and the safeguards are. we go straight to the people. and you go to the people through simple tricks like this. of i find out from your contact list a contact that seems to be someone of authority sony headquarters or, rather, fox headquarters seems to be in authority. i call you from that number, and the rest is a piece of cake. stuart: but that means that a lot of corporations are open, a lot of corporations therefore are very easily hackable using this very low-tech approach. we all thought -- >> absolutely.

stuart: -- the big one was going to be some very sphwis candidated multicomputer attack from overseas maybe that shuts down systems or shuts down the national grid. but this is low tech. this -- a lot of people could do this. >> it's all low tech. it's low tech except for the social engineering aspect. you have to know how people think, how they react. we all share common traits of greed and fear and ambition. and using these common traits we come up with a technique that allows you to give us what we need while you think you're helping us or helping the corporation. stuart: now, this is -- >> to hack into your -- stuart: you don't know that this is exactly what happened with sony. we don't know -- >> i know this is exactly what happened to sony. stuart: you know this? >> i do not know what agency was used, whether it was the fbi, the cia or an internal agency, but i know for a fact which is what happened. stuart: john, i've got to mention you have a lot of problems with the law -- >> i have? stuart: well, that means you've

got a credibility problem doesn't it? >> well what law have i had a problem with, varney? stuart: as i understand it, there were murder charges wasn't it and there was some degree of drug taking? >> but i've never had a murder charge, never had a drug charge against me. there were certainly questions and -- in belize. the police wanted to question me about the murder of my neighbor i chose not to be questioned. i was never charged with anything, and i'm back in the states i've been here with two years with no charges. that's the facts. stuart: okay, john. we appreciate you being with us. very, very interesting because we all thought a major hack would be a very, very sophisticated, high-tech kind of approach, but you're saying it was not. fascinating stuff. john mcafee -- >> they never are. stuart: i've got to go, but we appreciate you being with us. thank you, john. >> thank you sir. stuart: got me going. how about that? i thought it was some kind of supercomputer break-in, but --

>> i want to know how he knows it and why he, why he thinks that the hack went down this way. i would love to know his sources there. stuart: i believe that -- am i right in saying this justin, that a lot of sony executives were called simultaneously? i think that's correct? as he did in the demonstration? that is correct. >> then why is the fbi insisting that it was north korea? stuart: i don't know, because it could have been -- well, it could have been north korean agents impersonating the fbi or -- >> yeah. and there's always been talk it was partly an inside job. stuart: look our bottom line here is that that was a low tech job according to john mcafee. >> interesting. stuart: that's even more frightening. >> anybody can do it. stuart: let's not ignore the markets, ladies and gentlemen, we shall never do that. we're down 245 points on the dow, biggest loser is caterpillar. that's getting hit because we've got a strong dollar. they make a lot of their money overseas, they can sell less overseas if the dollar goes up.

that's the reasoning there it's down 4%. the biggest story of the day in the financial markets again my opinion, is the price of oil. earlier today it bloke below $50 a -- it broke below $50 a barrel, now we're up $50.50 still way down. that cheap oil hurting the energy stocks in particular. nicole, give us the list? who's getting hit? >> there's so much going on, stuart. pretty much right now the dow is down 243 points. you mentioned caterpillar, i want to add to your note, 550.52 -- 50.52 for oil. chevron is down, royal dutch bp down 5.6% as oil broke below $50 today, $50 a barrel. another point on caterpillar in addition to the dollar that you mentioned is that jpmorgan also cut caterpillar on concerns of its oil exposure with worries that that, too, is weighing on caterpillar. it not only affects the sector after energy which is the worst performer of 2014 and kicks it

off today as worst perform per as well but also moves on to some other areas such as caterpillar, right? earth-moving equipment and that's a laggard as well. stuart: yes. that strong dollar hurts caterpillars of this world. national average of gasoline down again, $2.19. but remember, this time last year the price of regular was $3.31. look at it now, $2.19. come on in scott shellady out of chicago. all right, scott you correctly said when oil was at 70, it would go to 60. then you correctly said when oil was at 60, it would go to 50. what are you predicting now? >> somewhere between 30 and $40 a barrel i think is where we're going to finally watch this thing end up bottoming out. and, stuart the automobile associations will tell us that $75 billion is being put back in the consumers' pocket right now, but on a $16 trillion economy, i don't think that's anywhere near going to offset your 401(k) damage you're going to take,

because between 2008 and 2014 a third of the jobs created here in the country were from our own oil exploration. those guys are going to get hit that's going to stop. we've got some bad times ahead. stuart: i've got to leave you scott, but i'm going to leave our audience with between $3046 $3046 -- $30-$40 a barrel. a great deal of leverage on the world stage, fox news national security analyst k.t. mcfarland is with us. do you think america is using the leverage which we have? >> no. and it's going -- we've got more and more leverage, and we're using it less and less. who are the big winners, who are the big losers right? cheap oil totally changes the geopolitics of the world. the big winners obviously, as you just pointed out the united states. big losers? oil exporters; russia, iran venezuela. those countries need high oil prices to survive. and so we should be cutting deals with iran to our favor no

longer to their advantage and we certainly should look at russia which is now underwater. stuart: you could say that president obama's policy of doing very little to aggravate putin is a winning strategy because he's hurting himself -- >> right. stuart: -- and the price of oil is really hurting him. you could say that obama's policies is not too bad. >> you mean he got there by sent? stuart: -- by accident? stuart: i believe it is. >> i don't think he had anything to do with the fracking industry, he stood in the way of it with the fact that saudis are flooding the world oil market to push the price down to get at their competitor, iran. i do think the president needs to be able to take advantage of this. what's likely to happen in russia? stuart: well can't he say to the iranians, no deal? >> yeah, you bet he says no deal. stuart: quit the spinning of those centrifuges because you can't afford it. >> no no, he should say not only is there no deal, but here's what we're going to do if there's no deal on our terms we're going to tear down that cyber wall you've put around

your people. you're terrified of domestic unrest and political instability, we could make that happen. stuart: could he do that? >> sure he could. just put john mcafee on it. he'll tear down those cyber walls. [laughter] stuart: all right. what could we do with venezuela? make them go bankrupt? >> the united states gains when these other countries who are our adversaries are in trouble. why? because the political instability which they've kept the lid on because they've given out the goodies to their people because of their high energy prices they've, they've squandered that -- >> but venezuela is bankrupt. it's going to china for help. russia could be turning to china for help. will we see more saber rattling out of russia given that oil is plunging? >> yeah. what does he do? husband deback down against -- does he back down against the west or double down?

stuart: he's cut the price of vodka by 16%. did you know that? >> no. stuart: he just did that. that's buying off the population, isn't it? >> you bet. and what's the next thing you do? is stir them all up for nationalism and then let's go look at the enemy. stuart: i don't know why i'm smiling because i think that's exactly what he'll do. >> you bet. only thing he can do. stuart: here's what we have coming up this monday a top hedge fund manager found murdered in his apartment in new york city. his son taken into custody. a full report second half of this hour coming up. and after the break, the author who says that science is making the case for god. that's yes, god is real. he's here, and he will explain. ♪ ♪

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stuart: big name, and you know it, electric cars. who needs 'em when oil so cheap? that's what tesla is down nearly $11 a share, about 5%. breaking news for you, too, last hour morgan stanley fired an employee for steal sensitive personal data from up to 10% of their wealth management clients. account numbers for 900 clients posted online. not passwords or social security numbers, but personal information. law enforcement is investigating, elizabeth macdonald is here. what's going on? >> yeah, this is the dirty little secret of the banking industry and the finance industry is that bank insiders do identity theft all the time. in fact, bank of america was hit by an insider identity theft where the person inside the bank took account information and names and addresses and sold it to criminal gangs. this happened three or four years ago. stuart: the implication is that's what happened at mayor

gap stanley? >> -- morgan stanley. >> something somewhat similar has happened -- stuart: do we know if this employee took the information sold it and somebody entered the account of -- >> well, reports indicated that he posted somebody posted this personal account information, customer information online. it was about 10% of morgan stanley's wealth management customers, so, stuart, time and again we've seen these identity theft cases but what is not being fully reported, and i've been track aing this story, is that -- tracking this story, is that bank insiders are telling me the real danger is from bank employees themselves who are either disgruntled or laid off or still have access to bank systems. so that's something that both bank and law enforcementhave been watching. stuart: and morgan stanley's stock is down about 3% -- >> that's right. stuart: because of that. thanks liz. >> sure. stuart: one of the most popular articles on "wall street journal".com right now is an opinion piece. it's about how science increasingly makes the case for

god. eric metaxes wrote the article and he join withs us right now. all right, eric science makes the case for the existence of god? >> yes. stuart: tell me how that works. >> i have no idea, but it's true. the article i wrote in the "wall street journal," i give the basics of it. of course, if people want citations and things, they can read my book and i give footnote, but the point is for the 30 or so years the more we know, the more we know from science with the advanced science that we have every day getting better, the more it seems clear that there is virtually no possibility that the universe could have been created by accident. even atheists have been greatly shaken by this, some of them the most famous atheist of the 20th century, anthony flue about ten years ago came over to the side of believing in god. maybe not the god of the bible, but in a god who created the

universe. this is sort of breaking news, but you never read about it. so the article has been shockingly popular. i'm very happy to say so. stuart: so the big bang -- >> yes. stuart: the theory that it was the big bang, the circumstances which created that big bang are so wildly impossible -- >> there's something called the four fundamental forces. i'm not a physicist or a scientist, although i'm happy to pretend to be one on this show, i have to tell you, you know, people who don't want to belief in a god look at those four fundamental forces and say they're calibrated so utterly perfectly that it's chilling. many of them say something's going on here even though they may not believe in god. it's troubling, it's shaking their atheism. stuart: you mean, there must be an unseen hand guiding the creation -- >> according to secular atheists they say -- some of them fred hoyle who coined the term, the bug bang -- you're friends with fred? he's the one who said it looks like a superintellects has

monkeyed with the physics the chemistry. this is a man who said his atheism was shaken and i think people need to know this. it doesn't prove anything -- stuart: right. >> but it's tremendous evidence, and we need to deal with the evidence. stuart: you're getting some creatism about what you wrote -- create simple from what you wrote. i'm going to quote from a web site: eric is beth known as a boyle -- best known as a biographical writer. >> yes. stuart: if sweeping outrageous conclusions are metaxas' bread and butter, this can "the wall street journal" is perhaps his magnum opus. of it's a doozy. >> the polite way of responding is to say balderdash sir. here's what i would say. the reason people are upset by this is because rarely do you read about this. of there's no doubt in my mind. listen to in this christopher hitchens, one of the greatest proponents of atheism of our

time, he said -- and i've got the rid video on my web site -- he said this fine tuning argument is the single most powerful argument of the other side. and he said that most of his colleagues, he believed would concur. so anyone who wants to dismiss this has to deal with christopher hitchens because no doubt -- >> richard somali said how can we know what we can't see? atheists are always saying but with your limited five senses how can you fully understand the universe? >> science is limited. science really can't say one way or the other, but it can lead us to believe that. i i actually think this leads us to believe that there is evidence. stuart: most popular article ever on "wall street journal".com. >> in the history of "wall street journal" online. and it's not because of my writing, but because this subject -- stuart: it's the premise. >> people have a hunger to know are there miracles, is there a god, what can we know?

we should have this conversation in the mainstream. stuart: thank you very much indeed sir. >> thank you. stuart: mcdonald's doubling down on its attempt to getting millennials back to eating big macs. will it work? we play you the ad, and you decide next. so ally bank really has no hidden fees on savings accounts? that's right. it's just that i'm worried about you know "hidden things..." ok, why's that? no hidden fees from the bank where no branches equals great rates. if you're running a business legalzoom has your back. over the last 10 years we've helped over one million business owners get started. visit us today for legal help u can count on to start and run your business. legalzoom. legal help is here.

stuart: the dow is down almost 300 points now, so we've slipped a little bit more. now this. it's a big name, you saw it briefly. you know this name "the new york post" reports that chobani is going to replace its ceo. liz mac's going to tell us why. >> you've had him on your show. basically, a billionaire icon to entrepreneurs, he basically refurbished former kraft factories, really looked up to. he overspent. this company is going through severe cash burn. they have a factory apparently, in idaho that is in chaos and out of control. a private equity fund tpg, spent $750 million flowing money into chobani, the ceo apparently now out because the cash burn is really running amok. they are spending a lot of money and not pulling in the profits. stuart: he was on the show, he was doing a charitable thing a very good thing, i might add and i just remember him on the show. he spent too much. >> yeah.

and this was after they went through that embarrassing recall of its yogurt products. stuart isn't he the one that got things going? >> yeah, in the middle of the last decade, and chobani became a go-to yogurt purchase but, wow, the ceo is out. what a story this is. stuart: liz, thank you very much, indeed. time to check the share price of mcdonald's. they've launched a new animated choose lovin' ad. ♪ i've got brand new eyes, 4, everything's a surprise, 15, not a day that i regret. ♪ love is endless ♪ stuart: all right lauren -- that's lauren simonetti, by the way, she's here. >> yes. stuart: okay look, they're going after the millennials i can see that but they're using social media. >> uh-huh. let's talk about that ad we just

saw. it's a take on the i'm lovin' it slogan. you saw the chicago bears with the packers fan getting together maybe having some mcdonald's fries. i don't see mcdonald's in this ad at all. it's an upbeat ad, but they're not selling burgers to me. they're not selling anything to me -- stuart: golden arches, i could see that. >> but it doesn't scream at you when you're watching it on tv. but none theless, the message is upbeat. the worst sales in the u.s. in 13 years. they have four new ads in total. that was one. we're going to show you another one. t like the big mac v. kale. i happen to love this. stuart: yes, i love this one. >> you don't get no juiciness like this if you're a vegetarian greek yogurt can't get you what you're seeing on the screen. it'll never be kale. i love it. that speaks to me. stuart: didn't they put an ad out on snap chat? >> probably. stuart: i don't have -- >> no, 24 and younger is what i

say about snap chat. they're going after young people. stuart: and they're doing -- okay look at the big board, please. >> ooh. stuart: we are down now 300 points. all kinds of reasoning going into this. maybe it's the price of oil which has tumbled to $50, maybe it's worry over greece which may have to leave the eurozone, maybe it's worry about deflation. who knows? but we've got a -- any guesses? >> i would say, i'm sorry lauren i think it is the oil price story showing that we are in a global downturn. 45% of the drop in oil the guys on wall street are saying 45 percent of that is due to the downturn in global demand. itthis is now a demand story, and by the way, the oil and gas guys and shale sector of the u.s. they need the price to be at $80 a barrel, not $60. $80 is their break even when you put in their debt, taxes and overhead costs.

stuart: falling more down 313 as we speak. cold weather it's coming. deep freeze, negative temperatures across big swaths of the country. janice dean's full report is next. ♪ ♪

stuart: earlier today, it hit 49.95. down oil stocks go. two dollars a barrel. exxon, chevron all down 5%. now to the weather. it is going to be cold this week. janice dean will give us the weather forecast. >> welcome to 2015.

a second shot later this week. there are your current temperatures. windchill is what it feels like. minus 42 minus 50 below zero. this is all that cold. seven below zero in iowa city. here are your morning temperatures. negative 13 in chicago on thursday. look at chicago today. things beg warm up if 8 degrees is a warm-up.

i guess it feels like it. there is this clipper system that we are watching. this is not a big snow maker. we will certainly see a few inches in chicago, as well as minneapolis. the big story, of course, the take away will be the extreme cold. people need to stay indoors. this is dangerous cold. next week, a little bit of hope on the horizon. we just need to get through the next seven days. stuart: i have an explanation. it is winter. >> and i use that? stuart: absolutely. the republican-led congress is heading back to work today.

listen to the democrats argue against building it. >> they say that this is a j.o.b.s. bill. that really is not true at all. >> okay. we have heard from senator schumer. what about from the rest of the democrats? >> it has had some democratic support. they want to take a measure of the new democratic minority in the house and especially the senate. will they still be supportive of it now? it also is gauging where president obama is?

would he veto a bill that is passed with bipartisan support? stuart: okay. my guess is it does pass the house and does pass the senate and does get to the president desk. my question is, do the democrats offer enough votes in the senate to override and expect good presidential veto. >> i think that that is questionable. i can count to six to get to 60 votes if you have all four republican. can we get to 67? that is a big question.

you are saying it is not going to be built. >> i am very skeptical that we will be able to get this done. they have to override a veto in the house as well. stuart: good information. thank you very much, indeed. we will see you again soon. coming up next, we have a guest that says we are in store for even more offers this month. ♪

nicole: the dow has been down over 300 points. 17,005. nine. the nasdaq is down 55. all the major averages down 8%. caterpillar, chevron exxon pulling back. we are seeing energy under pressure. ford has the best december. cost setting the strategy.

more "varney & company" coming up. ♪

♪ stuart: 300 points. come on in. keith fitzgerald. i cannot do the math. i have not done the math.

i am not all that concerned about it. it is the tail end of the prior year. plus, we have the polar vortex. we are weaning off the stimulus. stuart: the polar vortex. >> to me, that is a lot like the dog ate my homework. stuart: are you kidding me? people actually said the weather is partially responsible for a 300-point loss on the dow? >> not today stuart. they begin to draw conclusions and inferences that are not there. we had a cold snap and three weeks later everyone is talking about how it will affect all the

numbers. stuart: i want you to take these one at a time. just over 200. buy it? >> no i would not buy it here. it will break 200. stuart: how about amazon? >> i would not touch amazon, personally. microsoft and google are eating it. i think the investors that are interested are aly baba. >> home run. oil is down. stronger if you go with oil prices being down. they do not carry a lot of dead.

i do not like social media stocks. numbers are going the wrong direction. users are the climbing. i think that is a tremendous shortcoming. stuart: he talks fast and gets it all in there. excellent stuff. come back again soon. dire products. very popular this time of year of course. who sticks to the diet? i do not know. fit at helping you keep your goals. the chief officer of meta- fast is here. i have a bone to pick with diet people.

we all lose some weight and then we forget about it. >> that is true. [laughter] stuart: you have no answer for this? >> it happens. they want you to lose the weight and keep it off. that means you have to get into a more healthy living approach. stuart: nobody will eat this food for the rest of their life. >> no, they will not. the average customer spends up to $2000 over a six-month time frame. they will go down 50, 60 70 pounds. the reality is, after that, you have to change your lifestyle. stuart: the average weight loss is how much? >> the average weight lost for us is to-5 pounds the first two weeks. twelve pounds a month.

it is 100-calorie meal replacement five times a day. you do your own lead and green meal. that is restricting calories to a low level. our customers can integrate their progress. take shape for life coaching network, we have over 10,000 plus health coaches. using technology to monitor every day what is going on with

the people that they coach. stuart: argued the number one or the number two in the diet companies that actually provide the food? >> we are numbered three. weight watchers number one. nutrisystem number two. stuart: thank you so much for joining us. i did go on a diet. i have been on a diet for a couple of years, matter of fact. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. stuart: traditional bookstores not dying. barnes & noble is today's parents bounce. you will find out why in just a moment. ♪ life expectancy in the u.s., real estate in hong kong and the optics industry in germany? at t. rowe price

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stuart: the parens pounds today. you like and you told your readers that you like barnes & noble. >> it is not happening, it yet anyway. sales are running about 5% ahead of last year.

stuart: actual sales of books. >> they are selling. the stores are doing well. they are often filled with people. another good thing is the note. it has been a problem. it has lost money. they just pop back from microsoft and pearson. barnes & noble is now incomplete control of it. it sets the stage for them to spend it off or sell them. people still read. people still like it. stuart: you did it again. you recommended a stock on a huge down day. i do not know how you do it, but i am glad that you come every week. hedge fund founder thomas gilbert found dead in his apartment here in new york city.

>> the sun has been detained. mr. gilbert was killed by one single gunshot to the head. in the tony section of manhattan. just north of the united nations building. the hedge fund manager here, about a $200 million hedge fund. that is not a biotech stock. do not know yet if the sun is responsible for it. he is one of the top suspects for the murder of his father. stuart: thank you very much, liz. we will have more varney for you in just a minute. ♪ look what daddy's got... ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!! growth you can count on from the bank where no branches equals great rates. if you take multiple medications, a dry mouth can be a common side effect. that's why there's biotene.

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back the more we know, the more it seems clear that there is virtually no possibility that

the universe could have been created. >> that was interesting. how science has helped to make the case for the existence of god. his article in the "wall street journal" is the most reputed article. >> a couple of items for you. restoring the good graces. stopping the constant bashing of wall street by politicians. that would be a great play. i would rather pay $2.60 a gallon or more.

here is deirdre bolton. taking some public hits as china's chow mein brings another choice to the west. chinese internet giant will lend money online. with the richest 1%, our experts telling us whether or not he sees it as a winning formula. calling on the sec