>> most of the countries is chuckling at varney and to the fine people north south dakota every single year. >> over to you. [laughter] see you tomorrow everybody. thanks very much. dagen all of you that you think. good morning everyone. it is great to be back. look like 2018 is off it a pretty good start wouldn't you say? rally we saw on first trading day of the year continue this is morning half an hour from now move up some more and again it is technology that is leading the way. big meeting on capitol hill today -- the president sending two of the top officials to sit down with big four republicans mitch mcconnell paul ryan, democrats charles schumer nancy pelosi, here's the deal. the the president wants to build the wall, end chin my tbraition and end lottery now in thes want the dreamers to stay. politically, the president may

have the upper hand with the democratses shut down the government if they don't get their way. we'll see. big show today, you'll be shocked to learn just how much federal bureaucrats make the people who control our lives are laughing all the way to the bank. and business is on notice you got what you wanted. now you have to invest in america. and here's another shot coming your way. the weather is going to get even colder. you know i've got to love doing this show. i came back from south florida they for this. "varney & company" is about to begin. >> wow. the bitter cold continues. frigid temperatures spread all across the country. will you look at those windchills please, just look at that. and by the way, a big storm is expected to ham orer east coast all the way from georgia to e

maine some forecasters calling this storm a bomb cyclone. because its pressure is predigitted to fall so fast and bring heavy snow very, very quickly. bomb cyclone there's a headline for you if there's even snow in the forecast for parts of florida and the carolinas. all right ashley. what's going on? >> you know just looking at that ma there's a 50 mile section out interstate 10 east of tallahassee that's been shutdown because beef icy conditions people many that part of the country not used to winter driving talking about possible snow? savannah up to charleston this is a real mess the governor of georgia is already declared a disaster many 28 counties because of the freezing precip and worst you know know is tough it for these folks down will. but when you have freezing rain that is an absolute nightmare that part of the world. all of that, that swirl of moisture down in florida is beginning o move up east coast become as you call it stew the bomb cyclone and then it is beginning to wrap around to bring show into the northeast.

blizzard mornings for if the northeast. >> okay. talking bomb cyclones right right ash that's weather hype isn't it? >> hype -- [laughter] >> bomb -- got my attention. [laughter] >> excuse me, sorry. liven up our viewers first right from the get go. here we go. that weather -- here's your money all time highs for s&p and nasdaq opening bell market watcher shaw owes the right in 17. 18 look, everybody is talking about a pullback. that must come at some point. do you see it that way? rmings always a possibility for some kind of pullback and because so much money on table but momentum is with market. earnerses are fantastic and fourth quarter will be fabulous because sales were fantastic consumer is really behind everything pushing everything forward. moment tomming is there. i don't think there's any reason, no major headwind in the market face pushing back so i think the market has a good ways to go higher. >> why don't i sell some of my

successful stocks now because i don't have to pay capital gain tax until 16, 17 months out next april. >> you could do that but other things like maybe put stops in there incase they fall become and pay taxes to reduce rate. if you have tax loss you can use that to offset gains but not a lot of losses in the market in 2017 so -- >> hold on a second tech stock, the pang for one with of the better words. they made run yesterday. they're up again in premarket trade aring today -- are you jumping onboard that train again? >> they're going to helicopter to go higher no reason for if any to go -- to fall back really. just because look -- hard to get used to idea they're going to go up. but a graph looks like that. a couple of reasons number one they have earnings growth number two not just brands. they're some of them youing google this and facebook that. you do this and that and companies have continued growth continued --

subscribers continued everything, and continue obility. the same time what's happening is these stocks are leading indexes higher that's bringing more money into etf and past of invest tore and -- the cycle. going to continue. >> in 17 -- i hope you are right in 18 too. >> it look so far so good. [laughter] >> stay there. we've with got opening bell half an hour from thousand. let's get toic mr.s of this program -- [laughter] making today between administration official and congressional leadership on the agenda, infrastructure, and immigration. the president is looking for bipartisan support on both issues. washington times associate editor wml mario o'connor is with us deal maker and chief wants funding for war end chin migration and lottery system for immigration had many return, the democrats want dreamers to stay. is that a basic of the deal that will actually happen?

>> where it sure sounds like it stuart is and i think that democrats are walking into this meeting at the beginning of this year and a different place from where they are from year ago i would say. a bomb cyclone him them stuart with that tax bill that became law at the end of the year. people are looking back at 2017 looking at the trump administration saying you know what, with there's a track record there now, and i'm hoping during these negotiations that the white house they have a big television screen had in the room with fox business playing. because that little box in the corner is going to to hit 25k today. for u dow jones and the democrats did not want to stand this the way of the progress that our economy is getting right now. >> all right larry i have another one for you trump tweeting about hillary aid huma abidin put that on the screen for you here's the quote crooked hillary aid has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. she put classified passwords into the hands of foreign agents. remember sailors picture on submarine jail, deep state

justice department must finally ask question mark also on comey and other that's the end of it. now last year, it was all russia, russia, russia. now it's deep state messings with the election and colluding with the russians. what a switch. >> what narrative changed didn't it you saw founders and with the damage control op-ed in "new york times" this morning trying to push back on a lot of the criticisms of their firm and the seal dossier but learn more about the justice department and fbi and their behavior seemingly bipartisan while they're doing a u judicious investigation of hirnght i think basic americans who were just watching this from the periphery they looked stuff we're learning and say that doesn't seem right. i don't know about your company stuart but i know my company we have basic security protocol too if i'm putting pass word many a yahoo! e-mail and sending them to somebody i would have disciplinary action. how is it that number two person

at the sate department under hillary clinton with sate secrets on her laptop why does she walk away free. that doesn't seem right. >> do you think that the tide has turned this will be the president and his approval rating and his standing in politics? because bees last year it was a very negative situation. the media was piling on the man, do you feel any light here or for him? >> it depends how you define light. i don't think this president is ever going to see 55, approval rate he's a po or particularizing figure you know how new yorkers are stuart. so i think that generally speaking, for him for this president, his policies have to lead. the track record has to lead. not his personal style, he rub ares people the wrong way. but the good news is, so far his policies his track record, they are wail being effected it's been a good year. >> you actually look at the polls in turls of the issues like on the economy.

for example, president trump comes out not necessarily widely on top but he's pretty close to 45, 50% approval in those areas. that's his strong suit isn't? >> you're right you saw some of the nemp trump people turn a corner on this say listen i don't like this guy and how he behaves he's got integrity problem. i don't think he's got the great brest moral character and no george washington. but on some basic conservative principle national security, fighting terrorist lowering tacks shrinking size of government giving more freedom bag to the people he's actually checked off a lot of boxes that it republican have stood for for if a long time. >> just splash into my head my nuclear button works it is classic isn't it? >> some people laugh at it. people would have been appalled say he carried a big stick too right maybe this is the 2018 version of a big stick and never would have let him get away with smflt things that he had to say that's right. >> i think that many people in

the media in the beltway in manhattan, people on the left side of the equation they always shrink from a powerful american president actually talking about and the virtue of our military. remember they dpght like it when he wanted osama bin laden like a texas poster wanted dead or alive they didn't shock in awe in the iraq war. we are the major military might in the world. we have to flex those muscles sometimes or tyrant like north korea can run all over us. >> got it larry o'connell see you again in the near future. >> stay warm up there. >> you too. thanks. [laughter] all right other o news. here question go. music streaming service spotify could ipo could go public. your chance to get in and invest. it has been hit with a 1.6 billion copyright these lawsuit these alist musicians want their share look at them on the screen. president trump tweets out to north korean leader kim jong-un that his nuke button is bigger

than his and actually works. [laughter] don't you love it? you get more had of this if you keep watching varney. we'll be back. zicam cold remedys shorten colds with a snap, and reduce symptom severity by 45%. shorten your cold with a snap, with zicam. these are the specialists we're proud to call our own. experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. expert medicine works here. learn more at cancercenter.com

♪ that is neil young and we're playing his music for a reason are. he is part of a 1.6 billion copyright to again spotify. >> lawsuiting spotify get a free ride on their music and also is not just neil young but company a california company repghts tom petty janis joplin the doors they're saying you owe them 1.6 billion another musicians 1.6 billion dollars in royalties because you use their music for free you didn't have a licensing for it. now spotify could float as ipo leader 19 billion. 20 billion see valuation it is a direct listing. meaning that they won't have wall street banks bringing to market.

got to be aware of these lawsuits. lawsuits like this tank napster in 19 8, '99 file sharing cane, so frankie and fouren ises is also guy in that group is suing also paid out spotify $73 million to settle two similar lawsuits. so all want a piece of that action. >> there's a track record here in the courts already on this. >> that's very interesting. 1.6 billion thank you very much indeed. president trump calling out north in a tweet last night saying, our nuke button is bigger than north koreas literally the president literally tweeted like that. here's van chairman of the american defense international look van we're hearing that north korea is trying to open lines of communication with south korea looks like they're trying to get into the olympics on a soft amicable basis. are we to be -- to take this charm offensive with a grain of salt or what? >> we're 2018 will be a duesy

stuart whaing it shows is this president has gotten into kim jong-un's heads and can kim can't figure out president trump i was and by last night before we get in the car showing me the president's tweet. he's gotten in kim's head one point of -- kim jong-un talking about his nuclear button and on the other reopening today that border communication chapter. so i think this is good. >> i keep hearing are from people, though, this is scary stuff that brinkmanship and dangerous -- what do you say to that? >> john f. kennedy drove crisis brought in experts to vile national security counsel how to get into the head understand his psyche i think donald trump is masters that as far as kim jong-un is concerned and president trump may be had on to something about his button working. today open source intelligence through a commercial satellite imagery tells us that last night, a launch vehicle north of pyongyang pulled up with an icbm

load hoed put in a -- launch position, they turn it on their radio that's how you track things for two hours they shut it off it was aborted within of two things happened their button did work. the diagnose tech showed something was wrong, and they aborted it or it was a training mission for launch personnel most experts, though, believe that probably about 7 to 10 day away from their next icbm launch and he's a long history. in the month of january as well as december, so many go back you look at it over the years so many of their -- ballistic missile test an nuclear test take place during it this time frame. >> got it. what do you make of trump withholding i think it is 255 million from the pakistanis, also talking about withwith holding money from the palestinian ares. and also worrying about the amount of money that we've given to iranians looks like we're taking a money approach in the mideast.

so we're going to reward allies to work with our friends not those who harbor terrorists. you know, in the foreign policy elite might not understand this stuart but i think american people do it is a foreign policy. new foreign policy baseed on common sense that puts america first, a lot of -- bad news characters over the years coming out of pakistan. this nuclear militarized warhead that we're so concerned about out of o north korea right now where did it come from? the infamous pakistani scientist -- and i can go on and on they've been harboring the network which is the taliban basically there in pakistan that's been going over into afghanistan. >> long history here. >> let me jump in real fast with 30 sengtds lefts but it seems to me that tide is turning in the mideast america is now pushing hard as opposeed to retreating in absorbing punishment pushing

hard at palestinian and iranian in difficult situation and others has the tide turns? >> i think it has what i hope this president would do is look at the midwest we can't, who have helped us not only israel but look at kill jordan and king muhammad both king muhammad both king abula ascended and prohelping fight terrorism i would single those countries out, and say hey, we want to get closer and work more with ally leak this that we can count on. >> thanks for joining us sir happy new year to you. >> yes, sir. question, what is the difference between gangster and gangster? for one jeopardy contestant it was 3200 of course we'll explain it. check dow futures we're going to open higher again this morning. more gains to technology. that's a headline for you. we'll be back in a moment.

retail. under pressure like never before. and it's connected technology that's moving companies forward fast. e-commerce. real time inventory. virtual changing rooms. that's why retailers rely on comcast business to deliver consistent network speed across multiple locations. every corporate office, warehouse and store

near or far covered. leaving every competitor, threat and challenge outmaneuvered. comcast business outmaneuver. well you know this is is heralded as good news ford motor cane sales december over december year over year, up .9%. doesn't sound like much to me apparently that's pretty good as these things go. now this -- [laughter] you have to have i think

american acts to do this a jeopardy contestant last night lost 3 200 because the judges say he answered a question incorrectly. listen to o this. >> a song by kuehl owe from dangerous minds impose back be in time to become a 1667 john milton class tick -- nick. what is gangsters paradise lost. >> yep. our judges have reevaluated one of your responses a few moment ago rick you said gangsters instead of gangstas on that song by kulio so you're now in second place. wait a minute l. that's interesting. gangster instead of gangsta. he said it gangster with an er ending but it is an a gangsta gangster, and he lost 1600 and that got taken away. anyway what's interesting is looking back on this there's two separate entries for gangster

and gangsta. now kulio who this is all about a lpsz to white people that the er will always get you in trouble. >> would have lost that. but this is pretty gangsta of "jeopardy!" to take this guy 3200 with a rotten trick question. >> but i think he wanted -- he won the whole thing. >> i think so. but if you and i -- and shaw, had been contestants weld lose. because we will pronounce it gangster. >> gangsta is correctly. sha what you're sayingsome not american. i would have said gangsta. >> the third i do declare up 50 points maybe at the opening bell s&p up about 4. stella. [laughter]

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>> sportsen pass we've got 0 seconds to go and this market

will open this went morning and we confident expect it will hit all time high right at the opening bell. record for the s&p and nasdaq hit the close yesterday so any gain for either of those indicators will be another on the night. here we go it is we could morning we're up, running, there we go. 29 point. it was 28, 33 for the benefit of our radio listeners we're up 32 points at 24,856 holding with a gain of 38 points and s&p is that is all time high, 2,698 real close to 2700 pup three points at this point. the nasdaq i think it is up up therefore it is a new all time high looking at that. it crossed 7,000 first time ever yesterday powering up another 10 points this morning. 7,017 what a day to be a market commentator look at what we've got. ashley webster and elizabeth macdonald keith fitzgerald,

and shaw stocks are on a tear we have the tech stocks leading the way i believe. not seen quote since market opened but keith -- let's talk to you about a pullback. we keep hearing it is come oing -- when is it coming how bad is it going to be? what do you got to ?ai, >> well this is like the weather man rain and sun tomorrow thing is ernie is drive prices and we've got two out of the three. so it's logical path of least resistance is higher i'm excited because a strong start to the year is traditionally a great omen for your money. >> beef we go any further keith you have a couple of picks for this year that you like particularly looking at google, alphabet that is and amazon you like them both correct you buy they will at these prices correct? i would recommend interested in be a bigger picture 2018 is about sicking with thingses that

work and sticking with technology what is changing our lives and sticking with company at real profits in real agendas. to me those are two of the best in class players and all about security rather than taking risk on a stock that could blow up but then again i'm not a big fan of going to vegas because i like to make money and not gappable. >> ever been to casino in monte carlo so old fashioned redig ridiculous i digress -- you pay $50 for a shot of scotch in -- month carlo but again a die depression shaw i know you're big on tech stocks tell e me two that you particularly like to buy now. >> tech stock is up microsoft and facebook, really luke those facebook is just i think -- going to break and do something extraordinary in 2018. they've got the subscribe base that got users globally that more than 2 billion regular users so they have a lot to do request that and get into the medical field speculating there

there's a lot they can do and break loose in 2018. >> did they buy anything? got all of this money time to start acquiringsome >>. >> i don't know what they would acquire i don't think amazon needs to acquire anybody they're leader where everything they do. so something like the whole tods thing they did they wantedded to give them to that space but microsoft speaking of microsoft is hitting it out of the park in every single direction in material its of earning and web service and hardware everything. good come again tomorrow. >> and thank you so much. for pointing that out. by the way, very is true indeed. okay, one point i would like it make is what this tax deal brings back a lot of that cash that is being held overseas. and it is the big tech companies with motion of that cash. when it comes back odds are -- much of it will go into the stock buy back program and into increase dividends that's what i think they might be doing. barron could be first the big tech stocks to pay a cash

dividend it is down a fraction now june one cent lower. what do you make that have? >> won't do it in 2018 and not ready for it but in gross paws so long as they're in growth faze and growing company and i think it is a year or two off at least before they start paying dividend. apple piper investment firm saying yesterday it expects apple stock to helicopter to move higher. what is that? >> 200 a share that means first one trillion company saying this year so iphone x is too expensive people turned of a by high price apple having a problem with slowing down older phones with older batteries now they're saying you know what we took a survey of 400 apple iphone users and found they do like the ieg phone x. now projecting that apple could come out with a cheaper version of the iphone x that could par sail 4-10 iphone sold this year they say will be iphone x what could carry apple l to be first one trillion dollar market value company. we have to point out apple

microsoft, and google powered that thousand point gain to 7,000 in the nasdaq two-thirds of the points there. >> now we have mcdonald's, they are testing fresh beef in another burger. and it is bringing back the one, two, and $3 menus. that comes back on thursday. would you buy the stock, keith? >> you know i used to be a huge fan of this company but no i wouldn't and for two reasons number one i think stock is overpriced and overpardon pun for something that made ham burg ers wrath go request technology or o big medicine because i think it is better opportunities there but stock is historically split every time it is over 100. fact that it hasn't say yes to me that management is hesitating for some reason i don't like that but rather see it in 50, 60 range than reevaluate. latest car sales figures we told you earlier that ford motor company year over year december over december -- up .09, .9%.

look at this. chrysler just is in, fiat chrysler down 11% in december. compared to one year ago -- now this. varney regular tech watcher gene he thinks amazon may buy target. is he on to something is? >> there's been some speculation about that in last couple of months i don't understand why he would -- amy dison would want target not with the price they have to pay and you know add 40 billion to their debt and compete with them on a better basis no point in it. >> i think justice department is or very stop to staples in office depot merger don't you think step in here amazon buying big target one of the biggest retailers in company country rather be any trust movement. >> not as large collectively as wal-mart in terms of their sales and what they sell but i don't see amazon buying them. >> retailer what to you say, keith? >> i think that alibaba is actually going to beat amazon to race in this one and here's why.

alibaba is customer demographic matches target and a lot of executive crossover to me that's the merger that makes sen and it goes after netflix first. >> that is fascinating here's something else now question of to give you the bit coin update and here's today's news, tech investor peter he's betting big on bit coin. so his -- capital term found this fund and we don't exactly now hotch between 50 to $20 million he bought into bitcoin last year we know there was one big purchase, and before that. so here's an early investor now worth hundreds of millions. but it's we don't know the exact amount of this holdings. what's interesting stew when i was researching this story. even those own bitcoin are are caution talking about it. why because they fear hacking this is a virtual currency and hackers once they get in there and rub your virtual wallet it is gone. it is quality that they hack into --

that is the one -- interesting because then it is hard to get to the bottom of who owns what and why. >> it's a part, last three billion fund so 20 50 million investment isn't huge but smart investment to pay off. >> but if you put 50 million in or what it deash and 500 million out that's a brilliant bet. >> that's and a half -- go ahead keith. >> you know, other o thing headline leak this is very cages because average investor will hear it and think peter sealed it but i can buy it and i can guarantee you it is unhedged basis is you have to take it with what shaw said a small position but derks probably hedged some way shape or form so this is not the huge risk for normal investor. good stuff i want to repeat the news about spotify that have been slapped with a 1.6 lawsuit brought by songwriters, this could throw a wrench into their plans to go o publicly. pnches knock it right out of the park this is a big deal. they settled twice before for

nebl amount there 30 and 40 million range but 1.6 billion is a lot of money and if you want to bring this country public. i have a small interest in a startup company that does streaming hiewks licensing deals are -- extraordinary expensive so if they're getting around that, then that's a big deal that's -- huge litigation. rng i don't think that spotify is allowed to play tom petty janis joplin or involvedded in this lawsuit they cannot play music now on spotify. >> that's a big deal. okay here we become autosales numbers for you general motors in that december sales down 3.3% compared to one year previously. by the way, chrysler sales down 11% compared to one year previously. ford motor company up .9%. how about tesla, orders piling up for the new tesla semitruck that doesn't yet exist piling up for model three as they are.

not mistaken they are, and rivals are wramping up their production will this -- the electric car market seems to be becoming very crowded very quickly. >> it is. i think we lost keith the question is the electric car market getting real crowded real fast to the point where you have goff concerns about it? >> no, it's not. i'll tell youy spent a lot of my time traveling around world i see a lot of vehicle choices and alternate fuel in place like japan and china and i see some of it in europe so i don't think it is overcrowded but what's crowded is fact that american manufactures in particular sat on for a long time in the technology is bypassed hem an ting they have to catch up. tesla clearly is a monkey wrench in here because it is forcing people like ford and gm l to come to the table. >> you you know time flies when you're having fun. with ten minutes with this market open, it is time for me to say gob to shaw and to keith.

good stuff today. gentleman thank you very much indeed. by the way, the dow is now up 44 points. we went up about 30 odd points at the opening bell down toe small gain now up 42, 24,864. top hillary clinton add, huma abidin gets stop secret secret passwords and forwards them toker her personal private account. we'll explain and we'll have president trump's response to it as well. then we have the flu shot. only 10% effective this this year. same story is every season and still the doctor always tells me to get your flu shot. >> he does i have an answer for him we'll be right back with doctor, siegel.

all right the dow is up 100 points yesterday up another 33 and a very early l going this morning we're at 24,857. american airlines and southwest their employees are going to get a bonus because of the tax bill but nicole come in and what's this all about please? >> bring it on they're following other companieses that we heard of late had last year, at&t comcast, fifth third bank giving bonuses to their employee. this is all because of the better tax rate are that we got from our new tax bill that massive overhall. the stocks are both slight isly lower but a thousand dollars for every employee. so it's a very big deal and more investing southwest airlines saying that they're going to be increasing their fleet spepgding boeing donating five million to charity so let the money flow. >> flow through please. economy grow. good stuff okay. that rhymes by the way. thanks nicole all good. thank you.

president trump tweeting about -- deep state actually crooked hillary clinton top aid huma abidin disregarding basic security protocol she put classified passwords into hands of foreign agent as. remember sailors, picture on submarine, jail, deep state justice department must finally act also on comey and others tomorrower arkansas governor mike huckabee with us now. i've been away for about a ten-day period. last year, it was all russia, russia. i come back, and it looks like deep state undermining president trump and going in favor of hillary clinton. am i reading this correctly? >> i think you're reading spot on stuart this is a boom rang democrats through it out there but come back to hit them in the face it appears now that there were more different immunity deals given out to obama officials including hillary clinton, huma abidin other high

officials, in advance of even what they gave up and here's what is pass mating given out more than santa gave out christmas canes during month of december that turns out there were all kinds of incredible security leaks. that not the least of which were classified information being put on private computers in violation of the law. then lying about it including a computer tech who lied to the fbi. now what this i think does is set up donald trump to give a nice pardon to christian that young sailor who took a couple of iphone pictures of a submarine, and to mike flynn. and to say we're not going to let these guys do the perp walk and suffer all kinds of consequences having their lives destroyed by huma abidin hillary clinton, and others do the free walk and do the happy dance. you know, down to pennsylvania avenue. >> wouldn't they ultimate irony be president trump giving a pardon to hillary clinton?

it would be the irony frankly i wouldn't be that disappointed if he did to say look he's guilty as heck we have goods but country is not benefit by prosecuting her or going after the young sailor either so let's clear the deck, let's work on the real problems of this country. let's solve some problems let's do what this president has been doing cutting regulations grow the economy getting the tax cut done and as democrats want to say, let's move on. [laughter] as in move on korg is as i recall. you know a big meeting coming up today governor we've got the big four two top democrat two top republicans plus he been manies of the executive branch of government. and it seems like they're going to discuss a possible deal on immigration. president trump wants build the qawl get rid of chain migration, and get rid of the lottery. the democrats are looking to keep the -- dreamers in america.

is that the kind of deal which you see as possible here? >> well if it is not the democrats or disengenius about that and other things they either work with this president for things they claim are important to them and if they're not willing to work the president, who is going to get something for what he gives, then they're not being honest at all and i think they're hurting themselves for the mid-materials in a way that might not be recoverable. if donald trump's policies continue to work, and all they can offer is obstructionism which is all they've offered even on the things they say are vitally important to them then what do they offer to american spheem? concrete blocks to stand in the way of a better paycheck? i wouldn't want to run on that platform and if i were republicans i would shove it up nostrils eve day it until move. >> love the way you the things there governor. that's pretty good. even better than crump's tweet that is. [laughter] last one -- nothing like that. no nothing like that big button mind works et cetera, etc.

do you think that president trump is on the upswing politically? >> yeah, i do. i think it is going to be more so start ising in february which people get their paychecks and they say how can i have more money because project got the tax cut through we're seeing you talk about southwest airlines giving bonuses to employees. making huge investments in new jet aircraft we've seen this with other major canes. there's an optimism on consumers. christmas was one of the best it has been in long time because people have confidence to spend money. this is what causes americans to begin to think hey maybe despite donald trump's tweets that no we don'ts always like by gosh the guy is getting stuff done that makes my life better, and ultimately what people care about is not what the president tweets. it's what happens in their households with their income and their able to spend their money like they want to. >> governor huckabee thanks for joining us happy new year to you, sir. >> happy new year to you too stuart.

check that that is correct please because we have a solid gain 45 points higher. how many poingts for if the new year just six points away from a all time high for the dow industrials. at 24,870 as we speak. what's next? i'll e tell you. doc sikh l will tell me to get a flu shot he always does. what do you think my answer will be bear in mind these flu shots are only 10% effective. what do you think i might say. finds out after the break because we will be back. [laughter]

>> all right we're up nearly yeah up 52 points. that by the way, those on your screen now, visa and yiepted technologies all time highs for those two stocks let me just check something is here. yeah, we just hit an all time high for the dow industrials never been higher. 24,876. ♪ i think we have to new trumpet music better than that stuff. up 50 points on the dow industrials the rally continues. all right got that. next case, the flu -- the flu shot i'm told is just not that effective only 10% effective. i don't think that's good enough. now regular viewers of the show you know -- i don't get flu shots.

doc siegel is here. so what, why? your face. flustered here stuttering. you're not able to win this argument. first of all 36 days have widespread activity this south, the southeast, the southwest many of your viewer are looking to you stuart to be a role model here because this is a severe strain of flu. it was terrible in australia this year and already peeking early here we're having hospitalizations we're having children dying, you know what, you saying 10% you say 10% powerful we won't know until after the season how effect i have but what we mean by ten, 20, 30 but 30% might be more than 10% is how many end up hospitalized how many end up really sick. you know people get pneumonia from the flu and heart attack from the flu we need every tool we have and this is the first tool there's no downside to this. >> there's a downside why should i put some factory made substance into my system that stays there forever and which only 10% is effective why should

i do that? >> wears off inless than a year that bolterses immune system and improves immune response right now it is cold everywhere including in the south flu is flying farther distance in the area staying on tamiflu that you can take if you get the flu. your viewers immediate to be on the lookout for sudden fatigue, fever, sore throats for nasal congestion, joint ache, muscle aches yes get your u flu shot takes two weeks to be effective what do you mean chemical in your system they're in your system every day if. >> what it do for kidney stones. pregnant women though, they are getting two and iewferring some protection unborn child. >> unfortunately of to go because you lost the the argument and yoct are a chance for you to come back on this. >> i'll bring you a flu shot next time and forcibly give you one. >> back in a second i promise.

. . . .

stuart: president trump is a bonanza for business. corporate america bottom pretty much all it wanted. big tax cuts, red tape slashed. animal spirits released. all good. now business has to perform. president trump has opened the door and business has to walk through it, invest, grow, build and hire. everyday american voters have to feel the benefits. the goodies have to filter down the food chain. if business dispoints, the democrats will pounce. senators warren and sanders are eager to roll out the familiar claim the rich are getting richer, getting all the benefits and the media will definitely join that chorus. business would surely know that the left would love to bring back all the regulation and raise taxes all over again. well, so far so good. business is passing the money through to employees are or at

least some businesses. today american and southwest airlines promised 1000-dollar bonuses to all employees. at&t and comcast have done the same thing. fifth third bank, wells fargo, they have raised wages. boeing will invest $100 million in employee facilities. the list of tax break pass-throughs is very long. it will be a more difficult sell if the companies put extra cash into stock buybacks or higher dividend. the left will scream of that. it smacks of the rich getter richer. business will have to spell out very clearly how higher stock prices and dividend help everyone. the bottom line here, if capitalism has been given a free rein, so our capitalist system has been given the opportunity to show what it can do. don't screw it up. because if you do, the left will seize the moment and return america to the socialist road. heaven forbid. the second hour of "varney & company" is about to

begin. ♪ the market gaining ground. we have the latest word on manufacturing, ash? ashley: 59.7. what does that mean? figure above 50 means it is growing and better tan it was in november, which is 58.2. it is better than forecast. very positive. employment, new orders, all be very strong throughout the year. looks like we ended the year pretty strong. stuart: we are growing. ashley: the economy is ticking along very nicely. liz: regulatory roll back ticking along the animal spirits. stuart: well-said. the market is up 60 points in part on some of that news. check the big tech names, please. they're leading this rally. all are doing very well again today. look at this, facebook is up

nearly 1%. amazon is up about 8 bucks. microsoft is up 55 cents, reaching 86.50. alphabet up 1% now. apple is up 1%. on your screens right now, visa, united technologies, both of them hitting all-time record highs, for the second day in a row. this market is going up as we speak. next case, we got blackberry, they're at $12 per share as we speak. they have announced a partnership with baidu on autonomous vehicle technology. it is not the blackberry you remember any longer. they're up at 12 bucks a share. right now 6% higher. ge, where are they? look at that up 1 1/2%, well above $18 per share as we speak. this this mark going higher. the dow is up 68 points. back to my editorial at the top of the hour. those companies on your screens, that's the amount of cash, the

money they have got largely stashed overseas. we're talking tens of billions, in some cases hundreds of billions of dollars. joining us andy puzder, policy adviser, america first policies, former cke restaurant ceo. andy, if the money from the big technology companies comes back to america and goes into stock buybacks, or into higher dividends, the left will scream, that that is not going through to the ordinary people of america. that that is what is likely to happen. what say you? >> first of all, stuart, i really loved your intro to this segment, your editorial was just great. i have to tell you that i do think american businesses will invest a very significant portion of the monies they bring back in growth. i have been in hundreds of board meetings, as an attorney, as a corporate executive, as a ceo, not one time, not any meeting did we talk about how wonderful it would be if we could shrink the company. we always talked about how we

wanted to grow, to take the company to the next level. this is a real opportunity for companies to do that. taking a step back there is nothing wrong with paying dividends or doing stock buybacks. first of all releases cash locked up in the system. it get cash into the hands of people that they spend. it is good for the economy. i want to point one other thing out. you mentioned large companies that are paying higher wages, what has happened is, the competition for employees that creates, with wells fargo, bank of america, fifth third bank, announcing 15-dollar minimum wages and bonuses, you found regional banks like associated bank in wisconsin, pnc in pennsylvania, bb&t in north carolina, in your area, oceans first bank announced they're going to $15. there is a website from idaho listed 28 companies in the little state of idaho announces they will increase wages and benefits based on the tax bill. you see more money going to employees. employees will have bigger

paychecks. they will pay less tax on the paychecks as percentage. businesses will invest because they have the money to do it. they want to grow. biel get dividend and stock buybacks. the economy is not just good, it is surging. it is an incredible time. interesting words surging. i like that. stuart: andy thank you, i have more numbers that people are moving out from high-taxed states. study from united van lines. people left illinois last year than any other state in the country. illinois is a high-taxed state. illinois followed by new jersey and new york. come in, paul, is conservative real estate guy. you are the guy that helps people move out of high-taxed states. what are you seeing? give me numbers please. >> money through significant

trending not only from those states but also from california, mostly blue states looking to move to red states. looking to move to states where they can afford to buy a home. looking for good schools and safe streets. definitely a large migration, largely coming from two types of groups, your middle-class families, or your retirees. stuart: can you give me some numbers? >> sure. we've had about 10,000 families contacted us through conservative move.com. most are from california. california, middle class parents in their 30s with young children. for the most part they are unable to afford a home. they are looking two to three jobs. their number one concern will be how they will provide for their children and or their families. the high-taxed states like new york or california they increased gas tax, difficult to afford a home or other regulations. many families are looking for a way out. that is it where conservative mood comes in, to help identify

states more affordable for their well being. stuart: paul, i have numbers from manhattan, just on real estate prices. seems in the latest quarter, the average price for luxury apartments, luxury homes, is down 21%. and there is now a 17-month supply of luxury homes on the market which is extraordinarily large. seems to me, that the items in the tax bill, which are going to affect high-taxed states are already affecting high-end real estate prices and values. is that what you're seeing as well? >> absolutely. ever since the new tax bill is passed you see a number of families within the blue states, primarily, new york, california, looking at, saying california is about $22,000 in writeoffs on average. the max write-off can be around $10,000. they're looking at other states where they take their invest, their property, their families, to be able to stretch those dollars without having such a

hit. stuart: paul, thanks for joining us. i think you have a business very well-positioned in this marketplace at the moment. paul shabby bow. thank you. >> can you hear me? stuart: we got you. back to andy puzder. the high-taxed states are in real trouble. california, new york, new jersey, illinois. it's a catastrophe for them, isn't it? what do you think they will do about this? >> i'm not sure, i would like to invest in paul's company if it is public. the problem is bigger even than he is describing. for example, our company moved from california to tennessee for a number of reasons, in particular the business unfriendly atmosphere but it took two to three years to put the move together. you have to wait for leases to expire. you have problems with people that may have kids in school. you have got people that really need to reorganize their life, sell their house to make a move. you will see this trend, this elimination of the "salt" deduction, the trend causing people moving, it will go on for

the next two or three years. unless these states, unless these blue, business-unfriendly high taxed states change their policies. this is the opportunity to get in on the american dream for their residents reduce tax, make it easy for businesses to open up in the state. governor cuomo talking about how it is easier in new york. it is not easier in new york. it is high-taxed place to live and difficult place to do business. if they make changeses that will affect this. if they don't people will continue to believe. stuart: my dollar says new york, california, new jersey, will not lower taxes even though that would be a way out for them. they will not do it. will you take the bet? >> no, i don't know how they can lower it. in particular they have got these huge public employee pension obligations that aren't even on the books. they have got tremendous expenses, and they don't even -- in california the roads are in terrible shape. if you're ever out there drive

slowly, there are potholes everywhere. they can't take care of roads but paying tremendous amounts to retired public employees. these are obligations they have been, that have come into place over the past few years. they're not going away. they're getting bigger. i don't know how they can reduce taxes. stuart: but they should. but they won't. >> they should. stuart: and they won't. >> they will not. stuart: andy, thanks very much for joining us. happy new year to you. >> thanks. stuart: how about this? no tickets, matched yesterday's megamillions drawing. jackpot climbing to $418 million. the forth largest in the game's history. the next drawing a week from today. good luck to all of you. i'm sure the, prize will get bigger with a week to go, sure. coming up if you're planning to head to the alabama-georgia national championship game be prepared to pay up. the least expensive seat is going for about what, $2,000 online that is.

lou holtz, the coach, notre dame, national championship, he joins us later this hour. a big meeting on capitol hill this afternoon, immigration and infrastructure on the table. kellyanne conway, counselor to the president, she will tell us what is on the president's mind. you are watching the second hour of "varney & company." ♪

stuart: all right. doug jones, senator-elect of alabama, arriving on capitol hill. he will be sworn into the senate by vice president mike pence just before noon this morning. there he is, mr. jones, senator jones shortly. check the big board, 50 point gain for dow jones industrials. carried the dow to an all-time record high. how about the price of oil?

$61 per barrel. i went away for 10 days over christmas. it was 57 back then. now it is 61. the bryce of gold? -- price of gold, $1370 an ounce. buffalo bills fans donating a bunch of cash run by the bengals quarterback. ashley: this is training but fun. his name is andy daulton. he threw the touchdown that beat the baltimore ravens that secured a playoff for the buffalo bills. the fans are so excited they're sending in donations to the cincinnati quarterback's charity foundation. interesting those donations from buffalo are coming in $17 increements. why? because it has been 17 seasons since they made the playoffs. they're sending in 17 bucks to the bengals quarterback which is a great story. everybody wins.

go buffalo. stuart: top hillary clinton aide huma abedin is in the president's cross-hairs. the is tweeting about her. here it is. "crooked hillary" clinton's top aide, huma abedin has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. she put par words into the hand of foreign agents. remember sailors pictures on saab marine? jail! deep state justice department must finally act? comey and others. harlan hill, political consultant and trump for president advise sy board. harlan, last year, it was all russia, russia. now it is deep state hillary, huma, comey, strzok. they have done a 180 on the russia, russia, russia thing, have they or am i missing something? >> absolutely. ultimately, the question here, isn't just about republican or

democrat it is about the sanctity of the american democracy. right now it is in question. in part because democrats tried to delegitimatize the president of the united states. they have tried to cast him aside as some aberration. they tried to cast him aside, he was the beneficiary of some russian russian heist of the american election without providing any facts surrounding that. there are operators within the united states federal government that have worked to undermine the president of the united states. they worked to undermine him during the presidential transition. they worked to undermine him as a candidate, to the benefit of hillary clinton. so our questions are, why were they doing this first of all? what did they see in candidate like hillary clinton? what is behind this? why isn't there any recourse? why is the justice department's to the president's point here, chasing this down to the logical conclusion. why are they not trying to find or root out to this corruption.

stuart: do you have an answer to your own question? we have a situation where a young man, a young father he goes to jail because he took a picture of himself on the nuclear submarine, that is all he did. he didn't use it or give it to anybody. where huma abedin, has the passwords, ultrasecret passwords, puts it out on a private account which was hacked by foreign agents. that can not stand! >> well, absolutely. huma abedin, probably hillary clinton's closest advisor and one of hillary clinton's best personal friend, we know for a fact that she transmitted secret classified passwords for her laptop and her federal government accounts while she was at the state department to her personal email account, her personal yahoo! account. why? to your point about, to your point about the sailor, it is just smacks of hypocrisy, we're going after people that put

their lives on the line to defend the united states and meanwhile, because of huma abedin's special treatment, as part of the hillary clinton family, defacto family, she is given a pass on this we know between all the emails destroyed between hillary clinton's private email server, between the laptop leaking out and being compromised by foreign agents, between huma abedin transmitting her federal passwords to her compromised yahoo! account, that the united states was exposed here in a very real way, and there is zero consequence for it. i could understand that under the obama administration. i can understand that. they're protecting one of their own. but now with, attorney general sessions at the helm of the department of justice why isn't there a thorough investigation here? now with republicans firmly in control on capitol hill, why isn't there an investigation? i don't have an answer to that

frankly. stuart: we're going to find one, at some point we'll get one. then maybe president trump will pardon hillary clinton. but we shall see. that is such a facetious thought on my part. >> no. lock her up. stuart: good to see you, young man. winter storm on the way to the northeast. some meteorologists call it, wait for it, a bomb cyclone. not sure what that means. but sure sound bad, doesn't it? maybe a little dramatic it? janice dean will explain it all moments from now. ♪

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stuart: we don't often cover the

weather on this program but when we do you know there is something serious. much of the country is in a deep freeze. in new york it feels like a meat locker. we're hearing snow is acoming. janice dean, our weather lady, what is a bomb cyclone? >> i didn't coin the phrase bomb cyclone but i will tell you this area of low pressure is going to undergo something called bombo genesis. that is meet roll call term. that means it will intensify. you hear about hurricanes rapidly intensifying, this will happen with a winter storm once the area of low pressure goes over warm waters of the gulf stream. bombo genesis will occur. it will drop pressure 24 millibars within 24 hours. with this storm it is so intense it will double that. it could drop 45 millibars, 50 millibars within 24 hours. that gives you and indication how strong this storm is. we'll see blizzard conditions.

if the storm wobbles a little more to the west, stuart, it will mean the difference between an inch of snow eight-inches of snow. here is what i will tell you, if you listen along the east coast, listen to the weather local forecast. they are working hard for you. prepare in advance. get generators on. make sure you have a plan if you're at work, or can't get home from work or kids are home from school. that is what is going to happen with the storm system. there will be big snowfall totals. somewhere along the coast it will be buried. certainly long island, parts of long island and happen terrace, some areas like south georgia, south carolina, will see more snowstorm totals they have ever seen in their history. listen to local forecasters. plan in advance. people should be prepared for the worse. we only get an inch of snow. stuart: janice, thank you very much for the update on the bomb

cycle. that was quite something. it was eruditoin in the extreme. >> i hear you have a four-by-four, if i can hitch a ride at any point, you're my guy. stuart: kellyanne conway next.

♪ stuart: i'm back. i'm back so we play the beatles. thank you very much, producers. look at this. we're almost at 24,900. we're almost there. the dow has never been at this level before. positive news on the manufacturing sector came out at 10:00 eastern time, half hour ago. we're up 74, 75 points, on the

cusp of 24, nine. how about the big tech names? they are leading the way. facebook, amazon, microsoft, google, alphabet, apple, all on the upside, very nice gains there. take a look at target. technology insider gene munster, he predicts amazon will buy target sometime this year. gene munster is on this program tomorrow. by the way the dow did just hit 24,900. got it. ibm. the stock is up it got an upgrade. the stock is the top boost for the dow, we're about 100 points away from dow 25,000. how about that? amazon, it shipped five billion items through its prime program last year, five billion last year. a lot of those items purchased in the holiday season.

come on in, christian mcgoon. you run a fund that invests only in own line retailers. i want from you, how big the online sector this christmas holiday season. give me some numbers, please. >> stuart, well, first number, first year online retail sales over $100 billion. that was a big increase, up 18% year-over-year. that compares to total holiday sales growing at a about 4%, online retail sales, about 400% better in terms of its growth than brick-and-mortar. the surge continues in online retail. consumers seem to like things like amazon prime and the low prices they can get online. stuart: i happen to think, maybe i'm off-line hire, i think this is extraordinarily cold weather and the snow that is coming to much of the eastern seaboard, i think that is another plus for amazon, isn't it? >> that's right, stuart. you heard the expression, i will

netflix and chill? people saying i'm going to stay inside and use netflix and watch shows? that is what happens with amazon. amazon season uptick as well as many online retailers during cold weather that is the reverse for traditional brick-and-mortar companies often blaming poor weather for declining sales. this is good for online sales. stuart: amazon up close to $1200 a share as we speak. in chicago the exchange has filed paperwork to list futures for bitcoin etfs. this gives some legitimacy to bitcoin. would you buy into, i know your fund doesn't, would you buy into the bitcoin etfs? >> i think it will be a convenient way to access bitcoin. right now it is kind of cumbersome by setting up an account at company like coin base. etfs are very efficient and easy to access.

we're actually filed to launch a fund probably in the next two weeks that will invest in the underlying technology called blockchain technology of which bitcoin and some of the other cryptocurrencies built on top of. we think the etf area should be more convenient for investors, reduce costs and if you own any cryptocurrencies it will be bullish for new investors able to access these types of technologies and commodities. stuart: christian mcgoon, jumps on board the blockchain wagon. very good. christian, thanks for joining us. see you real soon. >> shoe big meeting happens on capitol hill this afternoon. top four congressional leaders will be there, along with two key members of the trump administration. joining us kellyanne conway, counselor to president trump. kellyanne, we're hearing about the makes of a deal. president trump wants to build the wall, end chain migration, end the lottery system. the democrats want the

"dreamers" to be allowed to stay. is that the kind of deal that you're going to be talking about this afternoon? >> the president has talked about negotiating and cooperating but he has been very insistent and principled about his commitment to his immigration plan which totals 70 different points, stuart. any of your viewers can pull it up for themselves. that 70 points indodd daca. they include the wall. end to chain migration, end to visa lottery which we've even seen murders used, not everyone but we've seen recently as a result of their status here, so the president made that very clear. also merit-based immigration system. he wants more agents at the border to have the resources and tools they need to do their jobs. and so we, like the fact that the democrats have said they would come to the table, to negotiate but it just seems like anytime they talk about immigration they're talking about, they're talking about daca and daca alone.

this country elected donald trump in part because of his position on immigration, his ability to take issues like trade and immigration and change the way that we talk about them and we view them through the lens of what benefits americans and american interests and american workers. stuart: are you going into the meeting feeling strong that your position on immigration is going to win, that a deal could be struck? do you feel good about this? >> i feel confident anytime donald trump is at the negotiating table, because he is a deal-maker and he is a business leader who is not of and for washington, d.c. he is of and for the people. and that means that his positions are very clear, and will, at least in part prevail. why? because he has always said that we need an immigration system in this country that's fair to everyone but not just fair to the illegal immigrants as has been the question been asked for many, many years in this country, but fair to the american workers.

fair to those men and women in this country who are looking for jobs. fair to those who do want to do the jobs otherwise occupied. fair to those folks whose factories have been shuttered and jobs shipped overthat's. so this president, we do feel like we have a strong and winning hand. this president came off historic, historic moves at the end of december. including moving the american embassy to jerusalem and also passing the most historic middle class tax cut in generations if not ever. those are transformative, historic moves. that same man is the person in charge of the 2018 agenda. it is ambitious and it is doable. stuart: the pressure is on business at this moment i suspect because business got a huge tax break. they're benefiting from all the deregulation of the last year. and benefiting from the idea that there will not be any new regulation coming down the pike. but that puts business in the difficult position, they must

perform. they must pass along all of the money that will accrue to them. they will have to pass it through to america. they're almost on trial, aren't they? >> many companies are doing that, stuart. you saw at the moment, practically the moment the tax legislation was signed into law, companies responded immediately by committing future investments into their companies and committing immediate investments into their employees. many of these companies, i just saw southwest airline joining the fray recently, that 1000-dollar bonuses for their employees. owing that to the tax cut, tax reduction package. we know in addition to the regulations being rolled back that have been really unfair to property owners and taxpayers and business owners and job createstores. so i look at it slightly different through more positive lens than you perhaps characterized. you say are they on trial? it sound as little negative. i day postively speaking

american companies have every reason and very little excuse to not share in those savings into their workforce. and if they don't, workers can go somewhere else. that is what will happen in a booming economy that lifts all boats. stuart: okay. >> workers can say i'm not being treated fairly here. my wages didn't increase or benefits packages are not competitive with another employer. maybe they look around for a different position. stuart: last year, it was all russia, russia, russia, that dominated the headlines for most of the year. now it seems that it is more like comey, strzok, hillary, huma abedin, et cetera, et cetera. does the president believe that there is indeed a deep state conspiracy underway in the federal bureaucracy to undermine him? >> well you read the president's tweets to that effect and i will let them speak for themselves but i would remind us all that this president has said for months now, that he respects the rank-and-file in the fbi.

we know it is a bureau of 25,000 or so men and women, most who are doing their jobs incredibly well but there is great concern given the evidence we now have of people actively, individuals actively working against donald trump the candidate and president-elect candidate trying to stop him from taking office, saying some really terrible things about him. people are allowed to have political viewpoints certainly, they're allowed to express support for one candidate and not the other, but this took on a a whole new level. a very cheryl group of people in charge of different investigations. the president is asking for which is what america expects parity and fairness in these investigations. these investigations can not be politically-tainted and these investigations should be about anyone who is under the microscope here. there is a great concern about these emails being on a private account with classified information.

there is great concern that hillary clinton deleted 33,000 emails and bleachbitted a bunch of them. that is part of why she lost. they didn't trust her. that she was not transparent or accountable. wondering if more severe punishment comes their way if they had done something similar or the same. we're asking for fairness in the investigations. this white house continues to comply with all requests for information in the investigation. stuart: by the way congressman jim jordan on that subject on this program if our next hour. kellyanne, i'm sure you've seen this, for the benefit of our viewers the president getted about iran earlier. here is the tweet. such respect for people of iran as they try to take back their corrupt government. you will see great support from the united states at the appropriate time. can you interpret that? what with great support from the united states actually be? >> first big step is the one the president boldly took the moment the protesters took to the

street, basically asking for basic necessities to be met in their country. this president is standing with them. he said unequivocally he is with the people. that is in stark contrast to the previous president who practically looked the other way when similar protests broke out after an election in 2009. so this president is saying we won't forget you and we know that you are david versus goliath in terms of trying to take on authoritarian regime. but that i think is important for the international community to see that the president of the united states standing with the people who are peacefully protesting. we believe in the power of people. so that aside, what the president said about iran also remains. he has made very clear that he thinks the obama-clinton way of doing things was the wrong way. it was a terrible deal struck with iran. everybody, i think fox news broke the story over a year ago about the money for the hostages, and it really, you know, it is very, very disconcerting to a lot of

americans to see increasing nuclearization of countries like iran and north korea, sort of flout that thor stairianism. we remind everyone we need denuclearization. he is pressing hard and putting in diplomatic pressure. you see the international community responding. you have the uk, canada, germany, i believe all coming out in support as well. you have the u.n. resolutions as recently as december 20 second. you see the international community responding to threats of iran and north korea. stuart: if you could put in a good word to have president trump appear on the program we would be absolutely delighted. >> that would be my pleasure. stuart: kellyanne, thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: next, what have we got for you? i'll tell you, alabama versus georgia in the national championships. one heck of a game for football. i will talk to lou holtz,

national champion himself and all around good guy. we'll be back.an but how to set up a limited liability company... what's that mean? not so much. so he turned to his friends at legalzoom. yup! they hooked me up. we helped with his llc, contracts, and some other stuff that's part of running a business. so frank can focus on the beat. you hear that? this is frank's record shop. and this is where life meets legal.

♪ ashley: president trump calling out north korean dictator kim jong-un in a tweet last night saying his nuke button is bigger than north korea's. government consultant van hipp says mr. trump may be on to something with that tweet. roll tape. >> president trump may be on to something about his button working. today open source intelligence

through commercial satellite imagery tells us last night a launch vehicle north of pongyang pulled up with an icbm loaded, put in a launch position, they turned on their radio telemetry. that is how they track these things, stuart for two hours. they shut it off. it was aborted. one of two things happened, their button didn't work. the diagnostics showed something was wrong and they aborted it or it was a training mission for the launch personnel. most experts believe we're about seven to 10 days away from their next icbm launch. ...under an hour, and you can too. type in your business or idea. pick your favourite design. personalize it with beautiful images. and...you're done! and now business is booming. harriet, it's a double stitch not a cross stitch! build a better website - in under an hour. free to try. no credit card required.

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stuart: well, well, ticket prices for the college football championship game hitting record highs. listen to this. the least expensive seat for the alabama-georgi game is going about $2000. this is online of course. if you want a seat in a suite, it will cost you more than $100,000, that is, on stubhub. lou holtz is with us, former notre dame football coach. lou, welcome back. good to see you again, sir. >> thank you, stuart. delighted to be with you. stuart: before we get started talking football, may i tell you a short story about notre dame? >> absolutely. stuart: i was in south bend, indiana. this is many, many years ago. went outside of the hotel. there was a huge parking lot, there was a band, a really good band playing on the parking lot, practicing, i went up to the bandleader, i said hey, that is pretty good band for a high

school. oops. it was the notre dame band for notre dame university, the fighting irish. i got this british accent making a comment like that. i thought you would like to know that. who do you like for the game? ashley: funny. >> this will be a great game, stuart, alabama-georgia. six weeks ago we thought the game would be for the conference championship until alabama got upset by auburn. i think the two best teams are playing. when you look how devastating alabama played against clemson, you think they are going to win. i want to promise you, georgia has an excellent chance of winning this football game, no worse than 50/50. they match up with athleticism. georgia with 10 starters on defense. they have a freshman quarterback, with great poise, jake from. in addition to that nick saban is guru for coaching. his assistant for championships is young man named kirby smart

the coach in georgia the second year. the reason the ticket prices are so high, great game, plus the game is atlanta, which is 6 miles from athens, georgia. alabama people follow them wherever they go. stuart: do you like the new system, it's a knockout contest, so you end up with a true challenge european? i'm sure it was different in your day but do you like the new way doing it? >> absolutely. i felt that they had to play off of what we played, then you at least won or lost on the field and not because of somebody voting. i believe personally, stuart, we need to go to eight teams. i've been saying this for a long time. here's why. take the five conference champions. ohio state you win conference you're in. southern call, you win, you're in. take the five conference champions, you're in. maybe take a notre dame but you get a chance to take ucf. ucf went 13-0 and beat auburn very decisively in the ballgame.

having a conference champion not in the playoff is not right or fair. i believe the playoff is popular. when this contract is up i do believe they will go to eight because the fans will demand it. stuart: lou holtz, last one won. arsenal playing chelsea in the championship. who do you like? >> man haster has a great record. i like chelsea. they have a good team. i like their uniforms. stuart: you like the uniforms. all right. lou holtz. >> i like their uniforms. stuart: you sir, are all right. thanks for joining us, lou. wish you the best of luck. see you later. >> pleasure for having me. stuart: like it or not, more "varney" after this. have been talking about you for years. sorry about that. they're all about me saving for a house, or starting a college fund for my son. actually, i want to know what you're thinking. have a seat. yeah. knowing that the most important goals are yours.

with 15,000 financial advisors, it's a big deal. and it's how edward jones makes sense of investing.

stuart: ashley: bitterly cold temperatures gripping a lot of the nation including midwest. our intrepid jeff flock is in chicago where he looks like nanook of the north. he is finding out how people are coping. jeff? reporter: ashley, i don't know how to cope. i can't even see them out here. this is keeping me warm. maybe i can unzip it a little to talk more clearly. standing out here waiting for you want to be zipped up. this is the famed oak street beach here. we don't see any beachgoers.

occasionally someone comes out trudging through this maybe you see the hancock tower off there. the lake is about starting to freeze over. we're in the midst here in chicago of the longest, sustained 20 degrees or lower temperatures in 50 years. it is the length of this. i've seen it colder but i haven't seen it as cold for as long. and of course this is everywhere. snow, by the way, falling here too. good times in chicago. wish you were here. ashley: january in chicago. you have illustrated that very well, jeff flock. i love that new jacket by the way. did he get that for christmas? he needs it, that is for sure. extra money in your paycheck this week, young man. we'll have more "varney" after this.

. stuart: barack obama was all government all the time. for him, the answer to everything was government. he could not get enough of

it. he assembled a massive government bureaucracy and equipped it with all the rules and regulations required to keep us under the government's thumb. and he made sure that our bureaucrat masters were very well paid. how well paid? try this: 406,000 federal employees made over $100,000 a year in 2016. 30,000 made more than $190,000 a year. they made more than any state government. at 78 departments in independent agencies, the average pay was $100,000. one last one. the average federal employee gets ten federal holidays, 13 sick days, and 20 vacation days per year. all of these numbers come from the watch dog group called open the books. yes, please. granted, many of these highly-paid government workers have professional qualifications. got it. and they work in very

stressful situations. got that too. but it greats, doesn't it? how do you feel when you have to ask permission to expand your business from someone who makes more than you do and doesn't like business to begin with? how do you feel when you see highly-paid bureaucrats engaging in an apparent conspiracy to support hillary clinton and trash candidate trump? all irs employees beating up president obama's political opponents. yes, it greats. it annoys because it is essentially un-american. this country was not built by highly-paid government workers. yes, they played a part. but the days of ever-expanding government came to an end i think on november the 8th, 2016. it may have come to an end earlier if we had known how much the bureaucrat masters actually make. the third hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪

. stuart: i'll repeat that. 30,000 federal workers making more than any u.s. state governor. come on in, herb london. president of the london center for policy research. was i a little over the top there? >> i don't think so. i think that it turns out that the swamp is a very useful way of generating prosperity for members of the government bureaucracy. i think that it is truly outrageous that we have these people in government who are earning that much money. i understand there's a need for bureaucracy. but what we've seen is a kind of dramatic increase for the number of bureaucracies in washington, d.c. in part because this becomes a way of extending the roll of government. and for obama, it was a very useful tactic. stuart: now, i didn't mention this in the editorial. but the five riches counties in the united states of america are all i believe all suburbs of washington, d.c. and house these well-paid bureaucrats. >> well, it's understandable.

if you're a government employee, obviously, you can afford to live there. i mean, the average person certainly cannot do so. liz: per capita, the iron triangle and the dc neighborhoods make more than silicon valley? i mean, what does that say about the skewed reality of the united states? one in five federal workers make six figures. one in five federal workers make six figures. and there's 406,000 make six figures. so what are they doing there? and, by the way, we have to say -- and this is a fact. a lot of government workers are democrats. a lot of them work in a union. many of them work at home because working on union duties and president obama said you can work from home if you are a federal employee. stuart: liz, i think you brought up that very nicely. i wasn't aware of those numbers. but thank you, lizzie. stay there, please, i want to get to the numbers. let's look at the big board

now. up 48 points. the dow, s&p, nasdaq, all of them hit all-time record highs as of this morning. now, we're also joined by gary, he's with us. he's the president of capital management. all right. gary. here's what i think is the consensus view of the stock market going forward. yes, there will be a correction or a pull back in a relatively near future. then we'll embark on the second leg up on the big trump rally. that's the consensus for you. what are you saying? >> i'm close. i think we're going to get a real good pull back some time during the year. i don't have date and i don't know from what price. but all i can tell you we still have easy money, and you have an economy that's accelerating, which means profits are accelerating. that's pretty darn good for the markets. but mostly from me as i'm looking at the markets right now, they're broadening out. in the recent past, you've had transports and retail which are lagging, acting strong, and now all the commodity space are really kicking to

the upside here. that is pretty darn good news. and it tells you that the economy is definitely on the acceleration phase here, and i think there's more to go. stuart: herb, what are you saying? correction in the near future. >> well, i think the correction is likely. there's no question about that. but i have a somewhat more optimistic view about the market. i think it's about to engage in a takeoff phase. we'll go through this correction and then as you suggested, i think there will be a dramatic takeoff after that. stuart: whoa. >> i mean, look at corporate profits. look at where we stand. if you look at basic fundamentals, i think this country's in very good shape. stuart: okay. we'll take that herb london. you stay there. at the top of the last hour, top of 10:00, i was saying, look, american corporations are on trial. they've come under -- they've been given a great deal of extra money from the tax deal. i think they now have to turn around and put that money to work in the united states. and if they don't, then i think the democrats will be eager to retax and reregulate them. what do you say, gary?

>> december 22nd, i believe, was the day that president trump signed the tax reform bill. my rusty abacus says that over 600,000 people are getting $600 million in bonuses already, and it's only the beginning of january. i am 1,000% sure we are at the beginning of this, not the end of this. you are going to see a domino effect of bonuses coming from companies as well as bigger investments, and you're hearing about more philanthropy and the raising of wages. this is all positive stuff, and i believe the domino effect happened because when you see southwest airlines do it and american airlines do it, guess what? delta, united, and the rest will follow. and as more companies do it, the rest follow in those industries. so i think it's going to be a big year for bonuses. and you combine that with the tax cuts a lot of these people are getting. we're talking about a little

bit better wealth effect as we move forward. stuart: i think gary is agreeing with you, actually. >> i think so. and what is interesting is that if you look at the major metropolitan areas in the united states, you will find many that have unemployment rates under 3%. that means that wages, wage increases. which is usually a lagging indicator of going up. which is a dramatic increase, a dramatic change that is occurring in american life at the moment. stuart: a big shift from what we've been seeing. >> oh, absolutely. >> and just remember, it's about how people feel that is so important to the economy, people feel so much better, i speak to them all the time from my radio show. stuart: gary, prosperity is a feeling. it's not a series of numbers on unemployment and growth rates. it is a feeling. when you got that feeling, times are very different. i've got to move on to bitcoin. peter teal venture capital fund is infested big time in bitcoin. gary, does this give bitcoin a bit more credibility?

because i know you're a huge skeptic. >> yeah. be careful about that. the real word is infested, and i believe most of his investments were way, way, way lower than the price of this today. and everybody needs to recognize it's up 15, 16 fold somewhere in there in the last ten months. and if you want to buy something there and think there's no risk, i got some everglades land for you. and the other party equation we spoke about two weeks ago, stuart. a lot of those i'll use the term questionable companies, those stocks that skyrocketed, most of them are now down 50 to 70% with their highs with one of them stopped trading because the scc couldn't verify anything they said from the company. so be very, very careful. we may go higher in the bitcoin price. i am very suspect on a lot of these companies as we move forward. . stuart: do you join that? >> well, not entirely. i think there's risk and gary is absolutely right in suggesting so. but keep in mind if you live in venezuela today, are you

going to invest in venezuela and venezuela stocks? or would you consider bitcoin? i mean, for them, bitcoin is probably a better bet. if you're in brazil, where are you going to invest? look at the inflation rate at brazil. you might think bitcoin, it might be a reasonable investment. i'm not so sure about where we're going on this. and i think peter is onto something. stuart: all right. it's a good debate, and we'll probably continue it at another point. herb, gary, thank you very much for joining us. all good stuff. i want to check the price of gold. not much movement today. but in the last week or so, it has moved above $1,300 per ounce. gold, by the way, is up nine sessions in a row. it's on its longest winning streak since back in 2011. some people are saying, look, the weakness in the dollar, continued concerns about north korea, another foreign policy issue, that's what's driven gold up too as i say 1,318 per ounce right now. california is now a sanctuary

state. the director of ice has a message for california officials. hold on tight. we're not going anywhere. one of the republican candidates for governor in california is with us shortly. and, of course, it's back to work in washington on the agenda. infrastructure, immigration, the president looking for a bipartisan deal on both issues. and there's a big meeting on capitol hill hours away. those leaders on your screen will be there. the third hour of "varney & company" just beginning i mean wish i had time to take care of my portfolio, but.. well, what are you doing tomorrow -10am? staff meeting. noon? eating. 3:45? uh, compliance training. 6:30? sam's baseball practice. 8:30? tai chi. yeah, so sounds relaxing.

alright, 9:53? i usually make their lunches then, and i have a little vegan so wow, you are busy. wouldn't it be great if you had investments that worked as hard as you do? yeah. introducing essential portfolios. the automated investing solution that lets you focus on your life.

. stuart: let's call it what it is. a deep freeze, and it's spreading all across the country. wind chile below zero in many, many cities. some forecasters are calling

for a -- listen to it -- bomb cyclone. that is rapidly-dropping pressure causing a great deal of snow to fall very, very quickly. blizzard warnings in effect for part of new england. that weather is really bad. there's even snow and ice forecast for parts of if florida. the governor there has declared a state of emergency for dozens of counties. and then there's this: police in one louisiana town are having fun with the cold. the police department put out a wanted poster from the disney movie frozen. the department's facebook coast blames for cold air saying they're offering a million dollars cash reward for information on elsa's whereabouts. now this. california is now a sanctuary state and the director of ice has a message for california state officials. roll tape. >> if you think ice is going away, we're not. there's no sanctuary for federal law enforcement. as a matter of fact, we're in

a process. now i'm going to significantly increase our enforcement presence in california. we're already doing it. we're going to detail additional assets to california. california better hold on tight. stuart: i can see a clash coming. he says it right there. this gentleman is john cox, republican candidate for the governor of california. sir, are you going to campaign on the idea of saying california is no longer a sanctuary state. is that your campaign message? >> absolutely. and happy new year, stuart. great to be with you again. 2018 is going to be a great year because california republicans are going to take back the state from ideas like this one, which is all about getting votes and getting attention and distracting people from the cost of living and all the problems in california from eight years democratic rule. the idea -- stuart: can you win the hispanic vote in california, which is very sizable. can you win that vote if you say forget this idea of sanctuary cities or sanctuary

state. it's going away. can you win the hispanic vote? >> absolutely, stuart, because i talk to people all over the state. and many of the latino dissent. and they don't want people streaming across the border to lower wages and take benefits and not only that, they don't want ms13 and the gangs and the felons and the drugs and the guns. they want protection. they want safety just like everybody else. and they want to earn a living like everybody else. but they're not able to do it when we have illegal alien population coming across looking for jobs and lowering wages. let's get a solution to this problem and that's what i intend to do as the governor of this state. stuart: you're a republican. and it is a republican tax plan that is really going to wreak havoc in california with anybody who earned a decent amount of money because they're going to get taxed even more. they're not going to get a tax cut. actually, they're getting a tax increase and there are 14

gop members, house members in california who are at risk. how do you deal with that issue? >> i agree with kevin mccarthy. i mean, he said that sacramento ought to start taking a look at what they're spending and what they're taxing. i think this tax bill may well end up being a wake-up call, stuart, to the people of this state who are driven into bankruptcy along with the rest of the state by all of these taxes and fees and regulations. i mean, it's not just the taxes, stuart, it's the regulations, it's driving the cost of living to stratospheric levels making the average working californian can barely make it. i hope the people of california wake up. i think they will. gavin newsom said it himself, stuart. he said the democrats have been in power for eight years. they're going to have to own the mismanagement that's been rot on this state. we're going to change that in 2018. we're going to elect a republican governor.

we're going to reelect those congressman because the democrats in the state have mismanaged this state, driven our costs way beyond the reach of all working californians. stuart: all right. john, candidate for the republicans in california. we wish you the best of luck. >> thank you. stuart: i think you'll it need. john cox, thank you for joining us. no, we do appreciate it. appreciate you being here. >> thank you, stuart,. stuart: people in oregon pumping their own gas for the first time. a new law went into effect that allows drivers in some counties to pump their own gas. right now new jersey is the only state that requires every station be staffed by attendant ants that pump their gas for you. i love in new jersey. love it. ashley: i'm sure you do. stuart: and the gas is still cheap. ashley: fill her up. liz: and get my mcdonald's 15-cent coffee. stuart: give me a break. ashley: we're enjoying it. stuart: look at tesla. orders are piling up for the new tesla semi truck which i think they're having

production problems with that and the model 3 as well. how about facebook? barons says facebook could be the first of the so-called fang to pay dividend. apple pays dividend. microsoft pays dividend. ashley: yes. stuart: what are they talking about? i don't get that. this is what's considered affordable housing in san francisco. a studio department available through the city's housing problem. you won't believe how much it costs, but we will tell you if you just stick around until after the break. it's kind of a tease. ashley: a big tease. stuart: we'll get there. i promise.

. stuart: weight watchers has a new ambassador. somewhat unlikely person. dj. roll tape. >> so, basically, i can eat whatever i want. this is what i like about this system. as long as i don't go over the 40 points to get the cookies ready too because i'm craving some cookies too. but i'm going to eat lunch right now. ashley: got to have the cookies. stuart: dj will document his experience and his progress on the new weight watchers freestyle program. by the way, oprah winfrey owns

a 10% stake in the company. shares rose after it cut the deal with khalid. down over 3% this morning. the megamillions jackpot is now 418 million bucks. that's because nobody matched all six numbers in the last night's drawing. the next megamillions drawing is friday night. meanwhile, tonight, there will be a new powerball drawing. the powerball jackpot right now is $460 million. ashley: wow. stuart: the brits will mark the 200th anniversary of frankenstein by putting it on a coin. the royal minute will put out a coin valued at two pounds sterling has the word frankstein in the center. the book's full title is modern prometheus. the limited edition coins expected to become a collectors item. we asked you before the break how much for this so-called affordable housing in san francisco?

it's a studio apartment. 385 square feet. it's -- that's it. it's tiny. it's available for sale through the city's housing program for. ashley: how much? . stuart: $287,000. wait for it. the owner has to pay nearly 650 bucks a month in fees. they have to be a first-time buyer. they can't make more than 80 bucks a year, and they have to complete financial courses. ashley: oh,. stuart: congress jim jordan went on a tweet storm this morning. he has 18 questions about fbi's russia probe. he's going to join us shortly with some of those questions. the market right now shows a gain of over 50 points. we've got above a 24.9 earlier. right now we're at 24.881, and we will be back. life happens.

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. stuart: well, we're holding onto a gain. it's not huge, but it's a gain. 24,881 is where the dow is. and, by the way, the dow, s&p, the nasdaq, all of them hit all-time record highs earlier this morning. and look who's here.

dan shafer. permanent bear. huge bear. dan think so that the world is coming to an end very soon, do you not? >> the world is coming to an end. stuart: the market. >> yes, i think this year 2018, everything is due. stuart: okay. now, the consensus i think the consensus is that, yes, a pull back is coming. relatively near term. but when that's done, when it has gob down whatever percent it is, then we get back and start climbing again. now, you disagree with the second point, don't you? >> yes. i disagree with the second point. my analysis goes back and studies many things. one of them is in any year that ends with an 8. so i go back 100 years, 50 years. and usually 8s are dangerous. we had long-term capital in 1998, that's one of my cycles that the market will come down. and i'm looking at the february and then maybe some type of peak or a lower high somewhere in june. and that's based off also the two-year -- i mean excuse me the presidential second year

in office cycle. usually after june something happens. the hon here moon is over. then we have a new federal reserve chairman coming in. and then the markets always test them. they've tested yellen, bernanke, greenspan, so what's going to be the test? so i put all of these together, and i tried to figure out where the path would be of least resistance. right now, you're looking at that 25,000, it's great. it could go to 26. but when it starts to come down, i don't think it's going to be a dip trade. i think it's going to be lowe l. stuart: that's the point. you think a dip is going. don't buy that dip because it's going to keep falling. >> yeah. 2018 dip buy i think is the most dangerous buy. stuart: and you have problems coming up in february and coming up in june. >> right. june is a major turning point for a lot of things. i think interest rates are going to spike lower. they're going to drop dramatically after june. some type of turmoil.

i'm just looking at historical factors of cycles. there's some type of turmoil that happens in june and years of 8. and that's what i'm looking at here. i'm also looking at the bond market the way it's trading. we've talked about that before. and i'm also looking at the movement and the velocity of the way this market has currently moved. and in history, we have seen these things die out. and when they die out, they immediately die out, and they just keep going. so we could see a 50% retrace before it's all done. again,. stuart: look, the rub against you guys is that you are right eventually. >> absolutely. but, you know, other than things. i don't want you to think i'm only equities. i do other things. there are other cycles that are going to be dominant here. stuart: yeah, but our viewers are equity people. our viewers are stock market. >> yeah. but you can get involved with it like food group. buy companies that are involved with food. food is going to be a shortage and that's where i would put money to play right now. i also think natural gas is going to replace crude oil and become the dominant energy

next to solar. and that, to me, is a big area if buses run on it and the future of natural gas is huge. stuart: okay. i want to summarize it like this. you see a dip coming, don't buy it. >> that's correct. stuart: because there ain't no rebound on the other side. >> the dip into late february maybe a little rebound into june. but the dip that comes after june, i would not be buying that one. stuart: dan shafer, we hear you again, and we appreciate you being here. >> thank you, stuart,. stuart: happy new year. >> good to see you. stuart: happy new year. thank you, dan. >> thank you. stuart: now, politics, congressional leaders top of the line people. and members of the trump administration, they're meeting on capitol hill this afternoon. katrina pearson is with us. she's with america first policies. she's a former trump campaign national spokesperson. katrina, it seems to me that there's a deal that kind of shaping up. president trump says, look, build the wall, end chain migration, end the crazy immigration lottery system. the democrats say let the dreamers stay. now, that sounds to me lake a

deal which is possible. does it sound possible to you? >> well, stuart, i would say it sounds possible. however, we're dealing with people like nancy pelosi and chuck schumer which is usually my way or the highway. there's really no such thing as compromise here. but i do think this meeting is going to be about strategy moving forward, what is the best way we can move forward and help the american people? . stuart: yeah, hold on a second, katrina. if the democrats walk away and say "no, we're not doing this. you're not going to build a wall. you're not ending chain migration, you're not doing any of that" then they run the risk of shutting down the government, ending all political possibilities this year, and they will get the blame for it if they walk away on this issue, don't they? >> oh, is absolutely. this is a huge risk. look, we're talking about eight years of obama and democrat control early on in his administration. they've been wrong on obamacare. they've been wrong on the markets. they've been wrong on jobs and the economy. they've been wrong on

terrorism. and what we've seen in the last year of the trump presidency is that he has been able to turn around so many things on his first year where people are going to wake up and from about a month from now and have more money in their paychecks. their businesses are investing in employment services. we're seeing huge turnarounds in the economy as we speak. the democrats are probably not going to fall on the sword of doing what's best for people who entered this country illegally over those that are -- have rights in this country. but we're talking about blue states as well. their states voted for president trump for these policies. i really don't think that this antitrump is going to be consistent moving forward. stuart: why is the president's approval rating not higher than where it is? i check real clear politics every day, and they have this average of his approval rating and currently it stands at 39%, which is very low. why is it so low? if as you say things are moving in the president's

direction, certainly the economy. >> well, i think it's not so much approval ratings, it's more of a personal rating in my opinion. we saw those approval ratings be very low during the primary, during the general election. and the president won handedly. so i think it's really more people giving their opinion of personality not necessarily approval. but, again, some of these policies are going to be taking effect here in the near future, and i do think we're going to see that change. stuart: last one. let me jump in real fast here. the president referred to north korea. he says my nuclear button is bigger than your nuclear button and mine works. now, we're both laughing about this. do you think most of the country is laughing? >> i think it's going to go half and half. i think you're going to see some people who don't like the president tweeting at all. they're not going to like it. and then you're going to see those of us who are laughing at it because this is the president's way of being humorous and being serious at the same time in his role as president. i said from the very beginning of the campaign what you see is what you get. candidate trump is president

trump and people love him for that. stuart: and things ain't going to change. katrina, thanks for joining us, katrina. happy new year to you. >> happy new year. stuart: all right. now this. deadly protests continue in iran and president trump is offering his support for the protesters. joining us now is lieutenant colonel oliver north, host of war stories. where -- what -- in what way can the president support the protesters in a way other than he's doing already like verbally? >> well, stuart, first of all, let's make sure everybody understands what's really happening in iran right now. it's the use of iran are onto the massive corruption graft and greed that is now taking down their economy. the protesters are primarily young people, which is about 40% of the population. if you look at the lack of opportunity, their lack of jobs, what they're actually calling for isn't something like the green revolt back in 2009 when obama did nothing,

this president is backing or supporting or encouraging -- all of the above -- the protesters. and it's not the kind of event like we saw in 2009. it's actually a reformation movement. think besides. if the iranian leadership had used the billions of dollars that we sent in cash. shrink wrap pallets and all the other money that has come in from lifting those sanctions by the europeans, you're talking dozens and dozens of billions of dollars that have been sent somewhere else. where have they gone? they've gone to help the north korean nuclear icbm program, enormous investment on the part of the iranians. number two, they're backing hezbollah, they're building out the assad regime in syria, they're supporting the kinds of actions the yemen and the folks in saudi arabia. that money should have been used to build infrastructure in a country that's crumbling. not just their oil infrastructure. it's all of it. the hotel i stayed in when i was there 30 years ago is

still falling down around their heads. stuart: it seems like president trump is attacking on the money front, threatening to with hold -- what is it? $250million from the pakistanis. he's putting the palestinians on notice. >> yep. stuart: no more money if you don't stop messing around with terrorism. i think he's also threatening the iranians with money -- on the money front as well. i think that will be successful. >> no. no. i think he should. look, you and i don't invest in things and not expect a return. we've been investing in pakistan. we've been investing with the palestinians now for decades. we're is now sending money, cash money that we've already seen the airplane shots of that to iran. the bottom line is we ought to get something for our foreign aid. there ought to be some pay back. i thought that when the un ambassador or un ambassador and the president of the united states are saying, hey, you guys are sticking it to us, and we're paying for you guys to do this kind of stuff, it has got to stop. look, this president has the power to do that kind of thing, and he ought to.

furthermore, they ought to be encouraging voice to the americans farsi broadcast to send a message that freedom-loving people all around the world admire your stand for liberty and opportunity. and we ought to be encouraging every democracy around the world to send the same message. and if we had a cia worthy of the name, we ought to do some massive political propaganda work, but that ain't going to happen. stuart: you got that there at the end there. well done. by the way, watch war stories with this gentleman oliver north saturday night 8:00 p.m. eastern on the fox business network. oliver north, thank you for joining us, sir. always appreciate it. >> happy new year. stuart: and to you too, sir. thank you. coming up next congressman jim jordan all over twitter this morning. he has 18 questions regarding the russia probe. stay right there. jim jordan is next

>> i'm nicole petallides with your fox business brief. spotify front and center. wall street eyes this one for sure. the couple of pieces of news and first is that the ipo has been filed. but i wanted to get to the $1.6 billion lawsuit. and this is from music publishing. they're saying songs such as free falling and tom petty light my fire that there's some infringement there.

a suit of $1.6 billion. but now saying that the music streaming giant spotify did confidentially file for ipo. that happens at the end of december. the evaluation, $19 billion. also that it was a direct listing. fewer fees bringing it right to wall street and that they want to list in the first quarter. certainly something to watch with spotify. and now they'll likely have to add confidential documents this latest lawsuit

. stuart: now, how about this from general electric? they're expected to unveil new voice activated smart lightbulbs -- lights, i should say, in next week's tech show in las vegas. you walk in a room and say turn on the lights and the lights come on just like that. the stock is up today 1.6%. 18.30 is the price on ge stock. scientists are warning we could see twice as many earthquakes this year compared to last year. why? well, the earth is turning a little bit slower than usual causing the earth to shrink ever so slightly. a smaller equator makes tectonic plates squeeze together. and now you know. and now this congressman jim

jordan sent out 18 tweets this morning. in them questions he has about the fbi and russia. congressman jim jordan with us now. we can't go through all 18 questions. what's the key point you're going for here? >> there's all kinds of unanswered questions that the american people deserve to know. the answers to -- did the fbi pay christopher steel, the author of the dossier at the time fusion gps were paying him? and was that dossier the basis for securing the warrant at the fisa counter to spy on americans associated with the trump campaign? those are the fundamentals. but there's a host of other questions that we -- i would like to know the answers to. for example, why did we only get 375 text messages between lisa paige and peter struck? where's the other 96%? and why didn't they decide to release any of them in the first place? normally they say on going investigation, they're not

going to show us anything. but they decided to show us 375. how were those selected and what were they trying to say with those 375 and where's the other text messages that were not there? a host of things that we have to get answers to. give us the dossier and the information that we've been asking for. stuart: are you bringing anybody in front of your committee to ask those questions too? or issuing subpoenas saying i want those documents. >> yeah. well, deafen nunez is definitely calling for documents and threatening contempt if the fbi and the justice department don't turn him over. that's the right approach i believe. we have also had andrew mccabe, deputy director of the fbi, we had him a few weeks ago in for a deposition. i think we need to talk to peter struck. i think we need to talk to bruce ore, i think we need to talk to his wife. there's a whole host of folks that we're going to systematically work through to get the answers to these fundamental questions. stuart: last year, it was all about russia, russia, russia.

the attempt to show that president trump, candidate trump colluded with the russians to influence the election. >> yes. stuart: i sense a complete switch. i sense this year -- actually starting a couple of months ago, the onus is now on hillary clinton, her aids on comey, on mccabe, on struck. it's all about her and the intervention within the justice department and the fbi to skew the election. i mean, the onus is completely changed, it seems to me. >> it certainly has based on things we have learned the last couple of months. namely the dnc and the clinton campaign paid fusion -- paid the law firm who paid fusion who paid russians to do what? influence the election. to date, no coordination has been shown at all between the trump campaign and russia in any way to influence the election. but we do know they've paid to influence the election and now we've learned about peter struck. the super agent head of

counterintelligence at the fbi. what he was involved with changing the exoneration letter from gross negligence to extreme carelessness and a host of other things. then we learn about the text messages between him and a colleague lisa paige. so everything points to wow look at what the top people at the fbi were doing, and you look at that one text message where peter struck talks about an insurance policy to make sure donald trump is not the president of the united states. that's scary stuff. and, again, those are the kinds of things we have to get answers to. that's why we talked about the 18 questions we need to get answers to in 2018. stuart: i'm going to wish you a happy new year, jim, is that okay? >> that's great. happy new year to you too, stuart,. stuart: going to be a good one. it really is. jim jordan, good man. see you again. >> take care. stuart: where are we on the stock market this morning? all-time highs for those two dow components. that will be visa and united technologies. second day in a row all-time highs for those two and the market is up what? 44, 45 points. back in a moment

. stuart: earlier this hour we talked to republican candidate governorship for california. his name is john cox. we talked to him about the challenge of republicans in the formally gold state. listen to what he had to say. roll tape. >> i think this tax bill may end up well be a wake-up call, stuart, to the people of this state who are being driven into bankruptcy along with the rest of the state by all of these taxes and fees and regulations. stuart: a wake-up call may be. but it's going to hurt that state and the republicans therein. larry elder is there with us. he's got a big smile on his face. salem radio nationally syndicated talk show host. very long title there. now, i do think that this is going to be -- this tax deal is a disaster for california, and i think republicans will pay a price for it within that state. what say you? >> i'm not sure. it may be a blessing in disguise because a lot of wealthy people may, in fact, leaving california because of a loss of the deductions of

state and local taxes. you even have left wing politicians very upset about that because they realize that in california i think i mentioned this the last time i was year. a state has 30 million residents. 166,000 households account for 50% of the collective state income taxes. that's a tiny, tiny fraction of the population responsible for almost half of the state income taxes. if those people leave, if those people decide they want to go to lower tax states, even left wing people in california might have to reconsider their tax, spend, and regulate policies, so this may ultimately end up being a blessing in disguise. stuart: maybe. but there are 13, 14 gop house members from california. i'm not so sure they'll keep their seats. what do you say? >> well, they may not be able to keep their seats. again, we need to have a rethinking of how this country is run, how this state is paid. we had $1 trillion unfunded pension liability.

we talked about that. we had all of these people over 15,000 people making $100,000 a year pensioners, which is adjusted for cost of living here in california. and that number is growing. we've got all of these unfunded liabilities. tax, spend regulated. it's now a sanctuary state. i think that sooner or later people are going to have to rethink everything and even left-wing people are going to i think begin to take a look at the taxing and the spending and the regulating and may very well be receptive to a republican candidate. stuart: but i just don't see how the republicans can -- in california -- can overcome the entrenched interests. you want to get rid of a sanctuary state status for california? hispanics will vote against it. get rid of sanctuary state status for san francisco, hispanics vote against it. they'll be joined by the greenies, by the union, by the women. you cannot beat that consensus. republicans cannot win in california. that's my judgment.

>> you have to beat them with the facts. and the facts are we're spending about $25 billion every single year in this state on illegal aliens and their children. mostly medical and educational costs. sooner or later, those numbers are going to have to make even the left wing person rethink his or her assumptions. i think it's going to happen. the car tax is going to go up. our gas tax is going to go up. sales taxes are going to go up. property taxes are going to go up. and at some point, even left wing people are going to have to rethink their assumptions. stuart: okay. we shall see. you're not supposed to end an interview with only time will tell but that's what i'm going to say. only time will tell. in my lifetime, forget it. larry elder, you're all right. happy new year. we'll see you again soon. >> happy new year to you too. stuart: more varney after this

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stuart: we cover it all on this program including the weather. would you look at this? 44 degrees in tampa. we're confidentially looking forward to the bomb cyclone. ashley: bring it on. stuart: a blizzard and a half. here is comes. meanwhile, neil, it is yours. neil: you're a genius, did you know or hear the expression bomb cyclone before this storm any had not. showing my ignorance. stuart: it is invention of meet meet -- meteorologists makings a good headline and makes you watch, do you think? neil: no. i just got a handle on nor'easter. stuart, good to see you. the dow makes its assaults on 25,000 or tries to. despite the uncertainties we'll get into that bus -- because we have good underlying economic ws