>> oh, yeah and valuations are possibly, it's not the dot com. >> let's stay positive. >> my prediction is that happy new year to all of you, and fox business is going to have a great 2020 so much coming up on this network thanks to all of our viewers i know maria bartiromo wishes she would be here to say to you happy new year, i'm channeling her and over to ashley webster in for stuart today. ashley: hey, cheryl happy new year to you and good morning, everybody. thanks for joining us last day of the trading year, and the decade for that matter. what a decade it has been for stocks. we followed it along the way we'll be taking a look at the bigger stock gainers over the past 10 years which let's face it has been a blowout for the markets. the economy also humming along, and trump's top trade advisor, peter navarro says 2020 will be one of the greatest years in u.s. history economically. that's very bullish, he is predicting close to 3% growth and 32000 on the dow. we'll talk about that, 2020 also of course an election year, with

34 days out now until the iowa caucuses who will emerge from a crowded group of candidates? a lot of people asking that. we're also of course following the developing news out of baghdad. hundreds of protesters storming the u.s. embassy there and they are protesting recent air strike against an iran-backed malitia we're following that story. we're also expecting more protests out of hang kong, they are now just two hours away from ringing in the new year, and mass demonstrations are planned as well. we'll take you there. i'm ashley webster in today for stuart, varney & company about to begin. ashley: and on this last day of 2019 why not start with breaking economic news for you right now, we're getting the latest numbers on home prices. >> especially when it's positive right to end this decade this year, so we're up

month-over-month 1% for the year for the last year we're up over 2% and we've been talking all year long about slow down taking places in housing especially with existing home sales which represent about 90% of the market, and yesterday, also positive news with pending home sales up 3 out of the past 4 months and with interest rates being cut a few times this year, mortgage rates coming down, and it makes it more affordable and that means housing which pairs one-fifth of the u.s. economy that's 20%. ashley: good stuff susan thank you very much. now to baghdad where hundreds of protesters are trying to storm the u.s. embassy, susan what do we know at this point what's the latest? >> susan: the latest that we have here is president trump is blaming iran for supporters of the iran-backed malitia trying to storm the u.s. embassy and the iraqi capitol on tuesday, take a look at these pictures showing the blast walls through any of the compound were on fire , one man, in fact, had a hammer to the window of a booth used by embassy guards and now, the forces are returning to

baghdad back in 2014 and that's the help by islamic states and although on sunday they launched the rocket attacks on the iraq- syria border targeting the hezbollah group, which has been blamed for rocket attacks but it is also killing 27 civilians. ashley: susan, thank you, while fox news security analyst on the phone with us now, waleed, i guess, according to the president, it's safe to assume that iran is behind this and i guess the question is how should the u.s. respond? >> yes, of course. the president made it very clear , both u.s. have been on the phone with a number of iraqi politicians including members of the parliament who of course oppose the iran malitia and are all confirm confirming this has been organized by iran. now look at the demonstrate ors we call them the protesters at the u.s. embassy but they are the members of the malitia and many among them if we look very carefully at the pictures and

the videos are wearing the uniforms so this is in response by the iran malitia to the attack that we have conducted against a terror organization, which was responsible for the attack against american targets, so this is really part of the u.s. /iran conflict now inside iraq: ashley: but as we watch these pictures, walid, at one point the u.s. was seen as an occupying force in iraq, now it's seen as being invited there as part of the effort to wipe out isis. should the iraqi government do more now to protect the u.s. embassy? >> look, the iraq government is now facing an uprising. we forgot indiana 24 hours there were tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of iraqis demonstrating and they are still in baghdad and that government is crippled by the demonstration s. on the other hand, iran controls most of the ministries of that government, so i would not see government doing more than what it is trying to do between the

pressure coming from iran, the pressure coming from the public and of course, their commitment to protect our institutions including of course the embassy. i would not be concerned in terms of a repetition of what happened in iran in 1979. we have a force on the ground, and the iran knows very well, any attempt to repeat what they've done in 1979 will be met by much much greater force than ever has seen. ashley: we'll have to leave it there but walid, thanks for jumping on the phone to bring us your thoughts on this developing situation, thank you so much. >> thank you. ashley: all right, of course the last trading day of the decade and what a decade it has been for the stock market, triple digit percentage gains across-the-board. joining us now, market watcher d. r. barton, whose been with us much of the way. does a running of the bulls carry on in 2020? >> i believe so, ash and i believe there's a bunch of

things pointing to some very big positives. one of them is so many stocks are participating in this move up. a lot of times in the past few years we've had just a few big names pulling everything up and smaller names not doing too much and that's going to propel us to a pretty big 2020. ashley: i wanted to get into it on tesla. you had comments i believe last week. let's listen to the sound bite and i'll talk to you about it. in the next week i'm going to be on both sides of the trade the last couple years and had a couple that worked out really well, one or two that didn't but i think right now, this is just technically, it cannot -- >> my man, you're playing with fire. you're playing with fire, my man ashley: charles payne says you're playing with fire, now if i understand it right you are with tesla $435 is that right? >> that is right, right when we

were getting on the show on friday. ashley: well congrats it down. very good. >> yeah, so i think that's a short-term play, ash. i think actually tesla is doing a lot of things that are good for the long term and this is going to be an up and down stock , but just when you get the parabolic move up that we had last week it was just something that i had to jump on. ashley: well you did indeed, well done, d. r., thank you so much for joining us you're bull ish for 2020 we like that as well. now to hong kong, where more protests are being planned for new years eve and new years day joining us former china politician anchor, phil yin. let me ask you this any indication that the protests will subside at all in the new year? what's your thought? >> good morning to you and happy new year to susan and you there, ashley. ashley: thank you. >> look one of the issues in hong kong is its been well over six months of this protest going on and as you mentioned earlier,

tomorrow, i guess our time, or in a few hours today-time in hong kong, the first they are planning a fairly substantial march and the government has already said they are going to deploy some 6,000 police officer s to ensure that there are no violence that takes place there. one of the critical issues from the protesters is they had a number of demands they've asked the government to stand up to and they've met one of the demands but there is still a number of demands that are outstanding and i think there's real confusion out there as to how governments are going to possibly meet some of the demands of the protesters going into the year 2020. ashley: well that's a good point i mean, are they gaining ground in your opinion, because the key issues as you say, still remain unresolved so the impasse goes on. >> well, the clock is not their friend, right? for those watching the situation , they know that china for the most part has hong kong and in another couple decades it's 100% of a part of china so

this sort of one country, two systems there's question marks on how that works going forward but the clock is starting to run out and a lot of the protesters and let's just call it people in general, some acknowledge the fact that it's sort of a foregone conclusion and some are protesting that still want to fight this clock, if you will. ashley: so you think that we could see some more violence that we've seen over the past year, you think that could spill into 2020? >> yeah, i think the violence is definitely here to stay. what you've seen the last couple of months with the protesters and the police officers battling it out in the streets of hong kong this is a fairly substantially dense area. think about manhattan and times square where you have hundreds and hundreds of riot police battling out with protesters. those are the scenes that are likely to take place into the year 2020 unless, unless the government could come out and pl acate what the protesters are asking for but you know they are asking for the possibility to truly vote in their leader, and that's just not a possibility right now.

ashley: that's not going to happen for sure, phil yin, thank you so much for joining us appreciate it and happy new year to you. all right quick look at the dow component apple shares rising high in record territory, shares up more than, get this, 800% this decade. not bad at all. as you can see the dow futures drifting a little lower, on some pretty thin trade in the pre- market, so it may open down just slightly in about 20 minutes from now. all right, remember this. it's video of art laffer being shouted down by young protesters at binghampton university. it's one example of college students trying to shut down free speech. we'll bring you the highlights or the lowlights of 2019. art laffer still smiling. 2020 hopeful michael bloomberg getting a lot of backlash on social media, and wait until you hear what he wants to do in the east room of the white house if he becomes president, coming up

we'll have a bloomberg polster what he thinks about it and we're also less than 24 hours away from the new year and 34 days until the iowa caucus and coming up we'll ask james free man what he thinks about the democratic field and whether their ideas can go up against president trump. we're just getting started keep it here on varney. it'll ruin your house. so get allstate and be better protected from mayhem, like meow.

ashley: this just in president trump tweeting on russia and here it is. he says president putin of russia called to thank me and the u.s. for informing them of a planned terrorist attack in the very beautiful city of st. petersburg and they were able to quickly apprehend the suspects with many lives being saved, great and important coordination. that's when the president on russia. >> 2020 we know is an election year, and we talk about it for years now and it's only now, 34 days until the iowa caucuses joining us is the wall street journal james freeman. all right, james it's a question many people are asking.

how does this play out in iowa. we don't seem to have any clear leader on the democratic candidates so what are you looking for? >> well we do have a leader in the opinion polls there. pete buttigieg whose the mayor of south bend, indiana, not poll ing that well nationally, but leading in the polls in iowa and also number two in new hampshire, i am very skeptical that he ends up winning those states and i think it's because eventually, people do start to focus on the disaster that is south bend, indiana. he steps down tomorrow after eight years as mayor, and he leaves behind a city with more shootings, more murders, more aggravated assaults. it's a tragic story and i don't think that it's a resume that can take him the distance. ashley: we've been talking a lot about how this all plays out and could it just kind of muddle along on the democrat side all the way to the july convention and the chance of a convention where someone, we haven't even talked about up to now could come out of the woodwork. what are your thoughts?

>> yeah, i think it is a possibility. after the hillary clinton/bernie sanders drama, the democrats got rid of super-delegates so they can't, the party elders can't go into the smoke-filled room and anoint someone now as easily as they could have before. you have joe biden leading in national polls but fairly stable his support isn't really rising or falling too much, so i think, and that's at about a quarter to 30% of that democratic electorate so that would suggest there is room for someone else to emerge. ashley: well elizabeth warren is interesting. we talked about how her fundraising efforts are starting to stall out. is that a bad sign for her or is she losing ground to bernie? >> she's certainly lost ground lately. i think she is offering a program that a lot of americans don't want, in terms of much bigger government, much less decision-making over their personal healthcare, much higher taxes. when she finally acknowledged the trillions of dollars it would take to partially

acknowledge say the trillions that it would take to fund her plans, her popularity has taken a dive. ashley: it was snl describing make-believe money. it's not real! but it is. >> but they are smart enough to realize they have to pay that. ashley: we haven't talked about mike bloomberg. we always talk about all these candidates and oh, yes, mike bloomberg spending heavily in some parts of the country, can he get any traction, james? >> well the resources make him a contender, and i think beyond the money, this is someone with real achievements. obviously built a great company and built a very valuable company, had a good run as mayor of new york, he compares pretty favorably with pete buttigieg, and here is a guy whose run a much bigger city, many times bigger, and had success versus the mixed record in south bend for pete buttigieg, so i think to the extent people start focusing on the south bend mayor

as the possible leader in iowa or new hampshire, bloomberg looks pretty good in comparison. ashley: but does he play well in middle america is the key question. >> i think he could. i think when you look at polling and it's interesting he initially said no, i'm not far enough left last year. ashley: right. now he's decided maybe there is room for him in this race and i saw biden as maybe not as strong as some people had expected, but i think what he's got to do is resist the temptation to move further left, because the premise of his candidacy is i'm the economically sane rational moderate alternative to this field. ashley: right. >> he insists on endorsing the most expensive climate plans he really takes away his differentiation. ashley: fascinating and getting back to joe biden, it seems to me his best strategy is to stay out of the light because he is a gaf machine, i hate to put it that way but he is but he seems to do better and he gets better in the polls when he doesn't

appear in as many places which can't be good in the long run. >> yeah, i think there is this ongoing debate of whether it helps him or hurts him being the donald trump. >> susan: guys, we got a big movement in the markets because president trump tweeting on china trade. it says i will be funding a very large and comprehensive phase i trade deal with china on januar. the ceremony will take place at the white house. high level representatives of china will be present at a later date i'll be going to beijing where talks will begin on phase ii! ashley: that is a huge development. >> susan: the fact that we got an actual date for the phase i signing and phase ii negotiations will kickoff in the new year in 2020 and this is all positive and puts u.s. china trade on the background and puts more focus on other elements of the markets. ashley: very encouraging. the futures is not really responding but not only talking about getting phase i down but as susan just said now making

plans for phase ii. very quickly, james. >> it is great news. encouraging. i think maybe markets were expecting it or seen enough of these tweets that they don't respond as much, but this is great news because it really opens the door to that corporate investment kicking up to a higher year. its been down super worried about china. ashley: james freeman, as always thanks for joining us. take it a look at u.s. futures down 60 points you'd think we would have a turnaround but dow futures down 62 points the s&p down 7 and the nasdac also down 24 points, or about a quarter of a percent. let's take a quick break, we'll be back the market is opening in just nine minutes from now. we made usaa insurance for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage.

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about it but this should be encouraging. the markets certainly the futures not responding. >> susan: i think probably the biggest reaction will be overseas since china's slow down has been exacerbated by this ongoing u.s. china trade war that's had an effect on european off the chinese growth that's down to its lowest in close to 30 years. overnight by the way, we seen some positives in the chinese economy. i think that we saw the manufacturing activity pick up, retail sales have picked up, industrial production has picked up in china over the past quarter and i think you will see most of this positive effect coming outside of u.s. borders in international markets instead ashley: james freeman, sticking around with us, thank you, james good news for president trump because obviously going into that election year, if you can get phase i donald who knows maybe phase ii is getting more difficult, but all of this is positive for him, and tough for the democrats. >> very good for him, very good for all of us. this means lower taxes going

into the new year. we talked about this great economy in terms of the job market, in terms of consumers, and now, this is really i hope, i think, extending that to more of the corporate and manufacturing sector, where people start making those investments again, susan was talking about the impact on not just china but also europeans, germans like to sell machine tools into china. that has been slowing down. it also, this trade fight, and i think the president has made a good case that china's been stealing our intellectual property, but it does have a cost, and we've seen that, this past week, the federal reserve putting out the new study on the cost to manufactures of these tariff fights. ashley: right. >> so taxes coming down i think an already good economy has the chance. ashley: exactly good stuff. want to bring in market watcher shar galani if i can. one of the headwinds people will talk about is the trade war in 2020. we know that phase i is being

done but where do we go from there but this is encouraging right? >> it's more than encouraging. this puts phase ii and the whole china trade issue on the back burner, i think, for the rest of the year so 2020 i don't think is going to look forward at all at the china trade deal as part two. not going to be in anyone's equation. phase i is all we wanted right now. if it's going to be as comprehensive as what the president says then let's see what's in it and in the final tally, but that means the markets can move forward as they have been held back on the phase i deal. not on phase ii, phase ii is not going to happen any time soon. the market doesn't care about that. that's going to be, that's going to take years to ever get done. ashley: so shah, to susan's point this is already baked in the markets assumed this gets signed so we haven't had any reaction on the futures market if anything, we've dropped down a couple points down 64 points on the dow, but it does take away any concerns that that would happen as you say, phase ii, not going to happen before the 2020 election, right, so the

markets can put that aside. >> this gives the markets a clean slate to look forward to earnings, look forward to consumption, looking forward to metrics of the market, and of the economy. that's it. there is no more china trade talks in the front burner for anybody any more, so it's done. this is a great thing for the market and it's also a great thing for the economy, because producers, manufactures are going to do what they need to do now and adjust as they have been their supply chains et cetera, and nothing else is going to happen for them to change. they've already done it and they are doing it so we'll see the economy move forward i think the first quarter is surprising in terms of gdp growth and i think that's going to bode well for the market. >> susan: don't forget this also helps out some of those laggards in this year, 2019 the caterpillars and boeing and heavy machinery players that is a lot into china. you know the dow has been the best performers over the past decade, in fact, you pick the underperformers of the year, into next year, you usually beat

the benchmark performance by 1% on average, over the past decade , and if you're going to do that this year, given that you have phase ii negotiations starting in 2020 pick those china, it's like the caterpillars as i mentioned, we call them the china proxy plays. ashley: right, shah, does this change any of your perhaps strategies for 2020? do you look at some other sector s or stocks now? >> yes, it does change it, and susan hit it right on the head. i'm going to start looking at industrial companies in the united states, and global player s in terms of trade, because now, i think with this clean slate ahead of us at least until the second round happens whenever it happens, we're going to see trade move forward as usual, we're going to see economies grow based on the earnings of the companies, and based on consumerism, all of the good stuff that we should be watching, and not this, you know , talk about trade tariffs and this stuff that's just for me back burner stuff now. ashley: very good. well the opening bell is coming up in just about 18 seconds, from now, they are clapping down on wall street and elsewhere.

it's the end of the year, the end of the decade. the dow, s&p and nasdac all had very nice gains this year, the dow up 22%, the s&p up 28%, the nasdac up 34%, been a great year , great decade and now, we are off and running on the last trading day of 2019, and where are we? well we're down 54 points a lot more red than green, we saw this same pattern yesterday, a little bit of profit taking again on pretty thin trade but as you can see the dow up 59 call it down 60 points, and again, a lot more red. apple and exxon-mobile down at the bottom, we have walmart and travelers on the top end. let's take a look at the s&p as well if we can also down just about a quarter of a percent down 7 points on the s&p at 32.14 and the nasdac also down one-third of a percent down 26 points at 89.19. all right now let's take a look at dow components apple and

microsoft, the titans. they contributed the most to the markets big year, no doubt no other stocks even came close, but today, as we rounded out, they are starting off the day down slightly, as you can see apple down half a percent same story for microsoft. now let's take a look at the biggest dow winners of the past 10 years, these are some remarkable numbers. apple, united health, visa, boeing, nike, shah, are these stocks poised for more gains next year? are these among your picks for the new year? >> yes, they are. certainly apple and microsoft and amazon are my top picks for 2020 and the primary reason for that ashley is these stocks lead a lot of the benchmark indices they are in so as passive investors see the market rising, recognize that they've missed the boat, jump in, they're buying these passive investment vehicles, they're buying index funds, and the big cap stocks lead those index funds. then you have the active management crowd whose now

behind the curve because they are on the sidelines with too much cash, they have to chase the benchmarks they are measured by and what do they do? they buy the big cat leadership stocks that are leading the market higher. it's going to be, it's very much a positive momentum-type deal for those big cap stocks. >> susan: i would agree it's basically momentum play, because you are trying to make up for the gains you missed out on this year and 29% is not a bad year, is it? ashley: very good. >> susan: we may miss the 31% gains we saw in 1997 or at least crossing through that threshold we saw two decades ago but look heading into 2020 as shah pointed out we've cleared decks and china is on the back burner and by the way the fed is on your side, the federal reserve might not even raise interest rates next year, they were the reason we saw that sell-off at the end of last year but the fed is injecting a lot of cash and liquidity into the markets up to 4 trillion on their balance sheet because there's something wonky, but there is this repo market that

is for the institutional, okay the fact i know you're busy right now the producers, i get it, but the fact they are adding money to the system positive for markets. ashley: very good now shah, you brought us a list of stocks you like for the year but i want you to go through them. i wouldn't say you're going out on a limb with microsoft, apple, amazon. >> i'm not going out on a limb. but those are my top picks. i really like mcdonald's down here, i think the sell-off is overdone, i like trip advisor down here and i think the sell-off is good, and i think trip advisor is a double in 2020 i think mcdonald's is probably 25-50% gainer because mcdonald's is going to pick up the momentum eventually as the institutions get back into mcdonald's, and there are a lot of stocks. ashley: what about boeing? do you like boeing? >> well here is my call on boeing and i've been close but i haven't gotten there. i originally had some bids in and i missed it when it got down

there and i pulled those because boeing has come back surprisingly so i'm not looking for boeing to go down to 300. i'm a buyer at 300. >> susan: agreed. ashley: very good stuff. so let's have a quick check on the board we're coming back a little bit only down now 26 points on the dow, 28, 433 some positive trade news, as phase i is going to be signed with china , on january 15 and then the efforts to get to phase ii will then go from there, with the president traveling to beijing i think he said in his tweet. so maybe the trade advisors for sure. let's take another look at the big board, uber and postmates file a lawsuit to block the california freelancer law they want to say no you have to be full-time employees hurting the stock uber down as you can see almost 2% at 29. tencent music joining others in buying a 10% stake in universal mu us group the market likes it up 3%, hasbro finalizing its

deal to buy entertainment one which has children's content like peppa pig, and i know that's susan's favorite. >> susan: peppa the pig, yes. ashley: let's take a look at the 10-year yield, we like to do that still up at 1.9% on the 10- year taking a look at gold, it's always around high 1,400, low 15, up to 1,521 up another $ 2.30. >> susan: guess what despite the fact we had 29% gains in the stock market, gold had its best year since 2010 because of growth year in the u.s. and also a safety play since there were some volatile moments like the u.s. china trade for instance and also impeachment inquiries and anti-trust concerns. ashley: a moment in the sun, for the gold bugs let's take a look at oil. i think it's just down again slightly, right around down nearly $1, down 1.5% right at $ 60.73 on oil.

all right let's take a look at ford. the company says the pre-orders for the electric mustang, i can't believe this, so sold out. susan? >> susan: yeah and also with the extended range capability as well. that's very positive for ford which is at the last of its capacity and investment into electric vehicles in the future, thinking that general motors as well, but we talked about penetration rates and only 8% of the cars that are globally sold at this point are electric vehicles and when you have cheap gas, which is sold that we saw yesterday hasn't surpassed $3 a gallon since 2014 it makes you wonder whether you'll make that transition to electric. ashley: maybe not as quickly as they think and is an electric mustang really a mustang? i think mustangs would say no anyway tesla shanghai reportedly , i am old school, making 1,000 cars per-week. that sounds impressive. >> susan: i think that's the

goal at this point because we had tesla delivering its first 15 models to its chinese employees yesterday, and we've heard elon musk, you know, murmu r in the u.s. is it's around 5,000 model 3's per week and it took them a long time, barely got there and the stock got hammered in the process but i would say tesla, the fact they have already come ahead of schedule getting the china plant up and running and by the way producing cars, 10 months after breaking ground, i think that's probably one of the fastest schedules i've seen elon musk on ashley: shah, what's your take on tesla are you going to be tempted? >> i've never been tempted with tesla. i have a few times, i had my head handed to me a couple time, made some money once or twice, net-net i'm a loser on tesla but buying it up here it got up to 435 that move was parabolic, ashley. it just didn't make any sense to me. there was no driving news i'm thought made sense in terms of the earnings, net profits coming or anything in the future that i want to see in the company that

i own, so frankly i don't get it i've never gotten this and i think the cars are absolutely fantastic and i think elon musk is a great character but as far as the stock, as far as the company it's just not in my ballpark. ashley: shah galani won't touch it with a 10-foot pole. now, move over, netflix, i haven't seen this but it's causing quite a stir and now the biggest tv series in the world. >> susan: in the world. so superman is the star of the talk show in the u.s. , 127 million what they call demand expressions, and compared to the 115 million demand expressions in the u.s. , that week, but i think that it's not really comparing apples-to-apples since mandelore an had the series finale last week and then it's brand new and you can binge it all right away on netflix, so you know, i would say that big stars are doing well for netflix given that yesterday they said their own original content was the most watch on the platform,

with the movie with adam sandler , jennifer aniston, the most watched with 70 million views. ashley: i watched it, it was quite funny anyway shah, last word on netflix, obviously incredible competition but how do you see it in the year ahead? >> netflix has an incredible decade, i think is one of the best performing stocks of the decade, and full disclosure, not in it, have not been in it. i wrote it up a little bit. i got out took a profit and i missed the rest of the ride. bad on me i think the stock has probably more to go, you know, in terms of profitability again it's not really the kind of stock i want to hold on to it's more of a speculative trading stock for me but for the folks in it stay with it because its got momentum and right now this proves it with the top show in the country in the world it just proves what netflix is capable of doing so good for them. ashley: fine job today go back to the beach with the swaying palm trees behind you and the beautiful ocean. we're stuck here in freezing cold new york.

shah, thank you very much. >> happy new year to you. ashley: taking a quick look at the board while we've been chat ting away here the market has come back and we're almost at the water level on the dow just down three points and the s&p and nasdac just turned ever so slightly positive, so there you have it. trump's talks advisor peter navarro says 2020 will be one of the greatest years in u.s. history, economically. art laffer must love that and we'll ask him his thoughts after this. and remember, when joe biden said this on the debate stage? take a listen. >> would you be willing to sacrifice some of that growth even knowing potentially that it could displace thousands maybe hundreds of thousands of blue collar workers? >> the answer is yes. ashley: well if you thought that was outrageous wait until you hear what mr. biden is suggesting coal miners should learn to do if he becomes president. and it's not mining more coal. and it's a big story that we've been covering, retail stores taking a major hit amid a

growing trend of online shoppers , but former jc penney ceo ron johnson says it actually might not be in the danger he previously thought so my question is what's the evidence on that? we'll be here and ask him coming up on varney. is where people first gathered to form the stock exchangeee, which brought people together to invest in all the things that move us forward. every day, invesco combines ideas with technology, data with inspiration, investors with solutions. because the possibilities of life and investing are greater when we come together. ♪

ashley: there's no arguing its been a banner decade for stocks, the white house economist peter navarro says that the party continues, he says, into the new year. he is predicting near 3% gdp growth, dow 32000, plus historic job and wage growth. sounds good, right? joining us former reagan economist art laffer. art great to see you. that must be music to your ears.

>> great to see you ashley. ashley: do you agree with mr. peter navarro? >> oh, it sure makes a lot of sense to me, what peter strzok saying. this has been a very good economy for trump and there's no reason i can see out there why next year won't be a good year too. it's just what trump has been doing is phenomenon and he's getting the trade deals done, got the tax bill, he's got better monetary policies, deregulation, it's out of the sight wonderful and i see mow reason why the economy won't proceed nicely next year. ashley: now you can throw cold water on it in the form of an article in the new york times today basically says business got the tax cuts, lobbyists made it bigger, that money was used for buying back shares and what it did do was pump the deficit up nearly 50% near to $1 trillion. what about the spending aspect, art? does that concern you? >> well it does concern me, but that's something for his second term. there's no way he can get major

spending reform in this administration with this congress. you've got to attack and go after entitlements but what he's done on spending is amazing because of economic growth, you seafood stamps are coming way down and other welfare-based programs are coming down, because of the prosperity, ashley, and that's just fantastic news. i mean, this growth is helping everyone, not just the rich people on wall street, not just the lobbyists. it's helping everyone, all the way down. look at those unemployment rates and look at median wage growth. i mean, median household income growth it's spectacular. way more than it was during obama or anyone else. you know, anyone who throws cold water on this is just ignorant. just plain ignorant. ashley: but with all of that data, art, should we be doing better than 3%? >> well i don't know. when you have the rest of the world collapse in the way it has , if you look at eurozone, if you look at the eurozone its growth last quarter, third quarter of 2019, it was 0.8%

annualized. now, we grew at 2.1%. we out grew the eurozone in that quarter by 1.3% and that's amazing. i mean, when the rest of the world is going down as you know very well, ashley, i mean it's really hard to keep yourself afloat what everyone else is thinking but we are. this economy has done phenomenon ly well relative to the rest of the world and i just don't see anyone whose negative on it. it's just amazing to me. but i did want to wish you happy new year. ashley: i like that. >> i really do. ashley: cheap stomach, yuck. very quickly, art, very quickly, what's one piece of advice you've give the president right now with regard to the economy? >> campaign on your economic performance. it's the best-ever. i have never seen a better first

term in my life and i've lived a long time and we're looking at a new decade coming and i'm looking at a continued decaying coming so but, he should really tout this, this is the most amazing thing in the world is this economy growth and every single one of the major areas of the kingdoms of macro economics he's done really well in so that's what i would do. if we get him re-elected ashley it's going to be a phenomenon next four years. ashley: we'll look forward to that, art happy new year to you, and -- >> happy new year to you, my friend. we miss you here in nashville. we miss you here a lot. ashley: that's very kind, art. speak to you soon. >> susan: happy new year! ashley: former nissan chief, now back to this, fascinating story that just got really interesting they have fled japan where of course we know he was facing trial, but now he's somewhere else, susan. >> susan: he's in lebanon and we just got a statement from the

foreign ministry and these headlines just crossing around 10 minutes ago and they say that the circumstances around carlos ghosn's departure in japan and arrival in lebanon remain unknown to the ministry and a lot of people are curious as to how did he make this trip given he's been tailed by security forces. he was under house arrest and japanese police were tracking his movements, so people were just wondering how on earth did he make this trip to the airport and take a jet. maybe it was a private jet but look he was under house arrest because he was accused of misusing funds which was one of the world's largest car makers, according to carlos ghosn, he fled because he feels he was held hostage by a rigged japanese justice system. there's a 99% conviction rate in japan? ashley: i know. >> susan: if you're accused of something you're pretty much say convicted so he thought okay let's make that trip. ashley: we'll continue to follow the interesting fascinating story.

quick check of the dow, gang busters but we were down 60 points so thereabouts we're up just 8 points on the dow at 28, 470. pet owners really love their fury friends. i love my two dogs, so do you i'm sure. you love your pets right? so much that you're willing to spend $72 billion a year on them coming up, that's 72 billion. coming up next we're taking you to the doggie chalet. it's a vacation for your pets while you're on vacation they are on vacation too. keep it right here, on varney. great riches will find you when liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. wow. thanks, zoltar. how can i ever repay you? maybe you could free zoltar?

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ashley: let's take a look at shares of ulta beauty up like a rocket ship this decade gaining more than yes that is true, 1,294%, ulta beauty at 253 has been a beauty of a stock, no doubt. according to one report by 2025 the global skincare market will be worth nearly $190 billion. that's good news, my next guest, proven skincare ceo ming welcome to the show. i'm fascinated by your story. you used to work in finance at b ane capital but now you're ceo of a skincare company how did that happen? >> yes, you know, working the

job in private equity one day i actually woke up and saw myself in the mirror and realized that i was looking sunken, and much older than my age. so i panicked, and started investing all kinds of money in different expensive skincare products and nothing really worked, and it wasn't until i went to a specialist who first understood my skin, and then created personalized products for me that i really see a result on my skin so i wanted to bring that level of experience and results to everyone. that's when i partnered with my co-founder who is a physicist from stanford to create proven skincare that is personalized and backed by data. ashley: so how do you go about that? do you have an idea, but there is so many big players in this field. how do you make your mark? do you sell purely online and do you have to be put your pricing down perhaps a little bit to be competitive? how does that work? >> you know, we really

differentiate based on the differentiation and technology. the skincare industry is large and it's growing and yet it hasn't really seen any innovation for the past 50 years , so consumers are really frustrated but that. they are frustrated by these one -size fits all products that really don't work for anyone, so that's why personalization, the way that proven is approaching it, is customizing products based on more than 40 factors about a person. based on your gene expression, your environment, your external lifestyle, all of which has a huge impact on what your skin needs, and that's why people see such a big difference when they switch to personalized skincare. ashley: so, you have to literally individually figure out what is the best product for your consumers? i mean, that's very time consuming itself and then do you send individual samples of boxes or how does it work and what kind of money are we talking about here? >> so how it works is that we actually partner with the head of dermatology at stanford

university to create a very simple onboarding quiz, so consumers can take this two minute quiz which is really simplified and based on that, we can then match you with more than 20,000 different skin profiles and send you individually customized products ashley: very good. >> the products are really approachable and only 119 for a set of three products if you subscribe, or 145 if you buy for one-time. ashley: how much is the subscription quickly, ming? >> it's 119 if you subscribe and three products is everything that your skin needs. ashley: so it's 119 a month and how do we find you? >> it's 119 actually for six weeks to eight weeks and you can find us at provenskincare.com. ashley: very good, fascinating congratulations to you making a success out of it, proven skincare ceo thank you so much, appreciate it. 2020 democratic hopefuls keep talking about their big ideas pushing for more government but is that really a winning message

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ashley: now 10:00 a.m. on the east coast. 7:00 a.m. out west. good morning to you. i'm ashley webster in for stuart varney today. we are getting latest read on consumer confidence. susan: it's a big number. 126.5 how consumers feel. that is pretty positive. that ends four-month slide. the highest read for consumer confidence since august of this year. this is for the month of dice which is very important as we know it head into all important holiday shopping period. this bodes well for the u.s. economy since the consumers power 2/3 of it. ashley: they do indeed.

let's bring in liz peek, foxnews.com columnist. what do the numbers tell you, liz? strong economy, strong consumer sentiment? >> we've been seeing signs from the michigan consumer sentiment which numbers are the best since may. we got away from the storm about a possible recession, consumers looked at their paychecks, looked at their job opportunity, responded by being optimistic. the most telling number i find quite shocking a cnn survey i think it was over 1000 people. 70% said their economic situation was either good or very good. the best since 2001. so democrats that wall of, you know, good feelings and optimism, even 62% of democrats in that survey said yeah, they're feeling pretty good about their own situation. ashley: let's move on. big news from last hour.

president trump tweeting the phase one trade deal will be signed january 15th at the white house. that is good news. he will go to beijing to begin phase two talks next year. liz, this clears the decks for the markets. we've been saying that the markets thought would happen. we're already mentioning phase two. >> i think phase two is lot hadder than phase one. ashley: of course. >> most people running businesses accomplishment of phase one, dialing back of some tariffs in place, reducing the threats of more tariffs being slapped on that is really huge. that we've seen is american corporations responding by moving the supply chains out of china. a lot of companies have gone to vietnam and thailand and turkey and elsewhere. ashley: yeah. >> even in the eu they have been responding. none of that comes cheaply. none comes very good for the companies this is nice welcome breather i would say in the dispute. ashley: well-earned breather.

good stuff. >> exactly. ashley: bill mcgurn from "the wall street journal" editorial board also joining us. bill, this could be a big win for the president? >> it's a big win for the president. the more important thing it is a big win for the american people, right? the numbers confirm what we know. people were spending at christmas. people feel generally good where things are. most of us who remember what it was like three years ago before this. so, yes i think it is very good news for the president. if you're running for re-election, you know, people are constantly intoning about a recession, then instead the numbers come out the opposite way. this has got to be good. ashley: this time last year everyone was using the "r" word. >> right. ashley: never materialized. democrats running for president keep talking down the economy but the question for you, bill is, that cannot be the strategy from this point. to liz's point even cnn reporting polls where people feel pretty good about their economic situation. >> i don't think the american

public will be persuaded things are really bad and they're bad off. the larger question is, i think democrats don't have an economic message and they don't have a traditional economic message for the working people of the country the way the traditional democratic party did. if you looked a the last debate, i was watching, gee, what if i were some guy involved in fracking in pennsylvania or some, some factory worker in michigan or something, what, i was a democrat, came from a democratic family, would i hear anything that resonated with me? i don't think so. a lot of obsession the today's democratic party, identity politics, spending gazillions on to combat climate, so forth, i don't think they're the interest diggal things that get working people excited. it is not bread and butter about the american dream. letting people that maybe didn't go to yale be part of the american dream, right? ashley: same thing jeremy corbin

did with the labour party in uk. your life is terrible. this current government is ruining it for us. >> there is resonance from joe biden. i think that he moved away from that kind of agenda. of the people on the stage, elizabeth warren is this really harvard professor? is that the harbinger of we'll deliver for the blue-collar people in america? i don't think so. joe is a little credibility when he says that. ashley: i am glad you mentioned him. listen what joe biden recently said on the campaign trail about coal miners. roll tape. >> he asked me toward the end of our administration, joe is going to determine what the jobs of the future are. anybody can go down 300, 3,000 feet in a mine, sure as hell can learn how to program as well. anybody that can throw coal into a furnace can learn how to program for god's sakes. ashley: is that demeaning, or what? >> it is falls into the category worse than a crime of blunder.

mrs. clinton said her comment which is pretty similar in the campaign about new jobs for coal miners was one of her biggest mistakes. she defended it. so forth. biden is going down the same path. you know he is also talked about putting fossil fuel executives in jail over pollution. someone asked does that include hunter? he worked for a gas company, right? there is a lot of vulnerabilities there, there are a lot of americans who work in the energy field, fossil fuels. are you going to say their jobs don't matter. ashley: teach them to code or whatever. get back to liz peek, if i can, your latest piece on foxnews.com, entitled, michael moore is right, bernie would boost democrats for this reason. the question is, what reason? >> my contention bernie sanders if he were the nominee would be crushed by donald trump in the election in the fall. as a result democrats would regroup as they have done after

mcgovern was their candidate in 1972, after mondale was their candidate in 1984, and realize uber left candidate is not the candidate that will put them in the oval office. instead they have won the presidency with bill clinton, jimmy carter before him, ran as a political moderate. sometimes they just sort of fight the tape if you will. ashley: yeah. >> here is the news, folks. 70% of the countries self-identifies as either conservative or moderate. running someone extreme left-wing policy wonk like bernie sanders it's a nonstarter. it isn't going to work. ashley: right. >> seriously michael moore thinks that joe biden is a terrible candidate because he is hillary clinton light. he thinks that hillary clinton, her problem was that she was too moderate and voters want ad revolution. voters don't want a revolution. they never have. ashley: he is backing bernie sanders. >> exactly right he has thrown his weight behind bernie sanders

which is a fair amount of weight. he is you know, i meant politically. sorry. ashley: that's all right. >> but he is wrong. hillary clinton didn't lose because she was a moderate. she lost because 30% of the country had a favorable view of her. she was a terrible candidate from beginning to end. ashley: bring bill in very quickly we have comment about bernie sanders and michael moore. we never mention michael bloomberg in all of this. he likes to see himself as the moderate, can save the party, push joe biden aside and say i got this any traction for him? >> he was a pretty good mayor. i had my issues with mayor bloomberg, big gulps, compared to what we have, he is looking better he have day. he was a good mayor. i think there would be a place for him there. the odd thing, democratic party rules prevent a man self-funded getting on the stage.

he has to get the donors. the other thing i think he has a lot of strengths, he could if he chose buck some democratic party orthodoxy on education for example but the problem is, again if you look at the states that matter, the battleground states mostly in the midwest, does michael bloomberg come across as that guy? if you're trying to get the blue-collar voter who voted for obama twice but voted for trump is michael bloomberg the guy? also on guns? same thing on climate. if you're a coal miner or someone in fracking you might be worried about mike bloomberg. there is problem in specific state. if anyone comes across as ecoast elitist -- i like some of his elitism. so. ashley: we can talk about this all day. bill thank you very much liz, thank you very much. >> pleasure. ashley: it is new year's eve. this is live pictures of new year's eve celebrations happening in north korea. how about that? pongyang. they got money to get some fire

box. that is actually pretty cool to be honest with you. there you have it. we'll bring you pictures from around the world. i'm sure sydney will be up soon. they had new year's eve in auckland, new zealand hours away. we'll continue to follow that story. u.s. embassy stormed in baghdad. we'll have the very latest on that. free speech, top examples of when speech was shouted down. as you can imagine it was a long one. we narrowed it down for you. we'll take you to the place where pet owners leave their dogs when they go on say case. a home away from home on your pet. they look happy, don't they. second hour of "varney" getting started. (groans) hmph... (food grunting menacingly)

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♪. ashley: all out for the graphics before end of the year. we had a little left over in the budget and we did ourselves proud. the dow down 13 points. the dow at 28,448. we were down 50, 60 points earlier. turned positive very slightly but now slightly lower. how about that for commentary? check apple. the stock keeps approaching new records, very exciting unchanged. no, gone down slightly. apple 291 bucks. now higher. to this big story. we're continuing to follow chaotic scenes in baghdad where dozens of protesters stormed the u.s. embassy there following funerals for 25 iran-backed militia fighters killed in u.s. military airstrikes on sunday. let's bring in joel ruben, former state department official. joel, thanks for joining us. >> my pleasure. ashley: we see these pictures,

violence, anger. where does this go, do you think? we talked earlier about iran, being behind this. do you think it could escalate? >> so there are a couple of things to think about right now in this very tense situation. the bottom line, it looks like the competition for iraq, really is underway right now between the united states and iran. and, there are a lot of potential downside risks to that. we're witnessing it right now with the attack on the embassy, the assault on the embassy by iranian backed militias. concurrent to this, this is very important. there have been massive street protests by iraqi people for month now where they have been demanding that iran not meddle in their politics and that is distinct from what we just saw at the embassy. so we're engaged in a military back and forth with iranian-backed militias. the iranian people are demanding

better politics. we have to be sensitive how we engage and that will take a lot of calm nerves right now. ashley: it does. i mentioned the u.s. was seen as invader number of years ago. now they have been invited in to help wipe out isis but iran's influence has grown and grown. what should be our response? you say we have to be delicate with this. we're watching an embassy under siege. what should we do? >> so in the near term what we need to make sure we're doing with the iraqi government, making it clear that they get control of the physical situation. looks like they're leaning that way but they did not initially. so the concern from the united states perspective is, how firm is the iraqi government in protecting our embassy facilities? that needs to be made clear. the iraqi government needs to be very firm in protecting u.s., and international diplomatic facilities. second to that, there need to be clear rules of the road for iran

and the united states and how we engage each other. on the american side, there was, there was debate in congress in fact, bipartisan debate opposing military escalation and conflict with iran. matt gaetz, ro khanna offered a amendment on defense bill got through the house, not in the senate language but nonetheless there is strong concern in congress there is no authorization for american war with iran. fine, so we take that as a baseline. the same goes for iran. they have been pushing their agenda politically in baghdad but that doesn't mean they have the support of the iraqi people. ashley: right. >> that is why we see protests of iraqi people. we need to make sure we listen to the iraqi people right now. ashley: joel, stay right there i want it turn our attention to hong kong, ringing in new year. protests are planned. susan, what do we have? susan: we have protests across

several sites in the city. giant human chains are formed. protesters donning black masks and they are out in mass. new year's eve is a big night. that usually have fireworks display, that was canceled by the government in anticipation of more hong kong protest. i would say they have died down from the local elections a few weeks ago. now back and forth since we know most of the protesters are student-led. students are out for the break over the holidays. ashley: right. joel, let me let you back in on this. are protests likely to carry on in the new year but where are we going that beijing will not budge on the key issues protesters want changed? >> very analogous situation to the street, like in iraq, the street is making it clear they don't want to be governed by an external force. the hong kong protesters, there

was a strong sign by us in the congress by supporting the president signing legislation supporting their protests and chinese didn't like it but that is just how it has to work. so as the president engages in trade negotiations forward, he also needs to stand firm on human rights issues, standing with the populations in the democratic society is very critical to insuring long-term security and long-term strong relationship with china and with hong kong. ashley: we'll continue to follow what is going on there as well. joel, thank you so much for joining us. really appreciate your insight today. we have news from the streaming battle. there is a netflix show, bead out the disney "the mandalorian" show as biggest tv series in the world. i haven't seen it. i'm sure susan has. the past decade we coined the phrase, retail ice age. we'll remember some of the stores that actually went away after this.

some people say "dress your age."

that's ridiculous. age is just an illusion. how you show up for the world, that's what's real. what's your idea? i put it out there with a godaddy website.

ashley: let's check the big board for you. we tried to get positive on the markets but no, we're down 13 points on the dow. thin trading as you might expect on new year's eve. the dow is off. the nasdaq only major market in the green. tesla has been on a tear the past couple weeks, now up a buck on 415 for tesla, good for a quarter of a percent gain. look at retailers. january 2nd is expected to be the biggest day for returns, if you don't like what you got you will probably take it back january the 2nd. a lot of retailers won't be returning themselves in 2020.

the last decade has been a bit of a graveyard for some familiar names. grady trimble is in chicago with the grim numbers. grady? reporter: ashley i heard you call it a retail ice age. we're in the right location for that with snow on the ground. this years to be a sears and sears automotive. they closed down a few years ago. they haven't found somebody to lease the building since then. 9300 store closings in 2019 alone. that is the most ever in a single year. sears among them, closing 3,000 stores between that and kmart in the last decade. block buster, remember them? they closed 1700 stores in the last decade. they have one location remaining in oregon. toys "r" us, closed more than 800 stores in the last decade. they rebranded and relaunched with smaller emersive stores in new jersey and texas the last few months. a few other stores that closed

in the last decade, payless shoe stores, hh greg, gymboree, sports authority. gone the way of e-commerce. they couldn't survive with amazon. it is triumphant decade for retailers. look at walmart, target, home depot. they revamped how they do things and invested in e commerce and it helped them stay afloat. target, for example, using their existing stores, existing locations as fulfillment centers. 2020 will be challenging year for sears, which has many store closings on the way for 2020 and forever 21 which filed for bankruptcy, bed, bath & beyond and pier 1. the ones that adapt, they can overcome. the ones that don't may go like this sears, ashley. ashley: grady trimble experiencing the retail ice age.

thank you so much. extra money in your paycheck. amazing run since the 2016 election and we have several more will tell us in the next 90 minutes how high they think stocks will go in the knew year. that sounds good. how mike bloomberg views the east room of the white house if he is elected president. let's say the internet is having a lot of fun with this one. ♪. when we were looking for a roommate, he wanted someone super quiet. yeah, and he wanted someone to help out with chores.

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♪ ♪ good day, sunshine ashley: good day, sunshine. is the sun outside? it has been raining for day 1/2? susan: it's a new year. ashley: it's a new year. good day sunshine. what a happy tune. i don't know if stu likes it. susan: you never know whether stu likes it. ashley: we barelily made it into positive half hand hour ago. we're down 41 points on the dow, a drifting market as they say. the dow 28,421 but it has been quite a ride for the market in 2019. best year for stocks since 2019. look at this -- 2013. nasdaq up and s&p up 28%. it has been as they say a great year. let's bring in scott shellady.

scott, i know you will be smiling. is there anything you can see that would stop the market in the new year? i can't see anything. >> that is why they call it a black swan. we can't see it. i think with interest rates the way they are, we have dovish fed coming around the corner, some headwinds will be tailwinds, phase one for example, i would just like to see us support these gains, right or maybe have small gains next year, because i kind of feel like every time we ask this question where we'll be this time next year, i just gave my 16-year-old son a brand new ferrari for christmas, the next thing out of his mouth, what kind of car will i get next year, right? we have to be careful, stay in our lane. 34% on the nasdaq is insane. we have to count our blessings because it has been a fantastic year. ashley: what i'm hearing from scott shellady, don't be complacent. we got this, we heard from the president, scott. says phase one of the trade deal will be signed january 15th.

phase two talks will begin in the new year, that clears another major hurdle, does it not? >> it clears another major hurdle but i don't want to be in this chair next year talking about a phase 16. we need to make sure a endgame is in sight. remember we had brexit worries, we had chinese tariff worries, and those, usmca. those will be at our back. we have a dovish fed, interest rate so low, with the unemployment situation the way it is, all those things line up but i want them to line up to support what we've done and grind a little higher. to expect a year like this year would be out of your mind crazy. even with navarro saying we'll get 3% next year, it will be different cut to tack on gains like this again. we might be higher, i suspect we will but we should be modest. ashley: usually cautious, scott shellady. you don't want to be did did i i

understand. >> no. ashley: listen what art laffer said about the economy it president trump is reeked. >> i never seen a better first it term in my life. i lived a long time. we're looking at decade coming. i'm looking continued decaying coming. he should tout this. this is the amazing growth economy growth. everyone of the areas of kingdoms of macroeconomics he has done. if we get him reelected it will be a phenomenal next four years. ashley: a phenomenal next four years, do you agree, scott? >> things are lining up. you can hate the president all you want but you have to love the policy that put us in good stead around the world. i was in china a week last week, and i can tell you their economy is hurting. this will be a shining light on the hill. will continue to be that way because everybody has had a bad time. if the headwinds are tailwinds and europe, asia pick up a bit,

navarro and those guys will be right, you can't expect 34% on the nasdaq. yeah, we could grind higher. that would be healthy. we don't want to see anything crazy because it starts to lose its importance. ashley: we keep that in perspective. i have a last one that elizabeth warren is promising to fun with the fantasy wealth tax. big ideas of canceling student loan debt, tuition-free college and "medicare for all" plan. look, i know what you're going to say is taxing millionaires and billionaires really going to fund all of these programs, scott shellady? >> no. the numbers don't bear out. the progressives have a difficult time mixing up things are a privilege and a right, right? housing is a, nice new big house is a privilege, it is not a right. anytime they get in sticky situations where difficult decisions are to be made, they will always legalize it or tax it, right?

drug problem? legalize it. problem with women and abortions, legalize it. they want to take down barriers. problems with prisons, let them go. think of all the things progressives do, get in tight situation, legalize it or tax it. these numbers don't bear out numberswise or bear out americanwise. ashley: we'll leave it there. a little contained scott shellady. keeping in perspective. happy new year to you and thank you for what you do for us. former ceo carlos ghosn fleeing japan where he is on trial for wrongdoing. he traveled to his native lebanon. 2019 not a great year for several high-profile ceos. jackie deangelis is here with that story. reporter: since challenger gray i and christmas keeping track of ceo departures for the year, this is the highest count. fox business put together a list. 13 prevalent ceos given up

positions for various reasons. it shows you, tide is turning. things are changing. not only corporate issues but personal issues as well. let's walk through a couple of the big ones. dow component boeing was a huge story this year in the wake of the 737 crash jet crashes. dennis muilenburg the most recent to step down. david calhoun taking over for him. the company hopes this will be a fresh start. ability to repair the damage that has been done there, we shall see. adam newman from wework. a lot of people blame him for the fact the ipo didn't move forward. his predecessor, sebastian cunningham taking over. maybe that will be an opportunity for the company to get back as well. then steve easterbrook from mcdonald's. that is a tough story because he did so much good for that company. he was so successful. he had a relationship, it was consensual, a romantic relationship. did not coincide with the bylaws

of the company. they didn't report it. therefore he had to step down. also looking at kevin burns of joule. he stepped down after the president banned flavored e-cigarettes not too long ago. i feel like juul look a lot of heat what is going on with e-cigs. last but not least, larry page, sundar pichai taking over that one. this will being interest to see if this is part of the plan next year and how much regulation and problems these companies will be facing. ashley: a lot of departures for various reasons you pointed out. jackie, thank you very much. >> thanks. ashley: streaming news, "the mandalorian" is no longer on top. the question is, what is on top? susan: the witcher, was top show in the u.s., nearly 127 million demand expressions. the ma mandalorian very cute

baby yoda, 150 demand expressions. i'm not sure comparing apples to apples. the man -- the manned delorean ended its run. you get to see all the "episodes of the witcher." i'm not sure that is oranges to oranges. you try saying that quickly. their own branded content, their own content toed the watch his. i haven't watched it, jennifer anniston, adam sandler -- ashley: i liked it. our executive producer liked it. did you see the movie? susan: i did not. a murder mystery. ashley: quote murder mystery quote was funny. susan: i would watch "the witcher" over murder mystery.

ashley: "the witcher looks like a ripoff of "game of thrones." susan: hen very calfville all you need to -- henry cavil all you need to know. ashley: we'll look back at liberal lunacy on college campuses. instances of free speech being shouted down. we have more on that coming up. also in the next hour you will see the top highlights from "varney & company" this year. celebrities, sports figures, even larry kudlow, all of the laughs from 2019. that was pete rose. susan: gronk. ashley: we'll be back.

>> we are tired of being murdered by this administration because of -- story of all the lives lost, you, this man, this liar, supports. >> this is all lying right now. every single one of us. [booing] ashley: well that is just a little of some of the examples of conservative speakers. i can still hear them, being shouted down on college campuses in the past year. joining us now, campus reform editor-in-chief cabot phillips, who does a tremendous job of cataloging some of these incidents. i mean bottom line, cabot, is free speech dead on campus? >> it may not be dead yet but certainly heading in that direction if we don't do more to protect or educate the next generation how important it is. right now we have a culture, especially on campus that views

idea that you disagree with, not something to learn from, not something to debate, not even something to ignore, but something to shut down, something that should not be allowed. there has been a shift i think in campus culture from viewing ideas as learning experiences to viewing them as something that is hateful and violence against you. now it is something if you don't like an idea, it constitutes violence against you, it is hate speech against you, and as a result, you see people taking increasingly extreme measures to shut the speeches down. there is new study that came out, one in three college students said that hate speech, it is acceptable to use violence to shut hate speech down. one in three students are walking around with the mind-set, if i see something i don't like as hate speech, violence can be used to shut it down. the problem, definition of hate speech is if they don't like the speech they try to shut it down on campus. ashley: if i was who agreed with

conservative point of view would i be spouting hate speech at berkeley? >> you would be considered espousing hate speech. that is the problem where hate speech is anything you don't like. we did see violent acts all throughout 2019. we have a tipline campus reform, it was blowing all up. i was wearing a maga hat on campus, people were surrounding me or threatening me. i tried to start a conservative club. people were threatening us, sitting on us, many cases people were fiscally assaulted. so important in those cases when that does happen, we hold people accountable, make sure that people are watching. when other students see violence or see intimidation as an effective tactic, they see conservative silence, in the future they say all i have to do to keep the students from speaking up with ideas i don't like, doing so, threaten them they will stay quiet. that is why it i important to hold people account ann. ashley: doesn't the university have responsibility to protect

free speech? that is what being on campus is about? >> they have responsibility to do so. sadly throughout 20 fit weigh see them fail to do so. they gave preferential treatment to groups based on affiliation. conservative clubs are denied time and time again, university administrators, student governments don't like their opinions. we've seen conservative speakers on the chopping block. universities say these ideas are too controversial for us. we have controversial speaker, if we don't like you will not be allowed on campus. those are examples of universities denying speech. thankfully president trump who did more than anything, passing executive orders, putting weight of his position, pressuring universities to do more to protect speech. that is important part drawing awareness to this as well. ashley: while you're here, i wanted to get your thoughts on this. a new law in california that kicks in next year, bans schools from suspending students who

disowe pay their teachers. your reaction to that? >> you have to ask, what is the point of education to start with? to prepare people for real world. in real world punishments are real. you can't say my feelings are hurt if i was kicked out of class. if i went to work, not expected to be kicked out for behavior debttry mental to my coworkers or company, i would be in for rude awakening. you need to teach students early age to obey authority figures, the more we coddle kids the more we cripple them. ashley: what are the expectations when they leave school? they are pretty screwed up, if you excuse my french. cabot, thank you for your time. continued tracking of lack of free speech on college campuses. good stuff. president trump tweeting this. for many millions of people in iraq who want freedom and who do not want to be dominated and controlled by iran, this is your

time. a strong tweet from the president. we continue to follow the developments in baghdad. we spend this, 72 billion on our pets, that is billion with a "b." we take you the home away for home for your dog. the vacation spot taking your dog on vacation, it's a doggie chalet. >> >> mike bloomberg shows how he wants to use the east room of the white house if he is elected president and the internet erupted. we'll show you that next hour. ♪. plastic.

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♪. ashley: now to our pet theme, wags to riches. in 2018 alone pet owners spent record $72 billion on their pets. today we have a home based business in new jersey called the doggie chalet. they offer boarding services and training for your fury friends. we bring in the owner, nicholas bradley. how is business these days? >> business is busy. traveling time of year. everyone on vacation for the

holidays. it is going well. we're packed. i'm looking forward to friday when all the dogs go home. a busy 10 days. ashley: how long have you been operating this business? >> 12 years in one way or another. i have been here for six. i have a ten-acre property here, started off as doug walking and group trips to dog parks. just a couple of pit votes -- pivots, here i am at my final resting place. ashley: tell me about the operation. how much does it cost, all that kind of stuff? >> a night of board something $60 for one dog. additional dog from the same family is $40. we offer transportation into manhattan and north jersey. that is $60 for manhattan, 25 for north jersey. and training gets into a whole another thing. have to meet a dog before i can give a price. they're all different, depending what they're looking for.

ashley: but you also provide training. sorry to interrupt, but you also provide training. i have a cocker spaniel who likes to bark when i don't always want him to bark. could you cure him of that? >> it could be done. i would say, should have did a little bit of research before getting that dog. my sister got a beagle once, wanted me to train it not to bark. there are certain things you can't train a beagle or cocker not to do. they will be barking. but you can curb it for sure. ashley: continued success for you, nicholas bradley. i have two dogs. the dogs look like they're running around, having a great time. glad to hear that you're busy. always a call for these types of services. good luck. thank you for being on the show. >> thanks, ashley. if you ever need boarding, look us up. we have famous dogs here right now. so the doggie chalet, check it out. go to the website. ashley: movie actors or belong

to famous people? >> they belong to, on air news media people. competition, maybe. ashley: ah-ha, very good. nicholas, appreciate it. coming up next hour, one of our top market watchers, john lonski, will make his case for stocks of the decade, amazon, facebook, google. all the big tech. hot on the s&p for 2020 as well. he will tell you why he believes it will go up and plus how much. we have retail guru ron johnson on the show. people are still flocking to bricks and mortar stores. they are not totally dead yet. that is interesting part of that story. we'll, he was the guy of course, behind the design of the apple store. so he is a fascinating interview. i want to know what is getting people through the doors in 2020. that is ron johnson. it is our year-end wrap up. top highlights from

"varney & company" this year. celebrities, sports figures, even larry kudlow. the best of 2019. you get it all on "varney." stay with us. we'll be back. ♪. most people think of verizon as a reliable phone company. but to businesses, we're a reliable partner. ... ai customer experiences. (second woman) we also keep them ready for the next big opportunity. like 5g. almost all of the fortune 500 partner with us. (woman) when it comes to digital transformation... verizon keeps business ready. i wanted more from my copd medicine that's why i've got the power of 1, 2, 3 medicines with trelegy. the only fda-approved once-daily 3-in-1 copd treatment. ♪ trelegy

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ashley: all right i've done the calculations, i've looked at my watch, 13 hours left in 2019, five hours of trading left in the year and the decade, the markets as of now ending with stocks down despite news from president trump earlier that phase i of the china trade deal will be signed on january 15. we now have a date and phase ii talks will begin in the new year , so there you go. some clarity there let's take a live look at times square on

this new years eve. there's a few brave soles already out there taking their place as we get ready for a new decade good luck to those folks. let's take a look at this, hong kong has reached the new year. here is a live look, right now, major protests expected on new years day but the clock counting down, here we go in hong kong, earlier we saw fireworks displays in north and south korea, we saw that but in 2020, released their fireworks and there you go, celebrations, but as i mentioned we are expecting protests on this new years day in hong kong, and how those work out, how many people show up, we shall see, of course we'll monitor that for any development s, and in the meantime, john lundsky is with us, john, hong kong? yeah, could it be a fly in the ointment for the new year? like it kind of subsided a

little bit towards the end of the year but the protests are probably going to come back and beijing, i guarantee you is not going to budge. could that be an issue in the new year? >> hong kong reminds us that 2020 will probably be a year of above-average political risk, and as a result, we can expect considerable volatility. you know, that being said, i still think that by the end of the year, even though we had a fantastic 2019, the overall equity market, the s&p 500, should be higher by 5%. ashley: we're going to get into that and i want to talk about your money. john, so another 5% in 2020. what are you basing that on? >> we're basing that on a recovery by corporate earnings. believe it or not, despite the fact that the overall equity market, the s&p 500 is up by nearly 30% in 2019, s&p 500 earnings per share were

basically flat and in fact some say that it may have declined slightly. we expect the recovery in 2020, partly because of a faster rate of growth for business sales, as well as because of a somewhat softer dollar exchange rate. ashley: let's talk about the trump economy in 2020 john. first off, let's hear the president's tweet on china. he said i will be signing our very large and comprehensive phase i trade deal with china on january 15. the ceremony will take place at the white house, high level representatives of china will be present, at a later date, i will be going to beijing where talks will begin on phase ii and no more kicking this can down the road. does that clear the runway so to speak for 2020? >> it helps considerably and if donald trump wants to be re-elected he has to avoid doing anything that might rattle the equity market and in turn,

adversely effect the u.s. economy, and i think he's going to be wise enough to avoid taking any type of political risk that might reduce his chances of re-election. ashley: peter navarro has said in the last couple of days that the dow will hit 32000 and we're going to get 3% gdp growth in 2020. what say you? >> dream on, peter navarro. ashley: oh, come on. >> the highest, i looked at the forecast of 55 economists for 2020 growth. the fastest rate of growth predicted was 2.5% and with the dow jones industrial average he's talking about adding on another 12% after a very strong 2019, and i think that's asking a little bit too much. ashley: do you really? >> i'm being real. i think he's promising more than he can deliver.

3% growth seems to be out of reach. i don't know if a single economist that's predicting growth of that rate, except peter navarro. ashley: well, john, let me just take you up on that, 12% growth on the dow we had 22% growth this year, so it takes 12% that's almost half of what we saw this year, surely that's do able and if we get the trade deal out of the way on the back burner, moving along nicely, free-trade with mexico and canada, the job market continues to stay stable and strong, the highest in 50 years on and on and on, why couldn't we reach 3% >> well i think you touched on a very important point. that's the labor market. we now have a 3.5% unemployment rate and i can't help but add quickly despite 3.5% unemployment, core inflation is 1.6%, guess what if the end of december 2009 unemployment rates , 9.9% guess what core

inflation was? 1.6% that's really good news. that's good news for interest rates and the equity market. that being said, we have a very low unemployment rate, we're running out of qualified workers to come into the labor force and that, by itself, will have the effect of slowing any attainable rate of economic growth. it's not a bad thing, but it becomes increasingly difficult to grow the economy at 3% or faster when you are starting out with a diminished supply of jobless workers that you can tap into. ashley: we will meet back here, one year from today, and we'll see what panned out, but interesting. john wait a second you're in boston right now. >> yes i am. ashley: close to you, senator elizabeth warren is about to speak, not far from where you are, to a crowd of supporters at the historic old south meeting house. is elizabeth warren one of those

potential candidates who could really slow this market down? >> there's always that risk. she's talking about income re distribution. this is probably not going to sit very well with the equity market and she's taking that chance, obscuring off voters if her proposals push the equity market lower. let us not forget today's world is a lot different than the world 10 or 20 years ago in that we have a much older population and this older population is depending upon 401 (k) plans to finance their retirement, these 401 (k) plans are very sensitive to the equity market. if any of the presidential candidates does anything, says anything, pushes that equity market lower, that is going to hurt their chances at being elected. the defined benefit programs of the past for pensions are long gone for most americans.

ashley: that's very true. >> the equity market matters greatly in this election year. ashley: okay so before you run off to the warren speech i want to ask you what's your stock of the decade? >> well, you know, that's got to be amazon, it was up 13.7 times. they can't even use the percentage with this particular stock okay? that's an incredible advantage. what a story that is and remember, back in the dot com bubble, some had almost given amazon up for dead that's back in 1999-2000 and look what eventually happened. apple has the highest market cap , what is it 1.3 trillion, but that was up only 9.7 times. ashley: [laughter] >> so amazon, well apple didn't do badly either. ashley: john, in boston thanks as always for everything you've done this year happy new year to you. all right, uber and postmates filed a lawsuit against california over the new gig

economy law, and uber has just released a statement on this. lauren what's going on? lauren: so this law goes into effect tomorrow in california that would force these companies to pay hundreds of millions of dollars more between 20 and 30% on top of their cost, if the driver is an employee of the company, healthcare and minimum wage and the like. uber responding. the lawsuit that they filed post mates saying this. state legislatures had the opportunity to expand benefits for hundreds of thousands of independent workers in california. a step uber has been advocating for and one that other states already have taken. they're speaking of in new york, for instance, is the first date to provide benefits to some of those drivers anyhow they go out instead passed ab5 with this law in california using a bias and overtly political process that ignored the voices of the workers most affected and granted preferential treatment to an arbitrary group. ashley: basically treating these freelancers as full time employees with benefits and the whole thing so that would be a

big hit to the bottom line. lauren: it would hit their bottom line and it violates their constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law because they, the companies, have been targeted. ashley: to the courts we go interesting stuff lauren thank you. let's take a look at bitcoin. we haven't talked about bitcoin in the last day or so it's up nearly 9 million percent this decade. that's impressive. right now it's down $57 at 7,181 that is bitcoin. now, this. president trump he's just announced yet another keep america great rally. it's going to be january 14 in milwaukee, wisconsin. trying to bolster those blue wall battleground states that he flipped back in 2016. we've got more on that on the rn c on that coming up, next and the plans for the trump campaign and also joe biden at another town hall last night, gaf or not , he said he'd think about picking a republican as a runningmate, interesting. last ditch effort perhaps to prove he is the moderate of the bunch, we're on that.

and also, less than 13 hours away from 2020 here in new york city we've got some of the top new years resolutions from across the country, number one. with the resolution, no one does that, right? try something new, eating more of your favorite food, followed by dieting and going to the gym. we all say that don't we? the third hour of varney is just warming up. lauren: i don't even make a resolution. >> ♪ ♪ i'm your 70lb st. bernard puppy, and my lack of impulse control, is about to become your problem. ahh no, come on. i saw you eating poop earlier. hey! my focus is on the road, and that's saving me cash with drivewise. who's the dummy now? whoof! whoof!

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ashley: military members are set for their biggest pay raise in years. question is how much lauren? lauren: well the military members are getting a 3.1% increase, so that is the most in almost a decade, it's the same as civilian pay in terms of the pay increase, they will take it

putting that in perspective for you the highest pay officer will get a pay bump of $12, 500. ashley: that's for the very highest paid. but 3%, i mean it's above cost of living, i think, but it's something i'm sure they look forward to that. lauren: and the 2020 military budget all-time high, was $738 billion. ashley: there you go lauren thank you. president trump by the way is making more travel plans for january. he's heading to wisconsin for a rally on the 14th following his stop in ohio on the 9th and he's already visited key battleground states in the past couple of months and of course he's fighting to keep the states he managed to slip back in 2016 states like pennsylvania, michigan and ohio. let's bring in the rnc, cassie s mudley. the question i'm going to ask you of course can the president ic p up more blue states this time around? >> yes and you pointed out the states he's visiting ohio, wisconsin he's never stopped

going there so he's going to continue to bolster that support and hopefully grow it and then you see him going to states like new mexico, an area where we've seen a 23% increase in the number of hispanics registering as republicans and there was a recent rally last texas that saw a huge swing of new mexicans coming over for it so there's real opportunity there the data is telling us the campaign should go and seek out and that's why you see the president putting literally every corner of the country on the map and for just reason. there are some real results that he can have to these places, and see the return on that investment in votes in 2020. ashley: what is his key message to that part of the country? >> well president trump said that he was going to be a president for all americans and that is a promise made and a promise kept. you see that in the unemployment levels, they are at historic lows especially for the hispanic community for women, for african americans, and then you also see the results just in the local economy from businesses, instead

of going out of business, it's " we're hiring." that is a change that we've seen in just the last three years of the trump adminitration. ashley: interesting here, film maker and trump critic michael moore says trump's based in the midwest, it'll win him a second term. i mean, is the ultra liberal michael moore on the trump train >> oh, i don't think that he can pull the trump train just yet, but, if you recall, he made that prediction in 2016. he said that donald trump will win ohio, michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania and nobody listened to him and so he's making that prediction again maybe as an o men to the democrats, i don't know they will listen to him again but certainly president trump says i know that my dad supports that because i've been there and made promises and kept those promises and now it's not make america great again it's just keep america great and so much of america is in these great states. ashley: last one for you, cassie take a look at what joe biden said about choosing a republican as his vice president roll tape.

>> our 21-year-old son said the other night, i wonder if joe biden would consider choosing a republican as a runningmate. >> the issue is, i would, but i can't think of one now. >> [laughter] >> no, no, no, no. >> [applause] no i'm serious. this is what i mean. there's some really decent republicans that are out there still, but here is the problem right now for the well-known ones. they've got to step up. ashley: they've got to step up. your reaction to that, cassie. >> well i think that's another convenient round of lip service joe biden is playing because the problem is joe biden has gone so far to the left in practically every policy position, that he is the left of the left of today 's democrat party so i don't think there's any true republican who would consider running with him because there's no part that he represents the values of mainstream every day

americans, that joe biden is long gone if he ever actually existed. ashley: we'll leave it right there, cassie thank you so much for joining us we appreciate it. >> thank you. ashley: next case, new years resolutions. lauren doesn't, thinking it's shaping up perhaps, grabbing a gym membership that you'll never use? well, for big gyms your resolution for them of course is big business. we'll break down those numbers for you. and if you're thinking more about money in 2020 here are the top financial resolutions for the new year. number one, making a budget, paying down credit card debt, creating an emergency fund, boosting your retirement, and investing your money in the stock market. all good advice. lauren: i like that. ashley: more varney after this. ♪ ♪ i've been a caregiver for 20 years.

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ashley: i keep saying we blew the budget on those graphics. we had some left and there they are. hitting the gym and getting in shape always near the top of new years resolution list, we've all done it, all ignored it because gyms reep the rewards from all

of that. get fit. how much? lauren: a two-part story for you , part one in january, gym memberships increase by 50% because most people, if you make a new years resolution, what is it? to get in shape, to be healthy, to lose weight. okay part two of the story, 73% of us give up our fitness resolutions. it takes about two months to form a habit so if you really want to get in shape, stick to it for two months. stick to going to the gym and then -- ashley: what's harder than los ing weight is getting out of a gym membership. lauren: very true. completely agree. ashley: it's not easy. lauren: i've called many a credit card company to deny some charges. ashley: i used to make resolutions and then out the window. talking about making some serious change, babysitters cash ing in tonight as of course parents head out to celebrate the new year. how much, this is interesting because i have no clue. how much do babysitters get

these days? ashley: urban sitter says $17.50 an hour for one child and then it goes up from there if you have three kids about $25 an hour i donald trump math. say you go out for four hours the babysitter gets $100. you go out to dinner $100, their , dinner, transportation your night out it's $500. ashley: that's with how many kids? lauren: i did that with just one kid. a little bit more, if you have more kids, more meals for everybody. it's an expensive night out so a lot of people say do you know what? let's spend the night together at home. ashley: i was going to say let's watch on television. lauren: pretend the ball drops at 9:00 which by the way, i don't understand why people don't watch the ball drop at midnight. ashley: sometimes i try. i've fallen asleep. i've had bad luck on new years eve, so i kind of play it safe, stay in. lauren: i'm going to text you non-stop at 11:59 make sure

you're up. ashley: phones off good luck. thank you lauren. let's talk retail. we got surprising new numbers as we round out the year, this is interesting. only 14% of purchases were made online, and a massive 86% was still made in brick-and-mortar stores. so what happened to the retail ice age? interesting numbers, we'll get our top retail guy on that, his name is ron johnson, the former ceo of jc penney and by the way he's also the guy behind the iconic design for the apple store, so i want to know, what's going to get consumers in the door, and off the internet in 2020. that's a good question. keep it on varney. she wanted to move someplace warm.

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ashley: let's get one more check on the market. we actually tried to come back we were just slightly positive by a couple points about an hour ago but we've been in the same range down about 50 points from the dow as you can see the s&p and nasdac also just drifting lower. listen to this, we've gotten word that apple chief tim cook

doing the cancellations here has increased his company's market value, by over $1 trillion, since he took over as chief executive all the way back in august of 2010, no other ceo has done that, take it all the way back to 2011 i'm sorry no other ceo has done that and of course we always talk about steve jobs maybe tim cook doesn't get the credit he reserves and that's impressive. u.s. stocks led the way this year, we know that but our next guest, likes emerging markets in 2020 let's bring in market watch er mark chandler. mark i'm surprised about this. i thought we were the only game in town. tell me about the emerging marketses and if i wanted to put my money there how do i do it? >> yeah, sure so i think that emerging markets are always going to grow faster than the major industrialized countries which are various reasons including the fiscal stimulus in the u.s. , the u.s. stock market outperformed but next year emerging markets do better and the interesting thing is that when do they have to have overseas stock accounts? you can trade foreign stocks in the u.s. , but the number one pick i like is the brook field

asset management, it's a canadian company, not a third world company, but they do a lot of infrastructure in developing countries. ashley: okay. >> it's an interesting private equity, well-managed company so that's probably my number one pick for the emerging markets as a way to play that. ashley: but we've heard that the global economy continues to struggle usual for sure, asia, not all countries but certainly there's been a bit of a malaise around the world, so why is this a good pick? >> well i think times are changing. i think that for example, this year, india, leap frogged above england and france, to move into number fifth place in overall economic size. ashley: wow. >> the interesting plays in india, private banking, for example. also, another country is moving up the ranks is already one of the biggest countries population -wise indonesia, and they are like a telecom company all listed at adrs or also listed on the u.s. exchanges. ashley: let's bring it back to the u.s. , obviously a banner year or decade for that matter.

do we see that continue die think in 2020? are you continuing to put your money into this market? >> well as many americans, we have the 401 (k) plan that takes money out of our paycheck so we're automatically putting money into the stock market every year but what scares me really is after such a great return, 30% imagine last december, i think it might have been around that time, and everybody was like the sky was falling. ashley: recession recession. >> better compare this year to take it from the january recovery, and so the rally is not quite as much, but still quite substantial and like you say, it's leading the globe, and what concerns me is it's hard to get like lightning to strike twice in the same place. ashley: december jobs comes out next week. what happens with the markets we beat expectations. it's a tight market we know that ashley: i think that the jobs is kind of interesting because i think right now the market is looking really past q4. i think that's already baked in the cake and people are looking towards q1 and q1 we'll have the boeing cut back on their production, is going to drag on

gdp but i think they are already seeing a slowing of the u.s. economy looking at the jobs data. i look at a 12-month moving average to smooth out some of the noise and that's already turning lower, and i'm looking for a relatively soft january, december number, next week, and that would be maybe about 160,000 just slowly trading down ashley: all right and we've been asking our guests so i'll ask you what's your stock of the decade? >> i'd probably go with the brookfield asset management just because it's infrastructure, it gives you canadian exposure and gives you global exposure to well-managed private equity-type format. ashley: very interesting stuff, mark. thank you very much, everyone else has gone for the big tech names of course, so you're the outlier there thank you so much. >> happy new year. ashley: same to you thank you for being here. retail might not be in danger like previously thought. look at these new numbers, brick-and-mortar out pacing online shopping and by a lot. check that out. retail 2019, 14% online, 86% brick-and-mortar. maybe the demise of the store

has been greatly exaggerated. let's bring in ron johnson, the former jc penney ceo. ron, this is interesting stuff. i think that i saw somewhere target sales about 7% of the revenue came from online and that means that 93% actually physically comes from consumers into the stores, and are we over hyping online too much? >> we're not overhyping online because for the last decade, it disrupted the physical store, and if you go to the next decade in a position where the physical store is the upper hand, especially those that have integrated a digital and a physical experience, like target as you just described. so amazon really has an amazing decade the last decade, but they start the next decade kind of on their heels. it'll be really interesting to see how it turns out. ashley: we've talked a lot about the retail ice age but ron you believe there's still room for

the classic department store or brick-and-mortar stores and if you're advising them, what do you tell them obviously they have to have a good online presence, but there's a lot of values still in the physical store. >> yeah, the word that people use all the time to describe what you need to compete is to deliver an experience, because when online is so convenient, yet transactional to get to the store you have to deliver an experience. that doesn't mean entertainment. that just means a very good experience. its got to be a clean store. you've got to discover new merchandise. you've got to have various check outs so if you deliver a good experience, like target's donald best buy has done, like walmart does, like lululemon does, like the apple store does, you have great results in physical stores, but if your store is tired, like the department stores, if it's over- a sorted people aren't going to shop that way any more

so you've got to deliver a good experience, not a bad one but it's not entertainment. it's a good experience. ashley: well obviously your time at jc penney was it too late to turn that ship around? was it difficult to change the culture? >> it was very difficult to change the culture, because the people there believed in what they'd accomplished over the 100 years, but i just felt like if they were going to compete over the next couple of decades, they had to reach a younger customer and change their business model and i just discovered they weren't that interested in change. ashley: that's a difficult thing to do if they aren't making those changes and now you're the man behind the design of the apple stores. how important is the, you mentioned the physical experience. that's very important in your mind. is that the trend we'll see, perhaps, in the new year? stores really thinking hard about how they present themselves? >> apple kind of still is the gold standard for an experience in the store, they can try every product before you buy. you can get help at the genius

level and attend a class in their today program. it's very efficient to buy a product because of the handheld checkout, so apple still sets the gold standard, and i think that's why so many people study them, and they keep updating their stores in new york, that new fifth avenue store is the nicest physical store i've perhaps ever been in and so apple does set the gold standard and i think they had a great holiday quarter. a lot of people say, you know, the services dropped. i find the opposite. i've had great experiences in apple stores this holiday. i was over in a store in tokyo and had an amazing experience, i was in hong kong last week, had a great experience at a apple store so i think they are doing really welcome peteing around the globe. ashley: and consistency is the key you have that great experience. ron johnson fascinating stuff. thank you so much for joining us really appreciate it. >> great. happy new year. ashley: happy new year to you.

another star chick-fil-a employee going above and beyond, right? lauren: i love this guy. meet the 20-year-old jeremiah ma rley, from wilmington north carolina and he is very friendly to every person on that drive- through at chick-fil-a, he asks their name, remembers their name, gives them a little fist bump do we have some sound of him doing what he does? okay let's play it. >> of course, oh, as a meal too or just the entree by itself? yes, ma'am, it'll be our pleasure serving you at our drive-thru window after two more things do you know what that is? >> you guys are awesome. lauren: he's great. ashley: i love it. lauren: when he grows up he wants to own his own chick-fil-a franchise. ashley: well it's about the experience being treated well, and look after your customers that look after you. good for him. lauren: did you know chick-fil-a had a drive-thru? ashley: i did.

lauren: i did not know that and i said whoa those lines must belong. ashley: they can be. good stuff. i want to talk about michael bloomberg first moving his campaign headquarters to the old new york times building, just right down the street in times square, things are a little busy there today, but more importantly, he's got a peculiar idea for how he wants to lay out the white house if he wins. we'll show you what that is, next. >> ♪ ♪ (groans) hmph... (food grunting menacingly) when the food you love doesn't love you back, stay smooth and fight heartburn fast with tums smoothies. ♪ tum tum-tum tum tums

ashley: all right let's get a quick update on the situation in baghdad and iraq a spokesman for the state department now says that all u.s. personnel there at the u.s. embassy are indeed safe , that's good news and there has been no breach. there are currently no plans by the way to evacuate the embassy that's the very latest from baghdad. of course we are continuing to

follow it. we're also, by the way, 34 days now for the iowa caucuses but the crowded democratic presidential field still has no clear front runner it's very muddy so let's bring in bloomberg polster doug schoen, a good friend of the show. doug, we've had this conversation a lot, and increasingly so, the chance of a brokered convention for the democrats, mayor pete may do well in iowa, but other candidates may do well elsewhere this could make itself all the way to next july. >> it could. ashley: under that scenario, who anyone could come out of the woodwork. >> i think that is the strategy that has mayor bloomberg's decision to avoid the first four contests, compete on super tuesday when 48% of the delegate s will be chosen. ashley: it's interesting, isn't it? because there bloomberg jumped in because he said look, i've seen, i don't think the far left

candidates can win and he says that joe biden is vulnerable so he wants to be the strong middle of the road democrat candidate and people know him here and they know him publicly on the west coast but they don't know middle america very well. >> which is why he launched a very aggressive and ambitious advertising campaign that began about three, four weeks ago and i'm sure will continue into the new year. ashley: so what's his main message? we hate trump and he needs to go >> i think his main message is two-fold which is trump has to go and he, bloomberg is a credible, alternative, solid, stable, rational, not given to flights of fancy or ego but he gets things done that he's a data guy who responds to numbers , and circumstances rather than shooting from the hip or the lip. ashley: well you talk about numbers the presidents numbers especially with regard to the economy are pretty good. >> they are very good yes. ashley: not a flight of fancy but the numbers speak for

themself. can he make a good argument on the economy because that works for the president. >> well there's a couple things income and equality which certainly has gotten worse, there is stagnation in wages, which for working people, remains an issue, so i think there is some room for the democrats and bloomberg to talk about the economy and i think that we need to train people for the jobs of the 21st century as opposed to hoping that manufacturing comes back. ashley: want to get your take on this your candidate, mr. bloomberg tweeted this picture out saying that our president, he turned the east room into an open office plan and would sit with his team, he says he's only going to use the oval office for "some official function" never for tweeting. obviously taking a dig at the president but he's catching slack on social media to this. that's a radical idea.

your thoughts? does that win any votes, impress people? >> i guess what i would say is mike bloomberg has done things his way built a 50-plus billion dollar business, got elected three-times mayor of new york so from where i sit, he has done things his way, he believes the open office concept encourages cooperation and having been in the white house myself i know that it is a tough, tough issue to get people working together. ashley: maybe the open office. i like the picture though. doug thank you so much. >> thank you. ashley: happy new year to you. >> thank you. ashley: okay, next its been a whirl wind year for space travel here in the states. milestone launches from boeing and spacex, albeit with, yes, some teething issues but what does that mean for 2020? what should we be looking forward to when it comes to space? well guess what we've got a former nasa astronaut on that, next and of course, we'll show you the absolute best of varney & company in 2019 and i'm

talking baby yoda, the peloton husband, dennis rodman, who can forget that, rob gronkowski, and yes back to baby yoda, you don't want to miss it. >> ♪ oh, but i thought i'd ask you just the same, what are you doing new years day ♪ to invest in all the things that move us forward. every day, invesco combines ideas with technology, data with inspiration, investors with solutions. because the possibilities of life and investing are greater when we come together. ♪

ashley: 2020 will bring us some cool new space missions, so, to talk about it and joining us now , former nasa astronaut, lero y chow. thank you so much. what can we expect for the new year? >> some very exciting things are happening in space in 2020. the thing that i'm most excited about is the launch of the mars 2020 rover that will arrive at mars early in 2021, but it's going to be a very exciting mission and could very possibly find evidence of past microbial life on mars and i think that would really be exciting. a couple of other big things happening of course spacex and boeing have already been in the news this year, they are planning to begin operations, commercial operations to take u.s. astronauts to and from the international space station, and then of course we have virgin galactic announcing they are going to begin their tourist

operations, of flying tourists to the edge of space and i would expect blue origin to begin operations as well, there of course a little more secretive but they are coming along very nicely it seems with their new shepherd spacecraft. ashley: what's your thought on space tourism? does it bring more people and of course they have to be rich in order to afford a ticket, very rich, but is that a good development in your mind? >> i think it is. again, it's not for everyone. you can still, i think, try to go to the international space station for a week or so, i think the price is somewhere in the 70 million range now flying with the russians, and of course virgin galactic i believe their pricing is still around 250,000 for just a few minutes in space, you know, you do get to see the earth and have the weightless experience, but i think that it's good to kind of get people aware of space travel , and the fact that if we do come up with some break throughs in propulsion technology it's possible to bring those launch costs down.

ashley: what's the next really big development do you think, le roy? is it some sort of development on the moon, or humans to mars? >> i think the moon is the right place to go before we go to mars. i mean, you can make an argument for going directly to mars but i think it makes sense to build infrastructure around the moon, nasa's plans are certainly complementary or i should say, you know, blue origin's plans are complementary to nasa, spacex is also interested in the moon, before going to mars, and so i think it makes sense to go and develop everything and test everything because the moon's pretty close. it's only about three to four days away so if you have an issue you can get your crew back quickly. you want to make sure things work before you send it on a six to eight month journey to mars. ashley: probably sound advice, l eroy chiao, fascinating stuff really appreciate it. >> my pleasure, thank you. ashley: those of us here on varney & company and on earth are excited of course for 2020 but before we ring in the

new year, let's take a look back at some of our favorite moments from the past year. >> that's baby yoda. we're told that it has become an internet sensation, and what utter nonsense. i'm the guy with six kids and nine grandchildren, and i'm the one whose supposed to think it's so cute, and i've got all of these offspring, for heaven sake today is take your child to workday. well this is one of my children, this is angela. no child by the way, you're in your 20s aren't you? >> yes, yes, you want to take a stab at how old i am? >> no. ashley: joe nameth, i hope you'll off that book for me. >> [laughter] ashley: i wish i had that life. are you over it? >> yeah, i'm over it. i had to go through security 15 times to get here to see you.

you're not that damn important. >> [laughter] >> i love coming on the stuart varney show. that's why i'm on this thing more. at some point, you're going to have to give me a box of cigars or something as payment. i know we can't do direct cash. >>stuart: i love baby yoda. rob gronkowski. otherwise known as the gronk, is that correct? >> that's great with me. >> in the beginning, i was like this shy, innocent, kid living in the projects having a good time, living life broke, loving it, homeless, loving it and get in the nba, dammit. stuart: parker schnaber is with us he's basically a heartthrob and a very rich guy. >> this amount makes about 12 cookies. stuart: yeah, but $9. i figure out walk out of there with a plastic spoon, and chow down and eat it, we had someone

on the show yesterday who was selling cookie dough. >> i saw it. stuart: you saw it? >> yes. stuart: you explain to me how someone is prepared to pay $9 for a cup of cookie dough. why should i watch cars going round and round and round in a circle at 180 miles an hour? >> it's exciting and big strategy involved with the sport stuart: i will watch an unusual soccer game. >> i wouldn't go to that i'd be board out of my mind. >> what's the score? >> 1-0. >> [laughter] >> let's go to the highlights. >> guess what is the most- searched term in the last few months? stuart: don't say it. if you say baby yoda. >> [laughter] stuart: you've got paid for this commercial with part of the pay, at peloton of your own? >> [laughter] you know, i wish it was. but it wasn't unfortunately. stuart: raspberry pie, baby yoda pie, is trending more online than all democrat candidates combined. what does that tell you?

>> maybe the pie should run for president. [laughter] stuart: okay, are we going to say baby yoda again in the new year? >> no, no. i'm actually over baby yoda, and stuart looks at me really menacingly when i do disney plus baby yoda story. stuart: he's too easy to please. ashley: more varney after this. >> ♪ ♪ . .

ashley: news alert for you. president trump, he is tweeting again and saying this, very good meeting on the middle east the military and trade. heading back to the southern white house, mar-a-lago. updates throughout the day. that is the very latest from donald trump. we're following the situation in baghdad and also in hong kong.

it's a new year there, and more protests expected there. a lot to get at. for the markets, down 42 points. it has been going out an a little bit after whimper last couple trading days. it has been a spectacular year and decade. blake burman, take it away. blake: ashley, spectacular decade and year, thanks. i'm blake burman in for neil on this "coast to coast" edition. happy new year everyone. new year's celebrations across the globe. live look at bangkok, thailand. would you look at that! listen for a second. you could probably describe that as wall street over last year or so or decade or so, with investors plenty to celebrate as well. stock on track for the best year, at least the s&p, since 2013 this is as the president says the phase one deal with china will be signed on