game stock stock clearing. jackie: that does it for us. we will handed over to "varney & co.". stuart, take it away. stuart: good morning, jackie and good morning, everyone. in my opinion it's not over. it still has the feel of a casino. organized retail investors appear to be running the show. game. went way up earlier this morning, gamestop was still above 400. actually touched $500 a share and with the volatility now it's down $25, still a casino like atmosphere. how about american airlines, it's also getting swept up in the turmoil. this airline has a large number investors are betting the stock price goes down. they are shorting it.

income the retail guys buying the stock forcing what's known as a short squeeze with american airlines up 27%. it had been up 48% earlier. highly profitable tech at giants actually going down-- down. apple reported blowout earnings yesterday and now the stock is on the downside. it could be cash strapped hedge funds are silly big tech to cover their losses with apple down a dollar 85 and tesla down $39. let's get the big picture. there was something of a bounce after yesterday's huge selloff. we have the dow jones down over 600 yesterday, bouncing up 225 at the moment at the opening bell. s&p was down nearly 100 yesterday, modest bounce this morning and as for the nasdaq, that was down perhaps about 100 yesterday, big slide wednesday, down again today.

this is my opinion, the casino markets spilled over into the broader market yesterday and it may have a similar impact on the market today. it is not over yet. on the show today, president biden signs more executive orders including the reopening of the obamacare marketplace. he will also extend unemployment benefits to those who refuse to go back to work because they are afraid of the virus. how radical is this supposedly moderate president? bitcoin, still around $31000 per coin, not a safe harbor in this turmoil. teachers union, we will deal with that as the teachers union will not teach. they have abandoned our children. "varney & co." is about to begin. ♪♪

stuart: i went to talk about climate change, the jobs market and what are we going to do with those workers displaced in the oil and gas industry? i'm going to show you john kerry. hearers hear what he told the workers who recently lost their jobs due to biden's cancellation of the keystone pipeline. >> where president biden wants to do is make sure those folks have better choices, that they have alternatives and could be the people that go to work to make solar panels. unfortunately, workers have been fed a false narrative. they have been fed the notion that somehow dealing with climate is coming at their expense. no, it's not. stuart: radical cho biden killing jobs in the superrich private plane owning john kerry arrogantly tells those workers to make solar panels.

it so arrogant, so out of touch. more on that coming up later. let's get to the casino market and money. susan, come on in. what's with the gamestop? susan: we were up about $500 apiece a few hours ago, a 400% on the week, 1700% on the year and this upward surge briefly stop last night with the reddit page started the whole gamestop phenomenon and was briefly made private. it came back online on the discord, another social media platform. no forget, we did see a lot of these favorite short squeeze plays a drop with reddit went private briefly. emc of the world and blackberry dippy last night, but this morning the short squeeze is back on and we are also checking on some chatter taking place on robin hood. apparently, one of the most popular trading sites has now restricted trade in gamestop, amc and express.

we haven't received confirmation from robin hood. this could be the reason we see gamestop shares down this morning in the premarket. dave tweeting out his frustrations at this possible robin hood restriction saying someone will have to explain to me in what world robin hood and others literally force a crash by closing the opening market. is that fair? they should all be in jail. this goes back to tv america trade yesterday the first online brokerage to restrict trading in the short squeeze plays with favorites like gamestop, amc and express and makes you wonder to the companies need to hand hold retail investors when the government won't do it? stuart: i don't know, but that's exactly what some are doing and incomes him with his tweet and that looks like it's had at least a small and temporary impact on the casino markets because these casino stocks are now on the downside. amc down, blackberry down.

susan: just to get back to the casino reference, the problem i have is it sounds like you don't think investors know what they are doing. in this case i think they know exactly what they are doing and they found this in the market. people are in at $300 for gamestop and that might not be a smart trade. what started this was not a casino mentality, they were very strategic and recognize the opportunity. stuart: so long as we agree we have a casino mentality now. that's all i'm more read about. let's bring in gary kaltbaum and he says longtime market watcher gary, you say it's a bit of a 1999, make your case. >> you played the song 1999 and i will tell you 1999 in-- and some places here, i remember 99 well and it was crazy it was insane, but i've never seen anything like this where you just said gamestop was 500 in the premarket and now 330, 340, unfortunately i

think we will get more of this. there is going to be big losses with the retail investor when it's all said and done if they don't trade out of these things. valuation will eventually matter. gamestop will end up being a 20-dollar name again. all the stocks went from a dollar to 20 and will be back there again and i hope people are smart enough to understand a valuable will eventually matter. stuart: seem to me that yesterday-- as i call it a casino market, unsettled the whole market. is that going to continue because it looks like we have a minor-league bounce at the moment. >> i completely agree. yesterday selling had a lot to do with it. it's unnerving and i have been doing this for a long time and to see what we are seeing on the up and down side is unnerving. i think part of that was yesterday. i think we are going higher. i have called it a melt

up four months. i think it probably worsen before gets better and at the end of the day the bubble will pop and we will get back to normalcy again, but expect a wild ride to continue. i saw american airlines has 150 million share short and they are talking about that getting that going, so the big line is who's next and that what point in time and i tell all my people, just be careful, know what you are getting into. gamestop could be a thousand dollars for all i know, just knows-- know when the music stops there won't be any chairs left. stuart: there is a dip in big tech, not much, but a dip. would you buy it? >> not yet. they had a big run, valuations are up in the trade and i'm a big believer to watch reactions to earnings and with reactions selling off of good news it usually means there's going to be a little bit of time to price why

would wait be patient. i had to tell you microsoft and apple's numbers were incredible with the size of companies they are and i suspect over time higher, but near-term i suggest they will settle down. stuart: gary kaltbaum, thank you for joining us. see you soon. i want to sub up the state of play on money this thursday morning. the casino stocks, some of them are coming down. in the case of gamestop coming way down, same with amc. big-name tech stocks, some are beginning to stir although not that much and the overall market shows 200-point balance for the dow industrials after a 600-point loss yesterday. to sum it up, i don't think the casino market is over yet. let's turn to another big story and that is, in my opinion, the teachers union which is refusing to teach. watch first of all one very frustrated parent at a school board meeting.

watch this. >> you are a bunch of cowards hiding behind our children having excuses for keeping schools close. the garbage workers who pick up my freaking trash risk their lives every day! more than anyone in this school system! figure it out! or get off the podium because you know what, people like me and a lot of other people out there who will gladly take your seat and figure it out! stuart: he's going right after that school board and indirectly the teachers union, again that's my opinion and brian brenberg is with us a university teacher peer would you say about all this? >> well paris feel abandon, stuart. you can hear it in their voice and i look at this and i say if you feel like your school district, like teachers unions have abandoned your kids, then it's time to abandon that that system. the fact is a school

districts control your money. teacher unions control the school district and of the result is you are left with no choice in this monopoly system. same teachers union that won't go back and teach are the same ones who oppose a school choice, they oppose charters, they don't want competition. we are at a moment where i think it's crystal clear if you don't think you are being served and i think so many urban school districts are not serving their parents and their kids, then you got to go elsewhere and you got to look at the politicians who are willing to take the system elsewhere. right now these cities are run by politicians who have no interest in the school choice. stuart: i want to bring this to your attention although i'm sure you are aware of it. the mayor of new york city, bill de blasio once kids back in school full strength. that's at september, nine months away. >> i don't think he understands that any significant degree the damage that's happening

to kids by being out of school. he's not following the science on the physical health effects, the mental health effects, the effects on their learning, i mean, this is absurd to anyone. they are saying we don't have that kind of time and by the way, we look around our world and we see people who have figured it out, the gentleman in the video you just showed made that abundantly clear, people across this country know and have learned how to take appropriate risks and manage it do their work and a somehow we can't seem to do this in this industry, the space that's so critical to our kids. mayor deblasio, you want to open up schools? do it now because you can do it now in the same science applies now that will apply of september. the choice is yours, but stand up to people who line his pockets to run for mayor. that's ultimate truth. stand up to people who have for him to be in that spot and until he does, nothing will change a.

stuart: brian brenberg, we know you as an economist and we appreciate your views on education while you are also an educator. thank you. back to money, pure money, look at the market. i'm going to call that a modest bounce after yesterdays. mark cuban said his 11-year old son made money with the reddit traders and he's cheering on the little guy, more on that ahead. congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez definitely is not interested in unity. watch of this. >> there are legitimate white supremacists sympathizers that sit at the heart and at the core of the republican caucus. stuart: how about that. rnc chair ron mcdaniel will respond to that. she joins me next. ♪♪

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transactions for those certain securities and positions closing. this is important to note that they talk about the volatility and concerns over what this means for the entire markets on the system because this made implied to you, stuart, that there may be systemic risk from all of these big short squeezes and what it means for the broader market and the individual investor. you heard the same thing from ameritrade yesterday with a restricted trading in a specific popular short squeezes names and they are probably trying to i guess of the individual investor in their mind by handcuffing them to say maybe we should step in here and limit who can buy in the. stuart: i think that's exactly what's happening, susan. i think you are right. these companies proceeded that their significant risk to the individual investor. if they just let things run as they are, so they impose some restrictions

, which will call things down and limited the risk to the individual investor. i think they are doing the right thing, but they are interfering with the market. susan: are not sure they are doing the right thing because it should be in the hands of the government, shouldn't the fcc step in, the federal reserve, the treasury? we know it they asked yesterday and he declined to comment to give an answer, but i feel like this should be a broader i guess if you implement these laws there should be a standard that should be implemented by the government for everyone to follow. stuart: that's down the road. in the immediate short-term, gamestop or rather the robin hood's of this world are taking actions themselves and that's where they are in look at that affects them below $300 a share. susan: what about the systemic issues, could this go broader and impact the broader markets with a 2% decline yesterday for the s&p 500 and when reading through the statements from robin hood i think there may be a bigger issue than just a

gamestop and just bed bath and beyond or blackberry. stuart: oh, absolutely. the big hedge funds lose money, they have got to cover those losses so they are selling other stocks, not casino stocks. may be they are selling big tech because they need to raise cash and that's the systemic risk of the spreading of the casino atmosphere and the casino affect. i think we are on the page, susan. complex a situation. lets get back to politics for a moment. the gop will remain neutral in the 2024 primaries if trump decides to run again. ronna mcdaniel is rnc chair and she joins us now. sounds like you are distancing yourself already. >> not at all in the president completely understand this. this is the role of the rnc. in fact, it's part of the reason he became the nominee because many wanted the former chair

in 2016 to put his thumb on the scale and prevent donald trump from getting the nomination. of the remained neutral and we got this president who did some a wonderful things for our country and of the rnc has to remain neutral. as part of our bylaws and it makes for a better primary process produces a better nominee heading into the general. stuart: i hate to ask rhetorical questions, but you would agree, would you not, that the republican party, your party is badly split? >> we are having a little bit of a spat but we will come together and we have to. look at web biden has done already with energy policy, destroying jobs in middle america and you look at what he's done joining the who and put in china in charge of our pulp-- foreign-policy again and what it means for middle income families who will lose jobs and republicans recognize that we are only going to take back majority if we are united and we

already see those fissures paid away as we recognize what we need to get done in the midterm and 2022. stuart: let the debate perceived peer ronna mcdaniel, thank you for being with us. sorry it's so short. we will have you back soon. let's see how we open the market with about seven minutes at to go before this thursday morning market opened that we are going up. we are tory covering all of the losses from yesterday selloff, but we are showing a modest amount of green. dow jones up 200. more on the markets after this. ♪♪ ♪

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stuart: markets are about to open slightly higher after big declines yesterday and then there is market cuban reacting to the atmosphere on wall street he says quote i have to say i love what he's going on with wall street bets, all the years of high-frequency traders, front running retail traders and no speed and density of information and retail trade in giving the little guy and edge. even my 11-year old

traded with them and made money. sandy villere is with us i have to bring this to you, robin hood just imposed restrictions in trading on some stocks, mc, blackberry, gamestop, bed bath and beyond as they are trying to clamp down on the risk they think individuals are exposed to. sandy, do you think they are doing the right thing? >> i really do, i mean, what happens when you look at any time in history and any time you get some sort of speculative mania which is really what's going on, it's not investing, it's looking at balance sheets and talking to management teams and it's really speculating on will someone buy shares ahead of me and i think it's going to end badly for the retail investor trying to buy one of these stocks that's up 1800% or something. i have seen this before, unfortunately. stuart: we still have a casino like atmosphere, wild volatility yesterday spread to the broader markets.

could do you think it will spread to the broader market again? >> this is what happens when you have hedge funds short, they have to cover and take some of those losses from wherever they could get liquidity which will be in some of the larger tech stocks that have done well maybe it can leak into the other parts of the market. frankly, that's what bothers me is the contagion aspect where it does flow into other areas of the stock market, so a little frightening, frankly. stuart: i agree. i'm looking at these casino stocks, which are down 22%, 24% down for gamestop. it could be the fast action by robin hood has left the small investor, the retail guy, holding the bag. that could be what's happening now. sandy, i'm sorry to cut it short but we appreciate you being here. about opening bell is about to ring and we are

going to cover thursday's trade. thank you. literally 18 seconds to go before we open the market up again. we will be looking very carefully at the casino stocks. premarket because of robin hood's restriction on casino stocks, they are down. the question will be, who's holding the bag. here we go, off and running. of the market has opened the initial move is to the upside. remember, this is the opening bell. no guarantees on how the market closes at 4:00 p.m. eastern, but right now you're up about three quarters of 1% on the dow jones, 200 points-- please remember it was down 630 yesterday. s&p 500 has also opened on the upside. big drop yesterday, modest gain today at nasdaq up one third of 1%, same story, big drop yesterday and modest balance at the opening. the casino stocks where

the action is in the interest is. we have amc down 36%, expressed down 23%. read it for yourselves, folks, sure on the radio blackberry down 24%, no kid down 20% extraordinary and as the casino stocks go down, i want to know what's happening to big tech. they are wildly profitable as they just reported huge profits, so what's going on with big tech, susan? susan: not just robin hood, we have interactive brokers confirming they are putting amc, gamestop, express, blackberry, again the option rate trading into liquidation is extraordinary volatility in the market. if you are on a margin account you probably need more in your bank to hold those specifics short squeeze plays but when it comes to big tech, we are looking at declines despite the fact all three have fantastic and it to last year.

star with apple, record iphone sales last three months to $106 billion in cash, record profit. wall street may have already priced in the blowout quarter in the run-up to the earnings. i spoke to apple ceo tim cook yesterday who called from the us government for the us economy thing he says it thinks it's a smart move to reach a bipartisan agreement on a stimulus package and optimistic when we get out of the pandemic the economy can grow nicely. tesla making less money than anticipated but sales are better and delivery growth of 50% which is up huge and facebook saw a huge recovery in its advertising revenue. they lost a million users in north america, canada and the us, but big tech better than everyone else in this covid environment. stuart: stay with me for a second. game. we understand has just been halted. susan: yup. stuart: i want to go back to these stocks, these casino

stocks. amc halted as well i'm told so there's where we are. let's talk about left holding the bag, some small retail investors no doubt but gamestop last night for $450 a share at now the stock is down around $200 a share. of those investors who couldn't get out, who cannot now get out have lost a big time. what you say? susan: there could be a silver lining at the end of this. i will use amc as an example which right now is halted for volatility. amc because the stock has spiked to so much they are doing the right thing as they are raising cash in this environment, $900 million and it's a convertible note seen the trade like a bond and then converted into stock in equity, 70% by

investor, 70% conversion rate is huge and that means people would rather take the stock vanowen it as a bond. gamestop could use the same thing. stock trading up $500, raise cash, maybe change your business to something that's not brick-and-mortar and there could be a silver lining but when you drive it up to $500 that's not based on fundamentals i agree it looks like a casino socket maybe when you got in under the 100 and it looked like a strategic play to kill the short but someone will have to own in these at some point when it trades up to this level. stuart: i hate to think of the political response when the little guys holding the bag and gets wiped out to the left will be all over this. i went to go back to one stock in particular in that's gnocchi a family saga way up and now it's down 18% work is it a casino stock now? lauren: it is. its head heavy trading and they put out a statement saying there's nothing that changed

with our fundamentals, no new news and we don't understand this wild trading but it is down today like the others as you say casino stocks because of the restrictions put on by robin hood. by the way, robin hood is getting beaten up on social media right now for what they are doing because what we are failing to recognize his what's going on on these forms like reddit is it's a moment in history where the little guy is saying enough with the establishment and it's an uprising, if you will, and they are voting right now with their dollars, stuart. stuart: i agree entirely. it's a remarkable story unfolding as we are speaking. everyone was worried when you have this spike up the retail guy buys up there and gets wiped out when it comes all the way down to hear. that's what's happened right now in the space of 24 hours or 12 hours really.

these casino stocks are falling out of bed. amc, express, bed bath and beyond, blackberry, nokia, gamestop all down in huge percentage terms and i think we are witnessing the holding of the bag by some of the little guys forced out by the retail trading operation robin hood itself. can we go back to susan? go ahead, lauren, i know you have an expert-- an opinion. i don't mean to cut anyone off. lauren: there's a lot going on. one side of the aisle says wall street is getting what they deserve, this democratization of information and anyone can play at their own game and other people say what robin hood is doing, what ameritrade did and what the top security regulator in the commonwealth of massachusetts-- massachusetts says a 30 day cooling off. back while regulators figure out what to do

because what we saw the past two weeks is irrational exuberance. we sought with pet.com. in the '90s of housing in the crisis and now with the these stocks it's usually the little guy that gets hurt in the end, so the irony here, but he don't want the little guy to get hurt and arguably it's ironic the restrictions are making them get hurt now. stuart: okay. susan, what you got? susan: i would say i like this democratization of the stock market because everyone keeps a warning about the little guy in the retail investor and smart money versus dumb money and by the way there's no such thing as smart money anymore through 2020 proved that with that day trading brigade as some had better returns than the institutions of the fact that there is this morning that the average investor shouldn't be getting in, that's like saying my shoe have a mba you should be trading the stock market which i

disagree with again they recognized an opportunity and that's what you are supposed to do as an investment professional there is lopsided shortselling 140% of stock and that flow with the minimal floated each and every day i thought that was a brilliant, actually brilliant strategy. what's wrong with that? stuart: well, this is where the fcc should step in. why did they allow a company stock 140% of the company stock to be short? is that the way the stock market should operate? i don't think so and that's one area or you could see regulation. i'm sorry, we are out of time to susan, what over the facebook if you can because i have it up for putting% going the other way for the-- 4.8%-- up 5% now and i don't know why but it's a standout from the other big tech. susan: is been sold that down so much heading into the earnings,

but i thought it was a fantastic order for them with a huge recovery for advertising revenue. yes, they lost users by a million, but the outlook for the rest of the year especially miscoded recovery looks better for facebook and those that depend on advertising revenue apple, tesla-- yes, it is profit taking because if you saw the run-up in the weeks and months heading into these report cards everyone expected a fantastic blowout last three months of 2020 and they delivered. apple over delivered with a record $111 billion in sales. no other company has been able to do that and they sold the most iphones ever in three months with her iphone 12. had the stock trading about 145 and that was a record high heading into that report so i think it is a bit of profit taking and people understand big techs have done well drink a look and they will

continue to do well this year. stuart: fascinating market. susan, lauren, thank you. i'm going to switch a little. do you remember when then candidate joe biden said this to call my nurse? watch it again. >> i come from a family in an area where it's coal mine in. anyone could go down 3000 feet sure as hell can learn how to program as well. we don't think of it that way. stuart: coal mine nurse to become computer programmers? now john kerry, with his message to the displaced oil and gas workers? he says go make solar panels. he's the administration's special envoy for climate and he's back and we will cover all he has to say when we come back. ♪♪

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stuart: tesla stock taking something of a hit this morning, down $34, 4%. pierre ferragu is back with us and has been covering tesla for much of the past year. you have been bullish on the stock and you have been right and you will-- it went to where you set it would go. seems to me at this moment tesla is a casino stock. could do you think it's primed for a big fall? >> so, i think it's a volatile stock and any stock can be in some way a bit of a casino stock, but i'm not worried of tesla or could the first is that it's now very large market and when you see these stocks and

millions of investors going after them so i think it's well protected, but it's been a very active stock. as far as where the price is today is the result of retail investors hoarding that like more and more tesla. i think the stock is worth $1200 in 2024. it's below 800 today. if you own it, i think you are fine. if there is a pullback then that's where i become a buyer again. the story is amazing. they say they will exceed 50% growth in

nine think this year it will grow closer to him at 100% than 50% on manufacturing. stuart: that's fascinating, so i take your point tesla is not really a casino stock because the company is now so big and there are so many retail investors who really love the stock. i take the point. it won't be wildly volatile as it was in the past. .com. explained to me-- explain the valuation to me, how is it possible tesla is worth more than the next nine largest car companies in the world combined. that i don't understand. >> nine of the other car companies i think you have to move to electric and it will destroy the earning power for multiple years. it's very expensive for

them to move to electric whereas tesla is already very profitable because they have been working on it for more than 10 years, so that's one thing. the second thing is that tesla over the next 10 years will only gain market share all the time every year that we grow because they have this exorbitant event like the experienced leader in electric cars and others will lose market share, so when you lose market share suddenly-- opposed to the one gaining market share and i think that ratio is fine to me. stuart: that's a good explanation. i consider myself informed. thank you for joining us. see you soon. have you seen this market? i mean, now, we have 340, down 600 yesterday. there's a volatility index and it measures volatility. susan, i bet it's gone

skyhigh. susan: yes, the biggest jump in two years yesterday in this epic showdown between retail versus institution, spiking 62% in the jump came as the s&p 500 had its biggest selloff since october and this is despite what you heard from the federal reserve saying they would leave interest rates unchanged to. professional investors might be protecting themselves by-- before any short squeeze by these retail investors in case there is any shorts they need to close out and also checking in on the 10 year treasury yield down below 1% down and 99, for the first time since the start of the year and it shows you there is nervousness on wall street whether it's the volatility fear gauge or even buy treasury bonds. stuart: well said. don't be fooled by 300-point bounce for the dow jones. there is still anxiety. 104, on the 10 year treasury.

it did drop below 1% earlier. 104). going to show you something amazing. that is the chicago teachers union performing interpreted dance and support of keeping schools close. the education of our children is the hands of our teachers unions and i don't like it. ♪♪

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as they get pummeled in gamestop they had to get out of the positions they are long which is at the btc and things like tesla and as they sell bitcoin comes off. bitcoin is still 50% higher than when i was last on your show. stuart: do you expect a repeat when the selling of assets and stocks to raise cash and when or if it stops do you expect bitcoin to go back up again? >> either today or tomorrow and in that respect i expect to see folks come charging back in because the bitcoin isn't really something they trade, they buy and hold so bitcoin can buy more at a cheaper price so i think it's great, but here's what we really see is that what you are calling the-- what others call casino operators, that's the future investor in american i think they're sick of being treated like a product as robin hood would sell their data, they went to be

treated fairly and it went to trade 24 hours a day, seven days a week and that what my company is bring to the market. stuart: we understand and we will take it. douglas, thank you. i'm sorry it's so short, but it's a big day and yet a pretty good explanation. douglas borthwick, thank you. here's what we have coming up on a very important market day. add your denny is with us, kt mcfarland, pete hegseth, dan henegar on tap for the 10:00 a.m. our. ♪♪ ♪♪ a visual snapshot of your investments, key portfolio events, all in one place. because when it's decision time, you need decision tech. only from fidelity. at t-mobile, we have a plan built just for customers 55 and up.

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♪. stuart: yes, you really do when to know when to hold them and fold them especially on wall street these days. check that market please. it is a modest redown from yesterday's big losses but the really big story here, the casino stocks, show me gamestop. fascinating. look at this. just look at that! about a half hour ago gamestop was around just under $300 a share. in came robinhood, whoa, we're putting restrictions on trading in these casino stocks like

gamestop, like some of the others, the stock went down. bingo. now it has come right back up again. that is volatility. that is a casino stock market. now you're up nearly 30% on fame stop, 450 a share. american airlines, who would have thought they would be brought and dragged into this but they are. there is a big short position in american airlines and retail investors are going after it, forcing shorts to cover their positions, which means they have to buy the stock which pushes the price up. 15%, 16% up on american airlines. that is amazing. that is the casino stock market. let's go to the booming housing market. new numbers on mortgage rates and home sales. lauren what do you have? lauren: start with rates, 2.73% on the 30 year fixed-rate mortgage. by comparison it was 3.5% one year ago.

the 15 year is popular, that fell to 2.2%. new home sales, coming in, this is a miss, 842,000, seasonally adjusted annualized rate for the month of december. it was a rise of 1.6% from november. the median home price, that rose $50,900. price up, supply down, rates down -- 350,900. that is the trend for 2020. we'll see the trend into 2021, stuart. stuart: median price for new homes, 355,900 bucks. that means half are more expensive, less are half expensive. that is a very big number. go ahead, lauren. lauren: they also give an average sales price, that is almost $400,000.

$394,900. so, imagine that. that is a lot of money for a new home, if that is the average price. stuart: well-said. that is a very high number. we've got an indicator on the economy going forward. it is called index of leading indicators. ash, what do you have? ashley: came in as expected, stu, 0.3% was expected. that is exactly what it was for december. now it was up .6% in november. you could say it has been cut in half from november to december but it is on the upside, but as you say it is a forward-looking number so coming in as expected no big surprises. stuart: all right, ash. we're looking at the market, seeing a lot of green. up 400 on the dow. could it be that the restrictions placed on the trading of some casino stocks is a plus for the overall market. that is why it is going up? i just chuck that theory out

there, because you have a lot of explaining to do with the dow up 400 and the nasdaq up 100. good stuff. now this. you know you could see it coming for miles. the political response to the markets turmoil. never let a crisis go to waste. we heard that before. i think it is back in play. the left will use the gamestop story as an excuse to regulate and beat up wall street. and the rich. and the hedge funds. i'm not saying we need regulation. i'm not saying we should interfere but gamestop is given the opportunity to those who just don't like capitalism. first out of the box, senator elizabeth warren. she says hedge funded and wealthy investors treated the stock market as their own personal casino, quote, it is long past time for the sec to wake up and do their jobs and i intend to make sure though do. no specific regulatory proposals but the turmoil helped elizabeth

warren's push for seizure of wealth and a massive increase in the tax on stocks profits. just step back a moment. what we've seen is the little guy beat the big guys of wall street. retail investors took on the hedge funds, at the moment they're winning. the left loves that. aoc thinks it is just great but if the little guy loses and is left holding the bag there will be hell to pay. he democratization of investing, that is a what is happening given the left an opportunity. they can highlight inequality. some big investors made hundreds of millions of dollars in gamestop in couple days. the left, they will seize the moral high ground. they will rail against greed. they will portray themselves against saviors, defending mass as against ravages of capitalism. it is an opening. it is an opportunity. we heard it all before. gamestop gives them a chance to say it again, only louder.

the second hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪. stuart: james freeman is with us from "the wall street journal." james, i want to go right at the news this morning which is, robin hood has put some restrictions on what i'm calling casino stocks. they seem to have calmed things down a little but i see some of these stocks are back off to the races again. do you think robinhood is doing the right thing? >> generally i don't like brokerage, brokerages or even more regulators intervening in markets. i think people should be allowed to express their views but, look, if they're acting to limit the ability of investors to borrow money to, to invest in gamestop or gamestop or other stocks, that may be advisable but i would hope it is based on

a business purpose and not on some public pressure that this is a big problem that needs a solution. you mentioned senator elizabeth warren kind of exploiting this moment and, intellectual consistency is not important to her. she is coming to the aid of those loveable wall street short sellers who use borrowed money to bet on misfortune. so i don't, i don't see a big problem here that needs a, certainly not a government solution. as far as the brokerages i would hope they would let markets operate as best they can. stuart: but if you get a nasty selloff that leaves a lot of retail investors, literally millions of retail investors holding the bag, sitting on major league losses, if that happens, i'm not suggesting it will happen, but a lot of these things do end in tears, if it were to happen that would give impetus to the left to really get out there with much more in

taxation, much more restrictions on trading and a real anti-wall street brass, it would give them that opportunity if millions of little guys are left holding the bag. what do you say? >> yeah. as you pointed out so far this is a story of little guys with all the democratized investing tools beating the pros. if there is a big downturn, you can expect sadly as we've seen through history the urge to socialize the losses but whether it's a big investor or small investor, if you're investing in stocks and certainly if you're investing derivatives, these are, these are not risk-free. they carry risk, especially when we see markets at multiples like now. people should be reminded that these things can go down too. i know it might seem strange watching gamestop but it's very unlikely that the rest of the year it will rise as it has in

january, so, it is important for people to realize that they go up and they go down and this is, this is an investment with risk. if you don't want risk, stay out of the stock market. stuart: got it. james freeman. thanks for joining us. we appreciate it. we'll see you again soon. take another look at the overall markets, because that is a rally. that is certainly a strong bounce. nasdaq is up 460. s&p is up 50 points. ed yardeni is with us. one of our favorite market watchers, has been with us almost every week for the past year. he has been right. he always looks for the market to keep going higher and he has been right but this morn being i want to talk to but the economy. we got the gdp numbers for 2020. terrible performance, the worst in many, many years obviously because of the pandemic. you raised your forecast for

2021. you raised it big time. are you looking for a stellar economy this year? >> absolutely. i think we'll certainly get another round of stimulus. the first round of stimulus last year certainly gave us a v-shaped recovery. over all the year was terrible but when you actually look at the pattern, we had this extraordinary recovery in the second half of the year and do you know that real gdp is only down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis and a year ago was at all-time record high. that is just extraordinary. most economists were expecting that we wouldn't get back to the previous record high until maybe the end of 2022 and here we are at the beginning of 2021. during the first quarter, we're likely to see the economy back to where it was before the pandemic. really quite extraordinary. stuart: yes it is. you've been watching the market for almost as long as i have, actually and you have seen a few

bubbles burst as as have we all. what do you make of robinhood and others imposing restrictions on the trading in what i'm calling casino stocks? do you think there should be this kind of restriction on trading? >> well, stuart, i'm an old-fashioned kind of investor. i like to stick with the trends and fundamentals and a lot of what is going on from my per pick h speculative is basically noise. some people called this the calls of the wild. this is another version of occupy wall street. i mean there is a lot of fun ways to spin this thing and it is kind of a clash of the titans between wall street titans and the collective social media titans that have gathered together to drive some of these stocks up, but so far a lot of this stuff is really on the margin. i mean, the overall markets had a great run here but it has been based on the economy improving and the most dovish fed i have

ever seen. people just aren't commenting on what i think was most important heard. he was repeatedly asked whether stocks were overvalued. he was asked about gamestop. and he just kept dodging it and saying things are, the focus of the fed is the economy. they're going to keep interest rates extremely low. so when you got the fed super dovish, you got the economy recovering, and on top of all of that, vaccines are here. the distribution is an issue. but we don't have to, you know, immunize everybody. if we do just do the seniors and vulnerable people, we'll convert this plague, this virus from a plague to a pest by the second half of the year. so that is what i'm focusing on, not a lot of noise that i'm

hearing in these calls of the wild. stuart: fascinating. fascinating. ed yardeni, thanks very much for being with us. see you again real soon. >> thank you. stuart: we have to get back to the casino stocks. i will take a look at them right now. look at gamestop, $415 a share, up 19%. susan, go through the casino stocks. what's happening. susan: you want to stop using that term on casino stocks, because on social media people are pushing back, maybe they're more educated trades than you can imagine. stuart: okay. i will stop using it, what have you got? susan: look, maybe gamestop might be a casino stock but i don't think tesla is a casino stock because i think they proved over and over for six straight quarters they are making money. maybe there might be a limit where we can characterize certain stocks there. robinhood interactive traders, the two latest online platform restricting trade in gamestop and express, blackberry and the like f we quickly bring up the

robinhood statement to us, again saying in light of this recent volatility that we are seeing we are restricting transactions of certain securities, position only closing, yes, amc, gamestop, blackberry also interactive brokers stepped in liquidating options trading in gamestop, amc, blackberry. if you have long position, 100% margin, if you're shorting you need 300%. gamestop briefly become the biggest company on the russell 2000 when it crossed $500 a piece. it's a bipartisan issue, both on the left and right both are cheering on the little guys and retail traders. look at aoc, you have to admit it is something, wall street trading our economy as a casino naming a board of posters a market of a casino t maybe should stop casino.

gamestop, blackberry, yes, not big ones like tesla, the fifth or sixth largest companies in america. does that make sense? stuart: all right, susan i changed the nomenclature. i will call gamestop, a gambling chip. that won't make you happy. susan: there has to be an understanding, this is the year 2021. trading dynamics have changed. we're in era of social media. we're not tickertaping anymore. maybe things are just done differently these days? stuart: are you reading social media at at the moment? are they having a go at me because i used casino market and casino stocks? susan: they would like you to stop using that term. it may be educated, strategic trades they are putting on and not putting a chip on the floor. stuart: whose side are you on? susan: i agree with them. i don't think they are casino stocks. they might be inflated to the

point, 500 for gamestop, that might look a little casinoy but under 100 i think that was a smart move. stuart: gotcha, thank you, susan. president biden's pick for u.n. ambassador says she will be tough on china despite giving a glowing speech to a chinese backed organization a couple years ago. kt mcfarland on that next. ♪.

stuart: marching ever upward, the dow is up close to 500 points. the nasdaq is up better than 1%. show me big tech, we've seen

quite a turnaround in the last, two, 90 odd minutes. we were down, apple is still down. amazon up 1%. facebook up a buck 64. it had been up a lot more than that we have microsoft gaining five dollars a share. i got a thin sliver of that thing. it is up 2 1/2%. google is up 2 1/2% as well. big tech has turned around, except apple which has not turned around, still down. big movers, lauren you have the list. show us please. lauren: i want to start with housing because this market is on fire but if you look at some of the worst performers it is housing-related plays. pulte homes down 6%, whirlpool, down eight 1/2%. both reported strong earnings. the message that was anticipated. wall street is not impressed here. i want to show you two more stocks, american airlines. this is the most shorted airline. it was mentioned on reddit and

look at the shares, up 12.8%. fundamentals, they did report a narrower loss. finally levi strauss, the jean company, better earnings, low foot traffic. the stock is down 7%, stuart. stuart: yeah, that foot traffic will get you every time. thanks very much indeed, lauren. now this, i really got to say the image, of the standing, the reputation of the republican party is under sharp, sharp attack. watch this. roll it, please. >> they're dealing with what we would usually think of as a fringe, violent extremist, criminal movement. that's more than a party in disarray. that's something where it is very hard to have a stable democracy. stuart: well, an extremist criminal movement. welcome to the show, congressman greg murphy, republican and doctor, from south carolina. would you like to have at it,

congressman, from what, i'm sorry south carolina. i do apologize sir. wrong state. i apologize. north carolina. straighten it out for us, greg. which state? >> north carolina. stuart: thank you very much indeed. what is your response to rachel maddow? >> poor, rachel, we have, we have a saying in the south here, we say bless her heart. and you know, what she is doing is, why didn't she talk about all this during this past year when the democrats were promoting violence, when they were promoting burning, they were promoting looting. we had a small criminal element and came and took over the capitol building and those, that criminal element is going to be prosecuted and prosecuted completely. but foreher to tell the whole party we're in disarray, we're the party of violence, literally absurd. she has no credibility whatsoever. so bless her heart as we say. stuart: bless her heart. that's a remarkable state

expression. i will use it myself one of thee days. sir, you're a doctor. what's the problem with the vaccine rollout in some states, not everywhere, what's the problem and how do we get over it? >> i think there are several different layers of problems, one is expectation. we just had an emergency declaration barely a month ago, to allow the vaccine, especially the pfizer vaccine to come forward. the expectation is, like literally you can go to a to get a prescription, to have the vaccine available that is not the case. for example, here in north carolina we had 10 months to plan for a good execution plan, but our folks in the democratic administration did not do a good job in planning, roll out per states, how it should be done locally in some particular places has been a disaster. in the last few days we're doing

better job improvement. there is a problem with one expectation, and two the mechanics making sure this works. this is unprecedented. we've never done anything like this before in our nation's history. there will be some bumps and bruises, but we'll get through it. we need to get people vaccinated. but we also people want to be vaccinated. that is one of the challenges that we face in the next few months. stuart: sure is. congressman from north carolina, i got that right. thanks for joining us greg. sorry it is so short. we have market action that cannot be denied. thank you, sir, see you again sir. stuart: not going to the market action immediately. i'm going to an outrageous story. pakistan's top court ordering the immediate release of the man convicted of kidnapping and murdering american journalist daniel pearl. that is outrageous, we've got the story. it is just breaking. we got it for you. president biden's pick for u.n. ambassador facing a grilling on

capitol hill because she gave a glowing speech to a chinese organization a couple years ago. watch this. >> is it the role of america's u.n. ambassador to be cheering on the chinese communist party? >> did you have even a word of criticism about the chinese communist party about its murders, about its tortures, about its concentration camps about its genocide? stuart: well is president biden going to cave on china? kt mcfarland has something to say about that and she's next. ♪.

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so cvs has a proprietary search tool that looks for savings. plus free delivery. get a free prescription savings review at cvs. stuart: plenty of volatility on the market, especially those stocks on the left-hand side of the screen, dow industrials and nasdaq. i want to bring everybody in, susan, ashley, lauren. i want to know what kind of regulation do you think would be okay for these volatile stocks? ash, you first. ashley: not so sure, stu. if they have big hedge funds, they run a stock short up to 140%. that is the risk they took. now they're being, having to pay

the piper so to speak. i'm a big free market guy. was it legal for them to short stocks by that much? sure it was. now we have concerted effort to raise prices on stocks have them scrambling to cover their bets. that is the way it works, right? any regulation, it is disturbing and a little discombobulating for the average investor look, banks made terrible bets during the financial crisis. they were buying assets they didn't even know what they were. they ended up getting bailed out. should we bail out the big hedge funds who decided to pick a stock they were going to short, now they're struggling. i don't think so, i think what goes around comes around? stuart: what do you say, lauren? lauren: i agree with ash sy that we shouldn't be bailing out big hedge funds but if they start to collapse, then you do have a fear of contagion. so that is, that is certainly a

risk to the market. what can regulators do now? you know what? i spoke to a lot of hedge fund guys yesterday, they all said this is capitalism at work. so maybe we see some sort of bans on you know, shorting of outstanding, the outstanding float or they rein in short selling in some respect but the little guys are doing what the big guys do. this is capitalism. the little guys are winning. stuart: all right. susan, what do you say? susan: so i'm reading, remember the big shorts, that film, the star investor was michael burney. he says this is unnatural, insane, dangerous, with this gamestop phenomenon. but what do you do about it? i guess people are in these, these reddit groups and social media of course reigns in this era. do you intend to stifle free speech and what people write in social media? ashley: agreed. stuart: are you asking me? susan: yeah. stuart: no, i'm, well, are we

talking about you know censorship what is written on reddit, are we talking about that, are we? susan: some people proposed for that, there needs to be some people to step in so sift through what is being said in these particular pages there are certain pages drive a lot of frenzied trading. i disagree. i feel sorry for hedge funders. no one should feel sorry for the billion dollar hedge fund managers in this case. do they need to be bailed out if they have a bad short trade? absolutely not in this case. let them lose their shirts. ashley: yes. stuart: i will drink to that. this debate will not end now it will go on for a long time to come. next, something completely different and frankly outrageous. pakistan's supreme court freed the man accused of kidnapping,

killing "wall street journal" reporter daniel pearl. reporter: this is horrible. his name is omar sheikh. he is british citizen been in prison 18 years after being convicted for killing and kidnapping of "wall street journal" reporter danny pearl. he was reporting in the region when he disappeared in in in 2002 made up three judges, dismissed all charges around 2-1 vote and ordered him be released from jail. u.s. is not happy with this decision. three other pakistanis sentenced to life in prison for their part in the murder also were freed. in a statement, the pearl family called the decision, a complete travesty of justice, stu. stuart: we hear you, ashley. thank you very much. president biden's pick to u.n. ambassador linda

thomas-greenfield gave a speech praising china in the past that the world should follow its example. kt mcfarland you follow this closely s president biden about to cave to china, what do you think? >> i think he was from the begin. their motto seems watch what we say, not what we do. they talk tough, everyone much nominees gone to capitol hill we'll be tough on china, but what have they done in the last week? they have done things like the new commerce secretary says we're not going to ban huawei from inside of the u.s. networks. they taken ban president trump put on americans investing in chinese military companies. they lifted that ban. yet at same time, china responds by saying we're going to ban any american company that hires anybody and does any business with the people who have been in the trump administration. so it is one thing after another. they're not acting, they're

acting very differently than what they're talking about. for me, and for the chinese frankly, it is deeds, it is not words. stuart: how about iran? you know, you are saying it is one thing after another. president biden, i think wants to take us back into the nuclear deal with iran. how could biden go back into that deal? do you think he will or try to? >> i think, if they do it they're nuts. here's why. because president trump, whether they liked what he did or not, the biden administration is now in a great position, right? the iranian economy is on its knees because of trump sanctions, because of low oil prices brought on largely because of american energy independence and american fracking industry. the mullahs of iran, guys who run things, they're old, they're sick. iran is dealing with a pandemic and they have no public health system. this is the time of maximum leverage owner ran. use it. negotiate a new deal. deal with their missiles. deal with their nuclear breakout

issues because if the biden administration goes back to the good ol' days of the fake iran nuclear deal they will ignite a nuclear arms race in the middle east because iran is going to get nuclear weapons with biden nuke deal. stuart: warned on china, warned on iran, kt mcfarland, thank you. we appreciate you being here. see you soon. >> thanks, stuart. stuart: we've covered a variety of stories today, obviously the market, foreign policy, china and iran. i really want to cover the education crisis. did you see this, the virginia parent who sounded off on a school board over school closures. watch this. >> you should all be fired from your day jobs because if your employers knew you were more inefficient than the dmv you would be replaced in a heartbeat. you're a bunch cowards hiding behind our children as an excuse for keeping schools closed.

stuart: that's an indictment of the teachers union. we've got more of it just ahead. show me gamestop, please. it is back up again but not that much. 4% higher now. this thing is all over the place. my next guest gave it a sell 12 days ago. i will ask her if she regrets that, after this. (naj) at fisher investments, we do things differently and other money managers don't understand why. (money manager) because our way works great for us! (naj) but not for your clients. that's why we're a fiduciary, obligated to put clients first. (money manager) so, what do you provide? cookie cutter portfolios?

(naj) nope, we tailor portfolios to our client's needs. (money manager) but you do sell investments that earn you high commissions, right? (naj) we don't have those. (money manager) so what's in it for you? (naj) our fees are structured so we do better when you do better. at fisher investments we're clearly different. (vo) businesses are always making choices. here's a choice you don't have to make: the largest 5g network... award-winning customer satisfaction... or insanely great value. now, with t-mobile for business, there's no compromise. network. support. value. choose. all. three. t-mobile for business. ready when you are.

♪. stuart: looks to me like some money is coming out of what i'm going to call short squeeze stocks. i have been listening to susan. not going to call them casino stocks. short squeeze stocks. i think that is accurate. some money coming out of them going into the dow, s&p, nasdaq. more bigger, more profitable established companies. that is what is happening on the market at the moment.

get back to gamestop, look at it now, all over the place, all day today. now down 4.8% to 330. earlier this morning it approached $500 a share. amazing. camilla is with us, welcome to the program. glad to have you on the show. you're on the show because 12 days ago you put out a sell order recommendation, a sell recommend nation on gamestop. i want to know two things, a, why did you say sell it, and b, do you regret it? >> hi, stu, good morning. gamestop is just a risk bing. we don't think it is a responsible investment and we see three catalysts that we see driving gamestop shares to our target price of $9. but before going into those three catalysts i would actually like to make analogy what is happening to gamestop to actually what i saw back in 2011

working as a reporter at the time covering the occupy wall street movement. if you look at the occupy wall street movement, the movement never disappeared but it did splinter off into other movements. likewise with tremendous amount of financial innovation and taking into account that consumers and retail investors can be quite fickle, we think that interest in gamestop, and other heavily shorted names will also splinter off. that is variant number one. the second variant is, second catalyst would be an sec investigation. we did see news today that several trading platforms are putting restrictions on gamestop. and then third earnings, because i -- [inaudible] own gamestop, who bought it recently they either don't know what gamestop is or when earnings come out they will learn some more

because gamestop's stock has a long history of falling after earnings because the company tends to frequently disappoint. stuart: well, camilla, having hard time hearing but 20 seconds on this please, do you see gamestop eventually going back to 5, 4, 3, 0, dollars per share? >> absolutely. for this reasons that i highlighted. the first reason being like the occupy wall street movement, which splintered off, consumers and retail investment, investors are fickle. this will also splinter off. second, the possibility of sec investigation and third the earnings which will give people a wake-up call the company really has elevated bankruptcy risk. stuart: we hear you now. loud and clear. it goes down to virtually zero. camilla, thank you very much for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. see you soon.

thank you. back to the markets. we have some serious movement here. the dow is up 450. we have some big movers. which stocks are moving big time, lauren? lauren: what did you call them before not the casino stocks or short seller stocks? stuart: short squeeze stocks. short squeeze stocks. lauren: short squeeze stocks. i will start this with most of the winners in that group although many of the names are fluke eighting today. many have been disabled by robinhood. put up list of gamestop, american airlines, kos, the headphone company and one time virgin galactic was on the list. it basically doubled but just turned lower. gape stop turned lower. other winners, comcast, 538,000 new blackberry customers. that is a positive. that stock is up 5 1/2%.

another theme in addition to the short squeeze, we're getting earnings from a lot of companies. in many cases the earnings are stronger than expected. that speaks to the fundamentals and underlying broader market. one of reasons we have a major rally on our hands today. stuart: put the flags out for a second, lauren. i think this is for you. aoc, alexandria ocasio-cortez, donald trump, jr., sorry my mistake, susan, aoc, donald trump, jr., they agree on something. what is it? susan: they agree the little guys should be allowed to take on the big guys. no, it is not just pure guessing but there might be some strategy at play, we know hedge funders, they have made billions of dollars over the entire length ever market history. so why not let the little guy step in, recognize opportunity and strategy, make money off this 140% shorting of gamestop shares? so it is interesting that it's a

bipartisan issue across both aisles but yet retail investors can win over goliath in these markets. stuart: okay. you're on their side, very much, aren't you, susan? susan: are you not? i thought you were a free market type of guy? stuart: don't answer a question with another question, you are on their side, aren't you? susan: i am on their side. i answered the question. i'm curious what side stuart varney any is on? stuart: stuart varney any is on the side that says if you have got a stock that goes to $500, three minutes later it is at $200. that is like a casino at moss moss fear. touch it at their payment. susan: well -- stuart: time's up, susan, time's up. you're right, they have changed. climate envoy john kerry he has a job recommendation for all those thousands of laid off-key stone pipeline workers. watch this.

>> what president biden wants to do is make sure those folks have better choices, that they have alternatives. that they can be the people who go to work to make the solar panels. stuart: make solar panels? did you hear that? ted cruz, senator cruz went at him, while you're at it, let them eat cake. i think he makes a good point. you heard me talk about the casino atmosphere on wall street all morning. next we'll take you to a real actual casino where people are getting the covid jab. we'll be right back. ♪.

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measure your waist. females measuring more than 35 inches and males measuring more than 40 inches may have insulin resistance. to learn how to reverse insulin resistance and lose weight effectively, go online to golo.com. once again, that's golo.com. stuart: i'm going to put pfizer and biontech on your screens. they have got new data whether their vaccines are effective against variants of the virus. lauren, do they work against these mutations? lauren: yes. yes, they work both against the uk variant and also, but less so against the south african mutation. that is the good news. no need to redevelop for those particular strains. one more thing for you, the cdc says look, we've had 20 million doses of both the pfizer and. moderator: vaccines administered in the country.

they appear safe. with that we're seeing americans mentality shifts. kaiser family foundation has a poll, 47% of adults say they not only, they have either been vaccinated or they plan to get a vaccine as soon as they can. basically half the country is okay with getting a job. that puts us in the right direction of heard immunity, stuart. stuart: got it. thanks very much indeed. draw your attention that the dow has been up 500 points. down 600 yesterday. up 500 today. not bad, almost back to 30,800. there is this, maryland turning a casino into a mass vaccination site. edward lawrence is there. how many jabs per day given out in a casino, edward? reporter: there are 100. they can do 100 jabs per day here at this site. i'm inside, steady stream, too.

i'm inside the live casino and hotel in maryland. there has been a steady stream of people coming in to get those jabs here. this site has been open for two weeks. a little bit under two weeks. they have already done 3,000 people. of the nationwide the amount of vaccine pushed out was 47 million doses. 25 million doses have gone into arms at this point. the vast majority of those doses pushed out is going to hospitals, county health departments are getting a little bit less to that. here in anne arundel county maryland. they say they could use more doses. the doses they do get, 3 to 5000 a week are going into arms. the first doses. all of this, all of this is being done on on-line registration. >> we're trying to work through a process we can really make sure the people that are registered are the people that we're targeting. reporter: how important is this vaccine to this county, could do you believe. >> it will open our economy once we get it in people's arms.

right now it is a matter of getting enough vaccine to be able to administer to the masses. reporter: so right now the state itself of maryland of 65 and over for people getting vaccinations. but in anne arundel county because of the supply shortage to the health department, it is 75 and older and front line workers. as for the casino, i'm standing inside of a 5,000 seat event center that opened last december. it was closed and idle. it makes sense for doing the havings nation here at the center. back to you. stuart: that makes sense, sure. thanks, edward. good stuff. we have a big show and big market day and big show to match. pete leg seth, dan henninger, joseph smith. he is the owner of bobby van's steakhouse. hear as message for the governor cuomo's restaurant closures.

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♪ >> during the first quarter, we are likely to see the economy back to with where it was before the pandemic. really quite extraordinary. we're going to convert this plague, this virus from a plague to a pest by the second half of the year. so that's what i'm focusing on. that's a lot of the noise that i'm hearing in these calls of the wild. >> i remember '99 well, and it was crazy, it was insane.

valuation will eventually matter, gamestop are end up -- will end up being a $20 name again. the bubble will pop, and we'll get back to normalcy again. >> we can see other parts of the market and, frankly, that's what bothers me, is the contagion aspect of this where it does flow into other areas of the stock market. >> i don't see a big problem here that needs certainly not a government solution, and as far as the brokerages, i would hope they'd leapt markets operate as best they can. these are not risk-free, especially when we see markets and multiples like now. ♪ i'm on top of the world, eh. ♪ i'm on top of the world, eh ♪♪ stuart: on top of the world. the imagine dragons. they were once on this program, by the way, they were on. 11:00 here on the east coast. it is thursday, january the 28th. look at the markets. that's a rebound -- well, first of all, i'm not going to call it

casino stocks any longer, i'm going to call it the short squeeze stocks so i can satisfy susan. gamestop is now down at $250 a share. good lord. amc down 56% at $8 a share. bed bath and beyond down 26% at $38 a share. a lot more on that coming up for you. but first, this. candidate biden was trail thing candidate bernie sanders in the 2020 the race. well, in came representative clyburn to say socialist bernie couldn't win, 40 -- so he backed moderate joe biden, and biden became the democrat nominee and the president. how is the moderate turning out? answer, he's moved way to the left. there's not much moderation here. his first days in office tell the story. he's killed the keystone pipeline, and he's stopped oil

and gas drilling on federal lands are. still looks -- sure looks like the start of the radical green new deal to me. what are those workers going to do now? here's the multimillionaire private jet flying john kerry. roll tape. >> what president biden wants to do is make sure those folks have better choices, that they have alternatives. they could be the people that go to work to make the solar panels. stuart: there is no moderation in that kind of arrogance. how about integration? well, once again the new administration and the new president swings left. the construction of the border wall is now halted, and we're looking at the return of the radical open border policy. the stimulus, president biden is going for $1400 relief checks even though one state, all democrat california, admits to $31 billion worth of fraudulent or suspicious payments. and there will be no moderate

compromise on this stimulus. the president wants to push it through on a straight party-line vote. he will not entertain any moderate ideas from the republicans. the media is helping his move to the left. they're cheering him on. big tech is censoring conservative opinion. donald trump is banned from social networks. where is the mod rate, joe biden? -- mod if rate joe biden? sure looks like he's following the socialists. look where he's going. roll tape. >> there are legitimate white supremacist sympathizers that sit at the heart and at the core of the republican caucus. >> they are dealing with what we would usually think of as a fringe violent extremist criminal movement. stuart: such is the moderation on the heft which now appears to be leading our new president down the socialist road. the third hour of "varney & company" is about to begin.

♪ ♪ stuart: all right. look who's here, pete hegseth. joe biden ran as a moderate. i think he's turning out as more of a leftist. what say you? >> very well said, stuart, i agree with your take completely. i think the mobility we're in right now -- moment we're in right now is the great consolidation of power of the modern left are. you see, they already control our corporate boardrooms with their poke p.c. cull -- woke p.c. culture, they control our media, our classrooms, our universities, they control our social media, they control hollywood. all the cultural and educational institutions have long since been captured by the left, but they didn't have the white house, and they didn't have the votes in congress. now they do. they have an empty vessel in joe biden who may at one time have held moderate views, but he made

a deal with the devil in bernie sanders to consolidate support amongst the democrat base. and as a result, and the fact that he's not fully cognitively there, he's happy to take ideas of others, he's -- now all the agendas of the hard left are being used through executive orders and eventually through the agenda to consolidate the power of the culture into political power which is when you start to censor your opponent, which is when you start to label them as domestic terrorists and when you start to expand your power by adding seats, adding senate seats, adding supreme court justices. then you get to structural change which is where the great consolidation happens. it's not surprising. it's dangerous, and republicans had better be prepared to fight with everything they've got because they're totally surrounded, and the media's not going to say peep about it. they're just going to congratulate him. stuart: i've just got to bring up what's happening in the stock market and, of course, bitcoin. i know you're an investor.

we've got this extraordinary volatility, and today we've got some of the brokerages imposing new rules on when or how you can trade the gamestops of this world. now, that is interference in the marketplace. i think of you as a free market guy. do you approve of the brokerages stepping in to fix the market? what do you say? >> of course not. the rules aren't working for the big guys, so we're going to rewrite the rules in the middle of the game because the result of the retail investors hasn't cut the way we like because all of our hedge fund buddies made a bet and a bunch of people got together and said we're going to make a different bet. it's very similar to bitcoin. it's totally different, it's not a store of value, gamestop stocks like bitcoin is, but it's the rejection of a system that feels rigged by recents and others who determine those outcomes, third parties that determine who's in and who's out

like banks with bitcoin. i don't know how long it'll last, doesn't have the longevity of bitcoin, but it's sending a signal. stuart: okay. does it not set the stage for the far left to jump all over this and say look what wall street is doing, the little guy losing their shirts, left holding the bag, something must be done. s it is an opportunity for the left, isn't it? >> oh, there -- [laughter] they're never, they never miss an opportunity. every crisis is an opportunity to further consolidate control. they'll use this as a justification. i mean, look at our classrooms, stuart, the ways in which teachers' unions have extorted this moment to get more money but they still don't open up. the left will do that here. let the free market work. there are always winners, there are losers. if you're better at it, you win. that's what capitalism is often about. in this case they'll overregulate like they always

do. stuart: got it. pete hegseth, always a pleasure. thanks for being here, see you again soon. sure thing. d.r. barton is with us in the 11:00 hour. let's go straight at it. do you think the brokerages are right, the robin hoods of this world, to step in and say we're putting restrictions on gamestops and other of these short squeeze stocks? are they right to do that in what do you say? >> well, i have to take the other side of this from pete, stuart, and i'll tell you why. i believe this is the free markets working exactly as they could. because what the brokerages are doing are saying we're taking on the risk when we lend margin money to a small or large investor, we're taking on that risk or when you're trading on our book, if something tanked like gamestop is this red-hot minute at $196 and your account gets extended, that is on our books, on our robin hood, td

ameritrade, pick your brokerage. what they're saying is we're controlling our risk without the government stepping in. that's how the free market should work. stuart: looks to me like these imposition of restrictions on some kinds of trading, i think it stops the contagion because yesterday we had the volatility spread to the rest of the market. dow down 600. today it seems like there's an element of containment, and the dow's up 568. so we should be happy at this point, no contagion, d.r.? >> i think you're right, stuart, that it has a little bit mitigated the contagion. now, we'll move on to new stocks. there are other stocks that are up 60, 70% that are justineny new ipos and -- just teeny ipos, some other stocks that are popping. i think we're seeing some people moderate what they're doing. and, again, the free market stepping in and doing that, and a lot of the bigger names, at

lot of the industrial names, a lot of the old stalwarts are up today while the money's being pulled occupant of these new -- out of these new retail darlings. stuart: okay, d.r., i've got to leave it at that, but thanks for going right at the question of the day. thank you very much, department r. now, there is a gore april la in the marketplace -- gorilla in the marketplace if, it's called apple. they're coming off their best quarter ever, but they're down. go through it, susan. >> first $100 billion plus sales quarter, best iphone sales quarter in history, and they sold over $65 billion in phones, just phones. we saw a record quarter for services, record quarter in china, i could go on and on and on. at the end of it, they held $196 billion in cash, a total blowout there in 2020. and i spoke to tim cook and asked him about his thoughts on the u.s. economy and, look, old decisions listen to what tim

cook has to say, and and he saye thinks it would be a smart move to reach some sort of bipartisan agreement on a stimulus plan, and he's optimistic once we get out of this pandemic that the economy can grow nicely. also hearing from tim cook who will be speaking in brussels this hour, apple is now offering iphone users the choice to opt in for apps including facebook to know where you go on the internet. that'll be in the ios updates in early spring. facebook is up in arms about this, heard about it on the earnings call with mark zuckerberg saying apple is now a fierce competitor. and you know they've gone head to head in the past when it comes to privacy, being glib, etc., etc. stuart: okay. thanks, susan. i've got to get this out to our audience. here's a headline for you. dave portnoy calls robin hood crooks, and guess what? he's going to join me shortly.

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>> won't be fired from your day jobs because if your employers knew you were more inefficient than the dmv, you would replaced in a heartbeat. you're a bunch of cowards. figure it out! or get off the podium! stuart: that's one angry parent yelling at a virginia school board and also at the teachers' union too. naomi shaver reilly is with us, she writes extensively on education. welcome back. i say the union let the kids down. >> absolutely. i think that man speaks for millions of parents around the country, and i think we have reached a tipping point in terms of how much parents willing to put up with. they're sick and tired of this

remote schooling. they know their kids are not learning, kids are cheating, kids are not even logging on. there's just widespread emotional distress. las vegas schools recently were forced go back because of a spike in teen suicide rates. this is outrageous. stuart: is there any way that you can get the teachers union out of its position of authority and clout in the nation's public schools? can we diminish their influence in any way? can we get rid of them? >> well, of course, the big problem is in the major school districts, the largest school districts in the country which are controlled by democrats and the teachers unions have lined their pockets for years. but i think if enough parents say, you know, we are going to throw you guys out on your you know whats, you know, this is not going to stand for much longer. chicago actually went and said if you don't show up for school, you know, there will be penalties, and they really need

to follow through on that. there cannot be no consequences to not showing up for work. people, i mean, as that man was yelling about, i don't know if you heard this part too, but he was saying, look, the garbage men are risking their lives, they're showing up for work, why can't you? and i think that's the case. we -- the parents really need to start organizing. and, by the way, this is not just conservative parents or right-wing parents, this is, you know, you're seeing the most liberal, progressive parents who are sick of this as well. stuart: amazing. now then, i've got one more for you, naomi. san francisco renaming -- [laughter] you know what's coming. >> i know. stuart: -- 44 schools including schools named after washington and lincoln. even jon muir, the original conservationist in california. your reaction -- >> even dianne feinstein. [laughter] they've renamed a school that was named after dianne feinstein, that's how left-wing

you have to be in order to pass their test. no, it's completely outrageous that school boards are even wasting their time on this nonsense while there is a real educational crisis going on in this country. but this is exactly how they're spending their time. i actually watched for an article i was working on a three or four-hour san francisco school board meeting. it was torture. these people are living in la la land to think that they are going to close down, rename a school that was named after abraham lincoln because it's racist. i mean, where do you even begin? stuart: well, did you see the chicago schoolteachers demonstrating interpretive dance as an alternative -- [laughter] to in-classroom learning, the joys of remote learning with interpretive dance? did you see -- we've got it on the screen now. >> i saw that. stuart: they won't go back and teach, they'll do this. >> and i have to say, you know, i have good friends who are liberals, and they saw this and they just were like, seriously? these are people who, i think,

sympathize with union withs, you know, coal miners, people who are downtrodden and want to fight for workers' rights. but when they see public schoolteachers or who are not showing up for work and instead creating interpretive dances on social media, i think even they have had enough. stuart: yeah, okay. come back soon please, naomi. we need more of this. >> thank you. stuart: you're all right. see you again soon, thank you very much. all right, i'm going to show you those exceptionally volatile stocks which i used to call casino stocks but which now i will call short squeeze stocks in respect to susan. gamestop, this is incredible -- >> yeah. stuart: -- it is all the way down to $126 per share. this morning, actually, very early this morning it was almost at $500. that is a collapse. somebody's holding the bag. somebody. and it's going to be the little guy. somebody's taking a hit right there. amc down 60%. bed bath and beyond down 38%. but, susan --

>> yeah. stuart: -- what have you got on amc taking advantage of the short squeeze? >> right. and this is also a lesson for gamestop as well was there could be a silver lining and happy ending in all of this because, you're right, we had gamestop trading at $500 at at one point it was the largest single stock on the russell 2000. amc has also seen a bounce of course in the short squeeze play, but look, their raising catch -- they're raising cash and taking advantage of the situation. amc is raising $900 million which they say will get them through the winter, and some of this came in convertible bonds. they traded bonds at least initially, you can convert it into equity and stock, and the conversion rate is at 70%. that is unheard of when it comes to convertibles. that is a lot of interest willing to hold amc stock. gamestop, if they're smart enough -- and they should be doing this, and i think the chewy cofounder who joined gamestop's board, he's the one

who actually initiated this type of -- he was a catalyst for this rally, he has said that they should be raising money with their stock price rallying the way it is, and maybe they can convert and change their industry to something that's less bricks and mortars, more successful and that will eventually reward shareholders at the end. stuart: i'm just shocked. when you and i went on the air at 9:00 eastern this morning, gamestop had hit well over $400 a share. i don't know what the high was, 450, something like that -- >> briefly passed 500 this morning, and, yes, i am for the little guy, but i want to also reiterate to our viewers, and i'm sure you do too, stu, you should not be betting money on the stock market that you can't afford to lose. it's okay if -- stuart: absolutely. >> -- if you need it, don't put it in the stock market. stuart: you got that right. all right, susan, let's go to american airlines. let's see what it's doing right now. it was surging. well, it's not exactly surging, but it's up 7.5%.

ashley, i think i know why. this is the most heavily shorted airline of them all, and it's a target. is that what's going on? >> it is -- yes, indeed. and that has been well noted by reddit users, stu. american airlines stock surging, up 7.5, it was up more than that earlier, after a discussion on reddit's wall street forum to pose the question aal, next gme, question mark, is american airline ares the next gamestop? one user noted that american is, indeed, majorly shorted when all the other airlines are not saying, quote: let's get this bread, unquote. which, i mean, means let's go and get it. currently sold short more than united, southwest, delta combined. they just had their latest earnings report, and they showed a smaller than expected loss at

american with a revenue beat, and the ceo, doug parker, saying -- as you can see that quote on the screen -- as we look to the year ahead, 2021 will be a year of recovery. so some optimism for american airlines. and, certainly, the stock show some on optimism, up 7.6%. stuart: if the big guys bet against it and short it, somebody else will buy it and send the stock price up. what a story. [laughter] all right, ash, thanks very much. let me have a look at nokia now. all over the place. currently down 28%. lauren, what is the company saying about this? >> they're saying, uh, we don't know what's going on. [laughter] we haven't announced anything to create this volatility in the stock. so you can see it's down today for nokia as robin hood blocks new purchases of nokia and some other of these popular stocks today. but they were caught up in the reddit frenzy. they soared to a record game,

record volume yesterday. like i said, for no apparent reason, and that is what the company is saying. i don't know when all of this stops, but these names, i mean, if you look at the two week, the one month charts, they're astronomically to the upside. [laughter] stuart: that is true. all right will, lauren, thanks very much, indeed. gotta tell our audience one more time, barstool's dave portnoy joins us next. ♪ the heat is on. ♪ the heat is on. ♪ the heat is on, oh, it's on the streets. ♪ the heat is on ♪♪

♪ ♪ stuart: i can't get over gamestop. $500 a share very early in this morning. a few hours later, the thing is at 135, 140, down over $200 a share. susan, come back in again, please, because i want to say how much i agree with what you just said. you said, look, don't put money into this kind of stock if you can't afford to lose it all. >> right. stuart: because somebody has been left holding the bag. somebody has lost it all right here. dead right, susan. >> the same advice can go for the hedge funders as well. if you can't cover your shorts,

don't bet 140% of the float. it's not just gamestop, amc down around 60%, and i'm just hearing the fact that you can't buy these options on gamestop or amc on robin hood, restricting and liquidation, in fact, on interactive brokers and td ameritrade yesterday, that's having an impact on shares. also the sentiment as well that these brokerages will come in and limit the type and amount of trade and the types of stocks that you can buy and sell out of. i think that's putting off a lot of investors right now that may have considered dipping their toes into the gamestops of the world. stuart: well, it's a warning for the future, isn't it? because if we get a flare-up of what, you know, i'm calling them casino stocks. if we get a flare-up all over again at some point in the near future, investors have to know that brokerages can do the same thing and chop them off at the knees, and they lose a fortune.

you're nodding your head, ash. this is a distinct possibility. >> yeah. stuart: these brokerages, they're laid down the law, and they've had an effect, and they'll have a continuing effect, i think. >> they will. and, listen, you know, what about -- you're trapped. you can't get out of a particular move you've made because of the restrictions now being imposed by these brokeragings. is that fair? is that free market? i understand that there's concern, but if i went in the and bought this stock,upyou kno, and they're killing the stock, i'm trapped for no good reason at all. that's not fair. stuart: lauren, what to you say -- what do you say about all of this? >> i'll say that wells fargo has told financial advisers they can't recommend certain stocks like gamestop to clients. if clients say, hey, fill this order for me, they have to do it, but they can't recommend it. so we're seeing a whole bunch of

handcuffs put in place today. you know, i think of a lot of the small guys who made a lot of money in the stock market doing things hike this. they've been able to buy homes and really participate in the economy when they've lost their other jobs. i feel bad for hem if they can't pay their -- for them if they can't bay pay their mortgage. i do not feel bad for the hedge fund guy who can't pay the mortgage on their third beach home, stuart. stuart: can i go back, susan, michael -- >> yeah, the big short, he's -- [inaudible] i just want to come back to the robin hood app and the interactive brokers because i think mark cuban brought up a great point. and don't forget, robin hood possibly ipo-ing this year. if they're closing down these positions for the average traders and restricting trade when it comes to gamestop and amc, these are options trades that these brokerages have to buy the underlying stock in to make up for the difference in those options contracts.

if they're clamping down, what does that say about their business and their hold on liquidity in these types of markets? that's a concern i have. i think mark cuban just echoed that on twitter as well. makes you think about the business and the online brokerage business, td ameritrade9 and the like. stuart: well, i would guess that they're protecting their own interests, because if they're on the hook for any losses on the part of retail investors, they're going to stop those losses as much as they can. >> right. stuart: they're doing it by restricting -- >> but that's -- [inaudible] systemic risk because it's not just limited to gamestop and blackberry and those individual stocks. this could be a systemwide financial issue if online brokerages can't cover some of those options positions either. stuart: so they jumped in, stopped it, and we don't have contagion this morning because we've got the dow bouncing back 500 points. good discussion in an ongoing marketplace. fascinating situation. and, by the way, everyone, don't

go anywhere. barstool's dave portnoy joining us shortly. don't know exactly when, but we're going to get him on the show today, promise. ♪ spirit in the sky. ♪ it's where you're going to go when you die. ♪ when you die and you're haying to rest, gonna go to the mace that's the best. ♪ ♪

stuart: at her press briefing, speaker pelosi has something to say ant the gamestop situation -- about the gamestop situation. she said the administration is going to look at the situation, and she says we'll all be reviewing it. okay, so it's on the radar for speaker pelosi. come on in, please, "wall street journal" guy dan henninger. i need your opinion here, dan. these brokerages have stepped in to stop certain kinds of trades in some of these what i'm going

to call casino stocks. they have interfered in the free market. what do you think about that? do you think that's legit? >> i don't think it's particularly legit. i mean, they're upset, no doubt, because in the past when these sorts of things have happened, a lot of small investors their first instinct is to do what? it's to go back to the brokerage and say you didn't warn me that this could happen. i've lost all this money, and you should have told me that these are the results. and then you end up having lawsuits filed by class action lawyers against the brokerages. so i think they're kind of covering themselves here to a great extent. they don't want people coming back at them and saying they didn't warn them. and, you know, a lot of these people are getting into stocks for the first time, these guys on reddit. it is kind of a casino. but ultimately, there's always somebody out there whether it's the congress, the sec, trial

lawyers waiting to come in and find fault with someone, and i think that's what these brokerage houses are worried about in part. stuart: looks like it's been successful in the sense that the extraordinary moves in some of these stocks have been calmed down a little. i should say really some of the high prices have come down quite a lot, and it appears to have stopped the contagion: that is, the spreading of the downside move to the rest of the market. up 550 today. so you think things are going to go smoothly from here? [laughter] >> not necessarily, not when social media's involved. it's just exponentially larger numbers of people being given access to the stock market like this. but i want to introduce just a couple other elements if i may, stuart. one very quickly, tesla are.

does anyone get upset like this when tesla's stock price goes right through the roof and people can't figure out quite why exactly? and related to that, you have been talking on this program for the last two years with people every day of the week about the direction of the stock market. and frequently some of the most expert people in the market say i'm not quite sure, i don't know, it just isn't a stock market that i've had experience with in my career. and one of the underlying elements, stuart, is, in fact, the federal reserve. the federal reserve has kept interest rates at zero for a very long time, and that effectively means it is difficult to buy and discover prices for assets because of interest rates being at zero. normally you need a better price indicator than a 0% interest rate. and you had as well quantitative easing during the obama years with basically cropped-up asset prices. roll all that forward to now,

and the question is what exactly is drive offing the stock market? is it concern driving the stock market? is it the federal reserve or, as it used to be, fundamentals. one of the issues being raised here is fundamentals are out the window. how could there be fundamentals beneath a gamestop or an amc? stuart: very different -- difficult, i should say, to put a valuation finish. >> extraordinarily difficult, yeah. stuart: it's almost impossible if, isn't it? i mean, valuations, what does valuation mean these days? all right, dan -- [inaudible conversations] stuart: go ahead, go ahead. >> spur of the moment. all right, stuart. the irony is the strength of the underlying economy. the gdp figures were very good today. so in the background we have a recovering economy. that's the paradox. stuart: yeah. hard to put a value on anything. dan, again, you didn't exactly jump in at the last minute on the spur of the moment, but you

were here to talk about something else, your column today in the "wall street journal," but you pivoted today very nice, young man. that was terrific. dan henninger, everyone. he knows what he's doing on television, this guy. thanks for joining us, see you rater. all right, on your screen, gamestop down a mere $108 a share, 238. down a mere 33%. -- 31%. finish michael packer joins us now, webbush guy. explain gamestop to me, will you? what do you make of this thing? >> i think that dan hit it on the head. these stocks aren't trading on fundamentals, and that's okay. i mean, i think that if the collective wisdom of the market is that gamestop's worth $238, that's where it's going to trade. and, you know, i think that where the shorts got stung is they looked at fundamentals, and i think the shorts thought gamestop would earn 50 cents,

ryan cohen thought they'd make a dollar or two, and there was a mismatch of expectations, and the trading range would have been, you know, 8-25. and then reddit got involved and said, no, no, fundamentals don't matter. it's worth more because the short squeeze is going to cause it to go higher, and they were right. i think dan said it right. nobody is expecting tesla la to make $50 a share or $100 a share this year, but they see long-term potential, so they'll bid tesla up. i don't know that anybody sees long-term potential in gamestop. they've been around 30 years, and it's not a growth business. but if the market wants to pay up for it, they're going to pay up for it, and i'm actually in agreement with you that the trading platforms should not restrict access. the investors are adults, it's their money, and if that's how they choose to deploy their capital, they should be allowed to. stuart: okay. is it okay for maybe hundreds of thousands of people to collaborate on social networks

and organize and attack on a stock? i mean, that's kind of collaboration, it's coordination. i don't know whether it's legal or not, but are you okay with it? >> yeah, i actually am okay with it. you know, again, i think it's healthy for the markets to have people talking about stocks. i mean, the reason that fox business exists as a network is you have millions of interested, you know, investors who want to know what's going on. and if those millions of people collaborate by watching this show, good for you. good for your ratings, good for your advertisers. and they might get good ideas, and if they act on them, that's good for the market. super healthy. and if there's an opposing view, you will have that opposing view on, and you will help them reach a rational decision. so if the message boards are saying bid gamestop or amc or fubo up, there could be a message board saying bid them down, and that's healthy. we will get a shakeout, and, you know, the stock will find

equilibrium. i think it's super healthy. stuart: all right, michael. look, thanks for contributing to the debate because this is not over, and it's going to be all sides on this opinion. and we'll hear from all sides. michael, thanks very much for being with us. appreciate it always. >> thank you, sir. stuart: next, we've got breaking news, and it's about robin hood. big deal. what have you got, susan? >> first of all if, gamestop has been halted once again on volatility. looks like robin hood has added restrictive trades on other stocks and that does include american airlines. another short squeeze favorite, a lot of short positions into american airlines, and this might be ripe for that cartel trading brigade on reddit. other names include sundial growers, a lot of these smaller stocks that, again, have a lot of positioning on the short side, might be ripe for one of these short squeezes. there are reports of the first robin hood user has now sued robin hood for limiting trade

this these mar short squeeze -- particular short squeeze favorites, shall we say. stuart: that's interesting. because you could get two kinds of lawsuits, couldn't you? you've got the one you just mentioned, hey, i'm suing you because you limited my access to the market. the other one is, hey, you didn't warn me, i've lost my shirt. >> yeah. stuart: i mean, it's heads you lose, tails you lose. i mean -- [laughter] they can't win, these guys. >> where's the fiduciary responsibility? aren't you supposed to be a market maker, market operator instead of stepping in to decide which stocks go up and down? so i think they have a case. stuart: yeah. this is a fascinating debate, and it's not over. susan, we are out of time. more "varney" after this. [laughter] at t-mobile, we have a plan built just for customers 55 and up.

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stuart: i did promise to get dave portnoy on the show. we are trying, but we've hit some technical difficulties. we're still trying. and look at this, this is truly shocking. a report just in, new york -- the attorney general, new york, says governor cuomo severely underreported new york nursing home deaths, underreported to the tune of 50%. that's extraordinary. the man writes a book about how well he did handling the virus, he wins an emmy, but he's underreported. him and his administration,

underreported deaths by 50%. astonishing. governor cuomo is going to make an announcement by indoor dining by the -- on indoor dining by the end of the week. if lets restaurants open in new york city, they'll still only be allowed 25% capacity. look who's back, joseph smith, owner of bobby van's steakhouses. let's get right at this, joseph. if they do make this rule change and you are allowed 25% capacity, will you still -- can you stand? or is it too late for you? >> no, you can't do 25%. we tried it for those five, six weeks that we were there. it doesn't work. we need 50%. everywhere else in new york state is at 50%. and it's working. we said it before, 74% of the covid is at the home, 1.4 is at restaurants. why new york city the only place

shut down? political reasons, political reasons only. stuart: i've got a real short time here, joseph, so i want to get right at it. what's your message for governor cuomo? >> 50% and we open by next weekend. stop playing around with people's lives. they need to get back to work, they need to get a paycheck. they have families to field, there's mortgages and rents to pay. it's all on him. no more book writing, no more emmys, fess up to what you've done and get the places open. that's the message. stuart: 5,200 restaurants in new york city have closed permanently. 143,000 jobs, gone. >> not gonna open again. stuart: that's all accurate, isn't it? >> that's all accurate, and it's going to be another 4-5,000 in another month. and if people -- how can you keep this up for a year? you can't. everybody's been dipping into

their savings, they're remortgaging. it's -- they do not miss a paycheck. only misses a paycheck, only us. government's getting paid every week. nothing more. purely political. they're playing a game with people's lives. stuart: shocking. joseph, thank you very much for being on the show. look, i'm sorry it's so short. we've got a lot of action in the stock market today which we're covering, but -- >> yes, i see it. stuart: -- come back soon. >> good luck, stuart. stuart: jamison -- [laughter] okay. all right, thanks very much, joseph there from -- okay, we gotta. now then, look at the market real fast. we've almost recovered completely from yesterday's big selloff. more "varney" after this. ♪ i like that old time rock and roll. ♪ just like that old time rock and roll. ♪ that kind of music just

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♪. stuart: dave portnoy is mad as hell quite frankly. we tried to get him on the show but he is tweeting up a storm. he is really angry. look at this. the irony named robinhood clearly their entire agenda is to steal from the poor give more to the rich. that is not lost on me. he calls them a bunch of crooks. he wants people that run

robinhood to go to prison. i wish he could have vented his spleen on our show. no doubt sometime in the future he will. that is what portnoy is saying. as we leave you the market urning around, overall market, from yesterday's loss. down 600 yesterday, up 570 right now. time's up for me. neil it is yours. neil: just incredible. thankthank you, stuart, very, vy much. gamestop which been in and out of various halts, half a dozen of them, confusing stocks. it will get more so as the stock gets whipsawed. the criticism of robinhood some other social media marketing concerns are getting fingered for abandoning their followers here, in favor of helping those who shorted all the stocks in the first place. that might be a bit after leap here but it led to some wild trading already in the likes of american airlines, nokia, amc. i could go on and on. what a lot are