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tv   Varney Company  FOX Business  February 23, 2021 9:00am-12:00pm EST

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which is right in front of us and maybe the democrats ought to look into that before they have another true trillion dollar blowout. maria: good point. edward? >> look for bed chair powell to maybe give the market direction and-- maria: great to see both. have a great day. right to stuart we go. "varney & co." begins now. stu. stuart: good morning. the alarm bells are renewed in the cryptocurrency world with treasury secretary janet yellen says a bitcoin is ineffective and highly speculative. look at what happened, big selloff in bitcoin another crypto's. bitcoin was $60000 almost over the weekend and it's now 48700. there's also a selloff in companies which have accepted bitcoin as part of their operation.
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tesla, paypal, square, mastercard all down in the terms. we have another serious selloff in big tech come across the board america's a super wealthy tech giants are tumbling for the second day in a row, one more time big percentage losses for big tech and that's pushing the nasdaq down work nasdaq is tech heavy. thirty go down now, off 200 points again for the nasdaq dow jones, smb, modest losses with plenty of red this morning. hanging of the markets, the $1.9 trillion covid relief package. the question is, do we need all that money to get the economy going again, is it all devoted to covid-- no, it's not and if we get on that 1.9 trillion, what effect will it have? inflation scare still with us. the yield on the 10 year treasury at the highest levels in a year, 1.37%.
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my opinion, the one part of the relief package which i believe will definitely pass, the 1400-dollar checks. maybe i'm a cynic, but i can't see many caught-- politicians opposed to buying votes and that's what's going on. in one hour fed chair powell will testify. what is he going to say? we have what look like bubbles in some sets. what powell says today and how his words are interpreted will have a big impact on the financial markets and yes, we will cover it. max will join us, he runs cpac and evil host president trump sunday. will trump announce his candidacy for 2024? we will ask. we will bring the latest on the pandemic retreat, look at this, new cases down 44%, death down 46%, britain opens up and sends give back-to-school. why not us? have i got news for you on home prices,
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absolutely surging. "varney & co." is about to begin. ♪♪ stuart: that's six avenue new york that looks really dreary. two big stories in money, bitcoin and big tech. let's start there, big tech absolutely taking it on the chin. susan, come on in. why such a big declines? susan: move in the us treasury yield not necessarily the level of 1.35% and change which is actually lower than before the pandemic, but it's the speed of the acceleration. remembered 10 year yield only cross one person at the start of this year and we are already out by a third in less than eight weeks. when yields go up
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changes on stock prices because the stocks now need to return more money to make up for the guaranteed interest that you get buying into treasury and that makes record high stocks really look a bit more expensive especially in technology, so investors are taking profit and that also makes fed chair reserved chairman jerome powell in his testimony must-see tv for wall street. everyone will tune in. stuart: i wonder if we will cover it wall-to-wall? perhaps not, we shall see. mike murphy is with us. come on in. i went to know why you think big tech is down so sharply. >> good morning, stuart. susan kind of hit that nail on the head as to why we are down, but i couldn't disagree with that morning you get a slight bump up in yields you get the hint of inflation out there and apple sells off 25
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points. i mean, if you are an investor sitting there waiting saying i don't want to chase microsoft or apple, that-- unless i'm missing something, that is still where the growth is. i went to be long apple, long microsoft, long uber along with companies that have grown so any sort of pullback and we know pullbacks come, we know stocks don't go straight up, they have over the last two months, but now that there's a pullback, instead of sitting at home thinking what may happen, where inflation may go, where ten-year rates may go, sit back and say, these are quality businesses that are still innovating and growing and putting up numbers and if you get a pullback, you buy them. stuart: if you have any cash in your company, are you going out today to buy this dip in microsoft and apple and facebook and alphabet? >> i will-- so one, probably guess, two, microsoft yes, but three also what i'm looking at so many companies have really innovated over
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the-- you know we talk about it all the time innovation from private coming to public company i'm looking at an etf like to queue queue which is the nasdaq 100 and 19 people who are at home watching a program to buy an entire basket of the top 100 technology companies in the country, to me, any sort of pullback you get like apple is down 10% last month, i'm allocating money there, yes. stuart: just stay there for a second, please. i went to turn to the other story which is bitcoin, well below $50000 a coin following janet yellen's warning. spell it out, susan. susan: treasury secretary called bitcoin an extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions and is a good be used for criminal activity. bitcoin is down around 15% or so the last 48 hours, but we need to be clear, stu, not many
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people use bitcoin to buy things. investors use it and bide as a a store of value because they expect the price of bitcoin to go out so it's asset appreciation because like gold bitcoin is limited in supply paired there are limited to the-- there are only 21 million bitcoin's on the planet speak of which we also had yellen criticizing the environment all toll it takes to mind bitcoin because it requires a in a lot of electricity, more electricity than argentina, holland and even pakistan and janet yellen says bitcoin is highly speculative and she's concerned people will lose money buying in she said those words. stuart: okay, she said those words and down comes bitcoin. liska back to mike murphy pickle looks to me like bitcoin is upsetting the whole markets. is that possible, murphy? >> i don't think so, stuart. it could be the risk off trade or the money out of speculative asset trade, potentially, so i guess you could tie that
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into bitcoin, but bitcoin has made this move from 20000 to, 60000 as you point out. i'm not in it, i'd never buy it and i don't think i ever will. i think anyone watching oh meets to be careful. they need to understand what they are buying they need to understand and treat the next at point, but people have made a lot of money with it, so my hats off to them, but i don't know where bitcoin is going. if you are going to buy bitcoin you need to understand your timeframe and where your exit strategy is. stuart: 10% moving bitcoin is not like a 10% move in the stock market. there's a real difference. mike, thank you. i caught you ringing the bell the other day and you looked pretty good. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: you are laughing, susan. susan: you never say that to me, that's why. you never say susan, you look good ringing the bell. stuart: when did you ring the bell? susan: i haven't, but you never
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say it at all. [laughter] stuart: if you did ring the bell , i would say you look great. alright come the two big names because i know the macy's at home depot have already reported this morning. what's the result? susan: i think home depot will be a main draw of the dow jones today with home improvement and real estate boom it means people are shopping a lot at home depot , but despite strong sales and strong profit to end a 2020, home depot is down today because the cfo city's concern about how long the pandemic will last and what that means for consumer spending so no guidance forward with covid uncertainty and they said growth may slow down. home depot also raising their dividend by 10% and that's usually a bullish sign to the business and the stock, but we are down about two and half. of macy's state-- same-store sales falling by 70%, but it's better than expected in that matters when it comes to earnings on wall street,
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but if you want to thank the online shift, digital sales could be topping $10 billion for macy's this year that would be half of macy's sales forecast for the entire year so macy's ceo said it's a recovery in a rebuilding phase for the retailer and i would say transition from bricks and mortar to going more online. stuart: got it, thank you. checking futures again, please. the attention to the nasdaq, it will be down over 200 points, dropping below 13000 when the bell rings later this morning. broke invited says there's nothing wrong with spending another $1.9 trillion in stimulus. listen to this. >> critics say the plan is to big. lets me ask a rhetorical question, what would you have me cut, what would you leave out. stuart: well, what could he cut? how about some congressional pork rolling across your screen as we speak. we found a lot of pork
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in that bill. we will show it to you. zillow predicts austin, texas will be the hottest housing market this year we will tell you why and give you the latest news on the home prices, which are surging. that's next. ♪♪
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sure it's secure. and even if the power goes down, your connection doesn't. so how do i do this? you don't do this. we do this, together. bounce forward, with comcast business. stuart: look at this, nasdaq will be way down at the opening bell, looking at 230 points on the downside. big tech taking it on the chin big time with
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apple down two and a quarter precent, 123 on apple, sharp declines elsewhere as well. i promise to big news on housing and we have got it. home prices surging, tell me more please. susan: we are in a real estate boom, stu. largest annual price jump since april, 2014, in seven years, looking at the index, home prices jumping 10.1%. how incredible is that? up from november as well this is what we call sequential so december accelerating from november and again it goes to show record low mortgage rates is accelerating home prices and continuing the real estate boom. stuart: you got it right, susan. by the way, zillow real estate people predict austin, texas, will be the hottest housing market this year this year, interesting, this year. danielle demartino booth
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is a texan and she is with us this morning from texas i do declare. danielle, lord is really really hot as a real estate market. do you think texas will do better than florida? >> what we have seen in the past two years is that austin has indeed been the hottest market. we just heard that we have 10% year-over-year price appreciation nationwide zillow has its own metric, that's about 13%. austin was 24% price increase year-over-year, stuart, that's a white-hot market. you have to stop and wonder, given what the entire state all 254 counties have just gone through, and the fact that we had a major infrastructure breakdown, you have to wonder if some people will question the desirability of living in certain texas markets. i hope that's not the case and that instead is simply a wake-up call to say, instead of suggested changes to infrastructure you might actually want to
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implement them in the future to continue supporting the great growth we have seen here. stuart: yeah, naming infrastructure or no, you still have a tax exit just on your hands out big tax states and to states like texas. that's not going to go away anytime soon. i think of you an expert on the fed and as you know chairman powell testifies today, starts at 10:00 p.m. eastern. the fed, i think, is fueling some of what might be called bubbles in some parts of the market. that's my judgment. i don't know about yours , but i want to know when you think the fed will say it's now to rein in the money printing? >> well, you know stuart, the direction markets are going now, i almost expect the opposite of the reaction from the fed. what investors need to input-- appreciate is the fed has become very reactionary and how it behaves. if we continue to seek alternate institute--
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interest rates that we now are the tech stock, tech stocks have been the most sensitive to rising interest rate commercial real estate extreme expense-- sensitive to rising interest rates there's a ton of commercial real estate loans to be refinanced in 2021 this year, i would think powell will be very very dovish and very sensitive to the fact that the smallest rise in interest rates has already set off such a cascading effect in risky markets. the fed is seeing what happens when holds interest rates for too long at these low levels , what one small basis point incremental increase in that 10 year , what it can do to some of the bubbles that it has inflated over the years. stuart: but, it can't affect long-term rates, kenny? can affect the yield on the 10 year treasury or 30 year bond, can he? >> now that the market
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has seen inflation rear its ugly head, inflation is supposed to be transitory. you can't tell me that when a nation-- when an economy decides-- the size of the ninth largest economy in the world, state of texas, $1.9 trillion economy, on top of spiking lumber prices, steel prices, you will have to go in and repair an entire state. that's going to throw inflation way over where the fed wants for it to be in the months to come in the fed's maintaining they will let inflation run hot, that's certainly what we are seeing at the long end of the curb this is what traders talk about when they say watch out at the fed ever loses control. stuart: okay. interesting situation. danielle, thank you. we will see you again soon. lets talk about this stimulus package $1.9 trillion. susan, did senator schumer say the-- when
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did he said the bill will land on the desk are two very soon i think march 14, which is fairly shortly from here right. we are in this three-week march to get the covid bill on president biden's best for him to sign into office and you would imagine the markets will probably rally on the back of the 1400-dollar checks 1.9 showing dollars in stimulus, some a two-- makes you wonder how much has been baked in an is a $1.9 trillion solid because you know we have heard from president biden saying he could shift that number in order to get it through, so curious as to what you think of the market moves in anticipation of yet another trillion dollars spending package. stuart: i don't think we need $1.9 trillion and i notice if you break down the 1.9 trillion, about a trillion of it has nothing to do with covid relief. susan: 300 billion to state local governments and i with a
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130 going to vaccine distribution probably no one will vote against that war against the $1400 checks, but everything else is still negotiable especially with the 50-dollar minimum wage that they are trying to sneak in there . i wonder how me people will agree to get that through. i think there are a lot of question marks, but spending is definitely on its way. stuart: exactly. that's the correct bottom line. we might not get all 1.9 trillion but we will get a big jump in spending. see you in a second. looking at futures, this is how we open the markets this morning, down and pay attention to the nasdaq, tech taking it on the chin. moron that after this-- more on that that after this. ♪♪
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this is decision tech. find a stock based on your interests or what's trending. get real-time insights in your customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology for smarter trading decisions. fidelity. stuart: janet yellen warns on bitcoin and it down it comes, $48000 per coin as we speak. jeff sica is with us and he has been bullish on bitcoin from the start, but look, jeff, the
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first hints we get from janet yellen that they don't like bitcoin and they might do something about it and it down it comes, big time. have you changed your mind about the coin? >> not at all. i really think janet yellen has bitcoin derangement syndrome because it's actually the second time-- the first time she said people who are using bitcoin is for insidious reasons and that same day blackrock was buying bitcoin for some of its funds, so what i see is that even though janet yellen-- janet yellen is scared to death of bitcoin. it's one of the biggest threats to the fed and it seems like every time she talks about it or any bed official talks about it, any banker, it falls and then people come back in and buy it back up as we see this morning. this is a buying signal
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and we will see momentum from here. stuart: you run a large investment company. yep hotels, apartment, retail operations. do you put any of part of your cash reserves into bitcoin and if not, why not? >> we like bitcoin and i use it as an investment. because of the lack of liquidity, i would say that we haven't gotten to the point where we have used it for what we would need to keep liquid, but i would say that going forward one of my initiatives and a lot of my investors initiatives is to take some money out of dollars and put it in bitcoin. we have been buying gold for a long time and bitcoin, although way more risky than gold, i would say fits the bill as the currency alternative because i believe money is freedom , but purchasing power is freedom and
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with the fed is doing is they are taking our purchasing power by annihilating the dollar and we want to keep purchasing power, so absolutely think i will do that the future. stuart: real fast, 20 seconds, any other crypto other than bitcoin: well, i like ethereum. i think people have to be very very careful with a lot of the other crypto's because a lot of people are just playing momentum. i put most of my focus on bitcoin because the coin is the real deal. i had said years ago that when the financial institutions embrace it, the floodgates will be open. now you will have financial institutions from bank of new york all over the world that are embracing it, so if i were going into crypto , maybe i would play with some ethereum, but i would put my focus in bitcoin because
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bitcoin is the real deal. stuart: jeff sica, thank you. we will follow bitcoin like you do. here we go pick the bell is about to ring and we will start trading and i predict a great deal of red for the nasdaq. one of the big stories today is the sharp decline in big tech and you will see it right about now. we are off and running. started on the downside for the dow jones, it's not huge decline. you still have nearly half of the doubt 30 in the brain and the dow jones itself is actually down about 38 points, that's it. s&p 500 also coming in with a loss, not a big one, .68%, 26 points, not huge. nasdaq down 2%, that is a huge decline, 13200. i want to show you home depot, way down this morning, down about three points 3% i should say.
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the dow jones stock it's shaping 50 points out the dow jones, so without home depot the dow jones would be dead flat. big tech taking it on the chin again they have opened up and with microsoft, awful, awful debt, amazon on the downside. have a look at tesla, would you call that come a bitcoin stock or a big tech stock, i don't know but its way down again. in fact, susan mi right, that price level is now below where it was when it went into the s&p. susan: at the end of the last year and we are down some 15% in two days and counting, so 700 this morning and as you mentioned below when it finally enter the s&p 500 someone is a percent selloff the biggest one-day drop for the stock till september at least in mosque losing $15 billion in wealth so he fell to number two peer don't cry for him.
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you will be five tesla has been on a three-week losing streak due to higher yield. bitcoin prices have been falling. there's good news in that kathy would, hottest fund manager on wall street about a quarter of a million shares at tesla yesterday on the price drop we saw. stuart: that's interesting. tesla right now you are looking at 670 is the price. as of now trade is open. i have to tell you this also, square, paypal are bitcoin stocks and they are way down. bitcoin stocks are down, is that a? susan: pretty much. report "after the bell" today. square was an early adopter a bitcoin, one of the first companies to buy bitcoin with the cash holding around $50 million worth and that was early last year. imagine the appreciation on a 50 million-dollar bitcoin holding. also we expect square to follow paypal reporting
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a huge jump in us usage especially with peer to peer, and the cash a very popular especially when you can walk into an official bank like you like to and you can just bank online instead. stuart: okay, square and paypal, bitcoin stock down somehow about bitcoin minors, write a block chain. susan: and also marathon patent, bitcoin 50000 right now so we see the drag on this bitcoin minors and also companies that except a bitcoin as payment so overstock is also trading lower today and riots is up nearly 300% this year, 500 that 500000% just a little bit of profit taking is not a big deal by the way i want to throw this in the strategy, one of the few companies to buy crypto with their cash holdings, about a trillion dollars worth in crypto last year, so imagine that's also gone
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up in value as well. micro strategy and ceo says the crypto market will overtake gold in the future. gold is currently 10 times bigger than bitcoin right now, 10 trillion versus 1 trillion micro strategy says in the future bitcoin will be bigger. stuart: wait a second, so micro strategist, didn't put a trillion dollars into bitcoin? susan: a billion, pardon me a billion which is still significant, thank you for correcting me. one of the first companies along with tesla to use their cash pile to buy into bitcoin i will take away that zero. stuart: gold right now, hardly an inflation had, $1800 an ounce and going nowhere. a couple big names that i know, palantir, what's this about insider selling their? susan: you know that palantir went public through direct listing and filings show one of the cofounders into coming
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officers jointly sold off over 2.7 million shares overnight, but the good news were palantir is that they have expanded the relationship with 3m to build their supply chain. most palantir customers and clients are global, government agencies of the fact getting more into corporate agencies is a good sign and also he would as i mentioned whatever she buys into, she is a list these days and she bought into palantir last week and friday he saw the stock rally 18% on the back of that is. stuart: okay, big picture this morning with the dow jones off 100, nasdaq way way down, s&p is down. this is a continuing decline, but look at the casino stocks, they are up nicely. china has lifted the internal quarantine and travel restrictions, so chinese people can go to macau and gamble, the greatest gambling mecca
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on the planet. stocks are best travel resumes. one more, draftkings way down, what's the story? susan: momentum plays a losing steam especially with what we see in the 10 year treasury yield. remember draftkings is up hundred%, the ideas company, also explosive growth of the past of monster this is a rotation or new risk reward calculus. if you have guaranteed 1.3% on treasury yield you better be making 1.3% or stockholders and if you are not the maybe you should take profit and that's what's happening with these two explosive stocks that we've seen over the past 12 months. stuart: the picture, we opened up this tuesday morning and we are down much across the board. bitcoin is down, really straight down and we are thinking about that $1.9 trillion stimulus program. next case.
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don't dine indoors. don't go to theaters. don't hug your grandchildren-- what? even if you grandchildren don't hug your back-- grandchildren? this is dr. fauci. >> my parents have gotten their second dose and they're fully vaccinated, is that okay for them to spend time with their grandchildren >> you know, i'm not going to make a recommendation out. stuart: okay, i thought the vaccine was supposed to be a step towards normality, thought it was. i want to hug my grandchildren after i have the vaccine. why can't i do that? brian kilmeade joins us next hour. president trump speak at cpac sunday, will he replay leadership of the republican party? will it open his 2024 campaign? i will ask the man in charge of the big event on the show coming up. ♪♪
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stuart: check those markets. plenty of red ink with the dow jones up 100. will you look at the nasdaq, that's important , down 3%, 400 points down for the nasdaq, big tech is getting knocked around. however, we have some winners among the dow 30 here's the best, procter & gamble, verizon, walt disney and mcdonald's on the upside despite the downside move in the s&p 500 stocks, there are winners headed by caliber energy, not going to read the rest, smaller market skewer stocks. i went to look at carnival and shopify, both are way down especially shopify. susan, do you think
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there is some way shopify and carnival indicating market peak? susan: they are rushing in to raise money when stock prices are high, so that means they don't think they will get better pricing later on this year. this is also-- shopify the second largest e-commerce player after amazon, selling more than a million shares, 1300-- you wonder if you are buying in at that level if you're losing money today whether it's worth it, but they are raising about one and a half billion dollars to strengthen their balance sheets, so good for shopify. also carnival cruise lines selling 40 million shares. they are raising money and a higher valuation than what their stock is trading at today so in some ways if you are a carnival or shopify investor would you think you have a pretty good deal with these stock sales to shore up your balance sheet? stuart: i guess so, but i'm more
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interested in does it imply a market peak, if they are coming in now to raise money you're quite right maybe they think the market is going any higher, getting now while you can. that's what they are doing. interesting. maybe we are at a market peak, i'm not going to say that, but maybe we are. movie theaters in new york city, yes, they can reopen, but susan you know what's coming here. it's not going to be full capacity. susan: we are talking about 25% capacity, no more than 50 people, wear a mask, assigned seating and advance air filtration will be required indoors and amsc immediately after that announcement said they will reopen all of their new york city theaters. amc stock i mean the stock went straight up, cinemark as well rallying because there may be some reopening with some people going back to theaters, but don't forget last year they had a dismal year
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decimated by covid with virtually all theaters shut during april and march. stuart: got it. let's continue the theme of going back to maybe we are going back to the cinemark, may be. are we going back to work if we left the office and working from home, when will we go back? the gentleman bottom right-hand side of your screen is gregg smith. i read his stuff and he says we are going to go back to work quickly. return to work is the movement we are about to enter or tell me more, greg? >> good morning. i think we are in the near term we will witness in the next three or four months a return to the office. we all know the way we work has become distributed. it will change and become flexible into the future, but i think people crave getting back to the office and may be dressing up-- you talked about we want to get back to the movies,
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we want to get back to family vacations and i think it's coming. i can see some empirical evidence of some of my companies that cater to this market particularly in the food delivery space where we see a massive pickup in the last few weeks of food deliveries, so think i-- these are early signs people are beginning to get comfortable to return to work. i don't necessarily see it in new york city yet, but i believe we are within months away of that happening and we will almost have an economy scene where people are busting to get out. stuart: i would love to see it, but i think liability protection is a big deal i mean if you look back to the office and you get yourself a case of covid, you sue your employer on the grounds , hey you brought me back to work and didn't keep me safe. i mean, there's no liability protection of the moment is there connect no, there isn't and it will be flexible, it will be change for the foreseeable future and i think companies will adopt different
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cohorts. we see it happening in schools with her kids attending schools, summoned and tuesday and then remotely for the rest of the week. i believe companies will begin to adopt a similar measure forward. if and again new york is probably more challenging to the nature of the large powers we have here in the elevator, so getting traffic in and out of buildings is far different than a city like atlanta, so i think -- stuart: greg, i have to leave a few seconds for snap. you have been big the stock. you own it and have recommended it at least twice in the past and you have been right that he keeps going up. i think you have a new target price, what is it , $99? >> i do, i have been on snap since october and shared it with you when it was 26 and shared the $57 price target. i think there is evident
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-- evidence and you know its use by millis-- middle schoolers to said keep messages to their friends traditionally, but i think it deserves a seat at the big boy table alongside facebook, instagram and tiktok. they have introduced new products in the last several months which will really spend the demographic users and create a massive network affect we see more advertisers command and move their dollars into snapchat, so i think it will lead to increased growth and expanding their share of the pie, so i think we could see snap shares@$99 in the next year. stuart: you set it on tape, $99 in the next year for snap. gregg smith, thank you. cu center then there is this, branching away from money markets for moment, white house press secretary having a hard time defending why president biden has yet to hold a solo news conference. roll tape. >> are there plans for president biden to hold
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a solo press conference anytime soon? >> he will hold a solo press conference, but i don't have a date. >> this week? >> not this week, no. stuart: we will show you how president biden compared to his predecessors on holding solo press, but this. florida open for business, restaurants, bars are crowded and now they are expanding vaccination efforts all across the state. live report from ashley webster is it next. ♪♪ 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?
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stuart: here's the story of the morning, the markets are falling fast. look at that, nasdaq down 3%, 400 points. not-- dow jones down nearly 252 points. a lot of red ink. may be nearer worried about what the federal reserve will say in a couple of minutes. we will have a preview, 10:00 p.m. and we will break it for you as fast as we can. on your screens now, cases are down. death down. vaccinations way up and
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ashley webster joins us from a vaccination facility in palm beach county, florida. the news from florida is terrific, bars are open and they are doing business. are you going to tell me they are increasing vaccination doses this week? ashley: yes, they are. in fact they were down last week because of the brutal winter weather applet north, but this week they will get 200,000 extra doses of the moderna vaccine which is great news and as you say i'm at the palm beach county fairgrounds here, the south florida fairgrounds where they are trying to get through the backlog of people on the waiting list for that's what they are doing here today. maybe just-in-time. look at some of the numbers out of florida, if we can. looking at the number of new cases, 41501 new cases in florida and the actual total across the status 1.872 million, but look at the positivity rate with florida right now 6.8%, national average is 4.7%
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so that higher than the national average and then look at the number of people that i do receive vaccine. one does coming in at 6.1%. about the doses at 6.5%. now the focus is on seniors. as you know significant senior population in florida and we have seen pharmacies also publix pharmacy is holding vaccination and cbs will give vaccinations as well as the florida governor ron desantis spoke this morning about a half an hour ago in the miami area from a cvs seen the focus is on seniors and he thinks florida is doing a good job. take a list center. >> we are number one in the nation or close to number one in almost every key metric involving seniors. we have vaccinated well over 2 million seniors, more than 75% of every dose that's been administered in florida has gone to a senior citizen.
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ashley: by the way, 70000 new doses will be delivered to publix pharmacies today. here they will get it about 1600 people vaccinated. they have been on the waiting list, so starting to ramp up for short that's a good sign. although, coming here this morning it's like nothing is going on, following school buses, everything is buzzing, everything is open on the stark contrast to what we have another parts of the country, no doubt. stuart: you got that dead right. actually, thank you. still ahead, we will find out exactly what jerome powell will tell congress when he makes his testimony in a couple of minutes. that could really change the market and still ahead matt schlapp, brian kilmeade, steve forbes and steve hilton. one last check of the markets, falling fast, nasdaq down 400. more "varney & co." after this
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♪. stuart: the dreaming songs we're saying there. we have all kinds of things going on in the financial markets this morning. 10:00, east coast. let's get straight to your money. the nasdaq is on the pace for the its steepest two-day drop since september the 8th. why? big tech is taking it on the chin. taking a huge hit. i keep repeating that. i won't use it again.
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apple is down 3%. that is a selloff. there is a sell in bitcoin as well, after janet yellen warned it is an extremely inefficient way to make transactions. the bright spot this morning, covid cases deaths continue down. 44% lower cases, 36% lower deaths in the past two weeks. perhaps the biggest story of all is just breaking. susan, you have the headlines from jerome powell's testimony. give me the bullet points. susan: must-see tv. powell continues to strike a dovish stance by the way is good for the stock markets. he says the economy is a long way away from the fed's mandate of full employment and inflation above 2%. that is important to know. we had treasury yields spike up in anticipation of more inflation, higher prices and all the money printing and stimulus taking place around the world. the fact we are far away with inflation being 2% which is a goal for the federal reserve, i think that is important to note.
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he reiterates that the fed will not tap the brakes because of easy monetary policy because the economy is gotten better and stronger. the economy is based on the path of the coronavirus and cases are continuing to hurt job creation. he won't taper back on bond purchases or it will not be abrupt. they will indicate when they will push back on the 100 million-dollar a month spending buying treasury bonds. all in all dovish, still very accommodative for the u.s. economy and stock markets. stuart: he keeps interest rates low for the foreseeable future. susan: correct. stuart: he says vaccines offer hope for reopening later this year. all together -- susan: the inflation part is probably the key point that i'm picking up. the fact that we're looking at the nasdaq and the selloff taking place in the stock market is higher yields, anticipating
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higher prices. but according to jerome powell is probably the authority on the u.s. economy that is not happening. prices, i'm quoting from his testimony in opening statement, prices remain particularly soft. so there is no inflation and these yields may have gotten ahead of themselves. stuart: oh, very interesting. prices remain particularly soft. susan: yes. stuart: okay. look at the impact on the market. not that much impact, i got to say, with the nasdaq was down more than 400. now it is 340. dow industrials still down over 200 points. not that big of an impact on the market thus far. would you agree with that susan? susan: yeah, look, we're still roughly 5% a way from record highs, record levels we saw last week. we need to put things into context here. things are not that bad. this might be a bit of a breather. there is still a lot of money out there, especially talking about $1.9 trillion in another
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stimulus package which wall street is eager to hear jerome powell's take as well in this testimony, in the twice a year testimony to congress. stuart: let's see if we get any bounce off the lows we hit earlier this morning. we'll see if anybody is buying a dip in big tech. susan, a dovish fed. everyone, now this. i don't know whether the entire $1.9 trillion so-called covid relief package will actually pass but i firmly believe that those 1400-dollar checks will be approved and will go out. studies may show that 70% of the money will be saved or go to pay down credit card debt or go into the stock market via robin hood. much will not go directly to stimulate the economy. doesn't matter. the money will go out, that is the state of politics today. what we're seeing now, is a classic example of vote buying. vote for me and i will give you
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money. in the georgia senate elections, it was explicit, vote for me, you will get the checks. the democrats won. think about the next election. the a candidate stands up says, for the good of the country i voted against 1400-dollar checks that candidate is toast. he or she is very likely to lose. tens of millions of people will get the money. if they don't get the money they will take it out on the candidate who denied them. do we need $1.9 trillion to get out of the covid mess on top of the trillion already approved but not spent? of course we don't. politicians need it to get reelected and look good for 2022. the checks are coming whether we need them or not. the second hour of "varney" is about to begin. ♪.
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stuart: all right. we just goat the word on consumer confidence. that is kind of a leading indicator. don't know whether it had effect on the market. susan, the number, please. susan: 91.3, higher than economist consensus. calling for a read of 90, better than anticipated, again higher than we saw in january. this is improvement month on month. it shows acceleration in the country and the consumer which powers around 2/3 of the u.s. economy. stuart: let's get straight to scott shellady who will talk to us about fed chair powell striking a dove irk tone in his testimony. what do you make -- here is another question, scott. do we really need $1.9 trillion in relief? >> you know what, stuart? i thought a lot about this. it is funny that consumer confidence, isn't it funny how the optimism of all of us that have been locked down continues to carry on. we're an optimistic people. but do we need the money?
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think about it. 330 million people in the country. they don't want you to get out the calculator to do a little bit of math, but if all 330 million people qualified for the $1400, that is $462 billion. where is the other 1.5 trillion going for? think about it. they do it right in front of your face. if you bring out the calculator they, we don't have the money to spend. not all 330 million people will qualify for the capital either. where is it all going? my problem is this, we keep looking at these people that got us into this mess, to get us out of this mess. stop telling me that theaters will be open at 25%, restaurants open at 25, 40%, make me want to stand on my head and clap. that means you will go out of business slower. who is in the room that sides that these people get to go out of business slower? they need to be open 100%. we have new york and chicago, these buildings are only 10%
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occupied. there are no customers down here. what, that is why i think the fed is striking a dovish tone. they see what i see. stuart: wait a minute. i see inflation. i see it already. i see corn, soybeans, wheat, oil, gasoline, streaming charges. they're all going up. that is inflation which i feel directly. what is this about the fed saying, well, prices are still pretty soft, don't see inflation? what is with that? >> well, it's a very interesting point. i haven't seen this happen in a while, stuart you're right. we had supply and demand issues in some of the things you see on the dining room table every day but also you've got new money, thinking that we will get inflation, coming into these markets and buying these hard assets, because they think, it is and inflation hedge. they are buying things normally wouldn't buy, looking out into
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the future, that we will have inflation and they sinks will look better this is a lot of "hopium." bringing demand forward, remind yourself, folks if we can't take the mask off, you heard fauci said you can't hug your kids, as a grandparent with the shot, if you can't take the mask off, we'll have social distancing. who in their right mind thinks we'll even up normal if you have to socially distance? these people are out of their minds! stuart: i will leave it at that these people are out of their minds! you're on tape, lad. it never goes away. >> all right. stuart: scott, i'm too old for this new world we live in and spacs, ipos, bitcoin, retail investors. make i should retire. no, i'm not going to do that. scott, you're all right, i hope to see you again real soon. >> all righty. stuart: we dealt with the market. look on the left-hand side of
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the screen. it's a sell-off going on. now let's deal with this. president trump will speak at cpac this sunday. matt schlapp is the chair of cpac. he runs the event, running the president, president trump come sunday. what is he going to say, what do you think, matt? >> don't put me in charge of running the president. that is too big a job for me. stuart: right. what do you think he is going to say? this opening speech in his 2024 campaign what do you think? >> in, i don't know if those are the exact words or he will use those words in his speech. but i think it is a really important moment for this idea that donald trump's presidency was remarkably successful. his policies really helped the american economy and i think it helped restore america's position around the globe and whether he runs for office or just stays involved in politics, or just continues to push these policies, husband voice should
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not be canceled. that was a real outrage that that occurred. i think for half the country, they really want to hear from the president they voted for. stuart: okay. one quick question about this covid relief package. i just editorialized that we are going to get those 1400-dollar checks sent out whether we need them or not. because that is the nature of politics these days, you buy votes. do you agree with me? >> i agreed with much of what you said, stuart. i think it was one thing when we shut down the economy and the president did it, president trump did it at the beginning of our kind of learning about this new chinese coronavirus. you know, that was a cpac ago. we have had a full year. for some people like the teachers union on the left, they don't want us to open up forever or certainly another year. trying to keep public schools closed. at this point it becomes ridiculous when you can safely
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reopen it big companies can be open, mom-and-pops can be open as well. they can be open outside in huts that are closed, why can't they be open inside of restaurants? we have certain insanity that is governing. if the democrats can keep us shut down and keep writing checks, passing bills with more checks for americans. i think americans actually want to go back to work, school, church, and earn their own money. stuart: yes. surely president trump will address that. >> i hope he does. stuart: get back to work. open up. yes, i agree with you. hope he does. >> stuart, real fast, there is so much disagreement in politics. if he can't agree on the american economy should be open for business we don't have much left. stuart: well-said. that was an excellent last word. you took only five seconds. that is good. matt schlapp, you're all right. thanks for joining us sir. see you sunday. i will be watching.
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sure thing. back to the markets because we come back a bit. big tech is still down exempt for facebook but i see the dow is down 160 and the nasdaq is down what, still about 300 points maybe, but we've come back a bit because after dovish fed. susan: yep. stuart: and consumer confidence. nice there. susan: that's right. stuart: so what have we got on this, susan? susan: let's talk big tech because apple is down roughly 10% since it hit the record highs just before its earnings report. apple will hold their shareholders meeting today at 12 noon eastern time. around two hours. we're not expecting a lot from shareholder meetings. they usually don't go through any devices or launches. they will go through some tangential topics like climate change, where they are building procts. not much expected from the apple shareholders meeting. would you say technology really pulled back because of a runup
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in yields. when yields go up, big technology plays go up, they don't look so big as they used. you will get 1.63% on 10-year treasury yields. tech stocks you need to get a lot more to justify the risk. i feel like there is a squeeze taking place from the high flying tech names we've seen. i want to also point out to you, stu, blackrock came out with their investment note this morning. they're still going bullish on stocks. however they're going more underweight when it comes to u.s. government bonds, despite the fact you're looking at this spike in yields. stuart: okay. got that. i'm looking today to see if anybody is buying the big tech dip. over the last five or six years you bought the dip, you did well. well this is a dip. are you going to buy? are we going to come out of this and rebound on the other side? i don't know the answer to that question but i'm looking for it. susan: yeah. stuart: susan, thank you. by this point in their
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presidencies both president trump and president obama had given solo press conferences. so when will president biden hold his? the white house will not have an answer to that. watch this, please. >> are there plans for president biden to hold a solo press conference anytime soon. >> i don't have a date for you. >> this week? >> not this week, no. stuart: not this week, don't have a date so when. brian kilmeade sounds off on that. he is next, shortly on the show. the $1.9 billion stimulus bill stuffed with pork. we'll roll it past you all over the screen. that is pork right there. grover norquist has a few things to say about that just ahead. ♪.
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stuart: it is a selloff but we're coming back a little. the nasdaq is still down 300 points. that is 2.25%. that is a selloff especially in big tech. show me holm depot. even though home prices rose 10% in the december over the year period, you would have thought that would help the home depots of this world. home depot came in with earnings, not great, down nearly 6%. that loss there shaves about 112 points off the dow industrials. so without that loss from home depot, the dow would be down a mere 60 odd points. that's it. now then, how about this, president trump's support among african-american voters, yes, it rose ever so slightly from 2016
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to 2020. not sure that graphic shows the story real well but essentially black support for the president was not that great in 2020. not much above 2016. paris dennard rejoins us this morning, black voices for trump advisory board member. what went wrong last november, paris? why didn't trump get a much higher proportion of the black vote than he did in 2016? >> i'm a big fan of yours, i would have to respectfully disagree. you look at what president trump was able to accomplish, more than doubling his support with black women, getting more than 20% from black men. the president did excellent job engaging with the black community because the rnc where i am now was intentional in our engagement efforts. having our black voices for trump community centers in 15 cities across the country. they're on the ground engaging with the black community. safely door knocking, doing work, having events.
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we were there. that was present. that had an historic event. we were also advertising in black owned newspapers. stuart: you're telling me that president trump on november the 3rd last year got 20% of the black male vote? 20%? >> yes. more than 20% actually. and the record actually reflects that president trump garnered the most votes from non-white voters for republican presidential candidate since 1960. the work that the president did, that the rnc did to engage with the black community and other minority communities was impressive, historic and it grew our party. it expanded our party. it made us more diverse. the notion that we weren't successful, weren't engaging is not true. to that end the rnc has dedicated two million dollars investment to continue the work of engagement, opening up the black voices community centers this year, in the black
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community once again. continuing our engagement efforts. just this month in february alone for black history month the rnc spent six figures in black newspapers across the country, highlighting black republican leaders in each of the states. we're serious about engagement and continuing the important work that the president started with has four years in office. highlighting the contrast between the horrible policies of joe biden impacting the black community. stuart: paris, i hear you. i'm going to have to check that number. 20% of the african-american male vote went to president trump. i have to check it and i will. paris, thanks for joining us. see you again soon. thank you. >> thanks for having me. stuart: back to the markets. plenty of action. the big downside move, dow and nasdaq. there are big movers, susan. you will run through them for us. susan: i love talking about tesla since we're in the bitcoin era, according to wedbush dan
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ives as bitcoin prices go so goes tesla since they bought 1 1/2 billion dollars worse. he said they will make more money from owning that 1 1/2 billion dollars in bitcoin than they will from selling electric cars in 2020 but we're going sub700, because bitcoin has gone sub50,000 this morning. monday was the worst single day for tessa lines september. cheaper than when it entered the s&p 500 at the end of last year. some see this as a buying opportunity, including cathie wood at arc invest, bought a quarter of a million shares. palantir is down after one of the cofounders, executive sold two million shares after the lockup period expired after the company went public. good news for palantir, it signed a new deal with 3m to improve its supply chain. another corporate customer instead of engaging with governments around the world. home depot, no guidance because of covid uncertainty. they warned growth might slow.
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they boosted dividends by 10% which is a bullish sign i would imagine. macy's coming out with earnings this morning. sales down 17% in the holiday period. that was still better than anticipated. they have this transition taking place to move from brick and mortars going online. one more stock i will leave you with, gm, we don't talk about spacs a lot, this is having an impact in the electric car market today. we're talking about lucid motors going public by a spac. lucid is the upscale electric carmaker. the fact that they haven't sold a car, they're still seen as a big threat. especially now they're worth $24 billion worth without selling one car yet. isn't that incredible? stuart: yes, that is incredible. you go the that right, thank you very much, susan. tell you this inspiring story, a 29-year-old cancer survivor set to become the youngest person ever to go into space. we've got her story for you just ahead. jerome powell testifying right now on the state of the
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economy. we're watching it for you. you don't have to listen to it. we're watching it for you. we'll bring you the updates, see how it affects the markets all the way through the show. ♪. ♪ ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
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stuart: described as dovish comments from fed chair powell bringing the market back a little. the dow still down, only 135 points. the nasdaq still down but only 224 as opposed to 450. so we've come back a bit. show me the biggest losers on the nasdaq please, because that's where the heavy-duty action is this morning. we've got baidu, nxp, lam research, they're way, way down. i should tell you microsoft, the big techs, they are still down but there has been some buying of the dip. we've seen microsoft come back from a 3-dollar drop and one dollar drop. that i call a little bit of dip buying. the other big story on the marketplace is bitcoin. susan it's down nearly 10%.
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is janet yellen behind the drop? susan: i think she is one of the main factors. elon musk thinks bitcoin and ethereum prices are too high. money coming off the table, whether coming out of bitcoin or stocks right now. so yes treasury secretary does call bitcoin what she calls an extremely inefficient way of conducting transactions. says it could be used for criminal activity. as you mentioned bitcoin is down 50% over the past 48 hours but we have to be clear. not that many people use bitcoin to pay for things. it is not all that feasible when you're paying $8 for each transition, right? transaction. they use it to buy it as a store of value, expecting the price to go up. stuart: that is what people are buying it for. no question about that. it is not a medium of exchange. not a reeling lar currency no matter what they say. susan: not paying 7 to $8 per
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transaction it is not feasible. she criticized environmental impact last week. we discussed the, that the electricity used more than holland, argentina, and pakistan probably need as rethink. stuart: you think the climate war years would be hot on this because it uses so much electricity. susan: especially elon musk selling green cars. stuart: exactly. get more on jerome powell who is still testifying about the economy on capitol hill. come on in hillary vaughn. you have got the highlights for us please. reporter: good morning, stuart, jerome powell says the path to recovery depends on the course of the virus but a vaccine really signals we could be returning to normal later in the year but says recovery for the economy is uncertain and uneven. he says a rebound that we saw oversummer has since then significantly slowed, citing sectors in the economy,
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hospitality and leisure largely impacted by social distancing. the colder weather. he said spending, household spending on foods did pick up in january. but things on spending like hospitality and leisure remains low, he did say,ed the good news housing is fully recovered and business investment and manufacturing as well have been picking up. he says the recovery since last spring we've really seen has been due to the fiscal an monetary actions put in place that benefited households, businesses and communities. he says that while improvement in the labor market has slowed, we have seen gains in some industries that were matched by losses in those industries, like hospitality and leisure. he said there is a disproportionate impact in terms of losses on minority groups and says that their goal is to try to figure out how monetary actions can help those sectors recover. he also made an interesting comment saying, they're going to
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make key monetary policy changes. when it comes to how they look at maximum employment, how they look at full employment, they want an inclusive picture and they're going to make their monetary action decisions based on how inclusive employment is, rather than just how high employment is. stuart? stuart: got it. hillary vaughn, thank you very much indeed. let's get to the $1.9 trillion covid, it is called the covid relief plan. it is not all about covid. look at this on your screens. we'll roll it past you. all the pork in that $1.9 trillion deal. we're just going to roll it out there and bring in, we're going to bring in, grover norquist with us. grover, we're going to keep that on the screen while we're talking. i think all of it will pass. all of it. there is no way you can get pork out of here, do you agree with me, it is going to pass? >> it was designed as a pork barrel project. we already spent, enacted
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$4 trillion in covid relief. a trillion of that hasn't been spent yet. so we have a trillion coming. then you have the what the fed did, about 2 1/2 trillion. they have been throwing money at this. this is not covid relief. this is a series of payments to the major parts of the modern democratic party. there is even half a billion dollars going to museums. why? rich liberals who are trustees onboard of museums have nationalized their contributions, their charity, their philanthropy with your tax dollars. they are very proud of themselves. they did it politically with covid. has everything to do with going it each of the pieces of the modern democratic party and rewarding them. they funnel money to blue states, blue cities, based on how much they failed to deal with opening the economy. if you kept the economy closed, unemployment is high, you get more money from the federal
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government to subsidize failure. stuart: when it gets to the senate, senators from florida, from texas, from missouri, from the upper midwest, are they going to vote to bail out, going to, are they going to vote in favor of the bailout of northern democrat-run states like new york, new jersey, illinois, and california? because a bailout is included in this 1.9 trillion. will get through? >> it will pass with all democratic votes. the people who have to wonder how they're voting are democrats from west virginia. bailing out new york. democrats from arizona, georgia, bailing out failed blue states. but on party line the democrats will stick together. this does, if they have the minimum wage increase it really damages red states, that have lower costs of living, that can't afford 15-dollar minimum wages which new york city can with higher cost of living this
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is partisan bill. there were six covid bills bipartisan under trump. now that mr. unity is in charge, down the line, party line, they will not allow anybody to vote against this bill, democrats. they need every vote or it doesn't happen. stuart: i never thought we would come to this. looks like we will. grover, thanks as always, for yournal is sis, we appreciate it come back soon, grover, thank you. standoff between australia and the government of as austra. facebook is restoring news to it users. the implications go way beyond australia. we have more on this story coming up for you. jeff bezos, now wants in on the nfl. we'll tell you which team he is interested in.
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♪. stuart: there are nursing homes all across the country that are at risk of closing permanently because of rising costs from the pandemic. our new colleague, lydia ho-e is with us, welcome to the network. great to have you with us. you tell me how many nursing homes could close? reporter: stuart, national estimates are predicting 1600 nursing homes could face closure this year due to rising costs. we are outside the the manor in troy, new york. this nursing home loses
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thousands of dollars per day as it provides care for at risk residents, protecting them from covid-19. this nursing home defied governor cuomo march 23rd order. it is not one facing closure later this year. but many nursing homes across the country are not so lucky. hundreds are facing financial distress, looking $22 billion in projected losses. some say that would be another health care crisis if they closed. >> we're probably losing about $17,000 a day. i was willing to take that hit to protect the people inside this building, to keep the covid positive wing open. reporter: nationally occupancy is also down because families have been reluctant to enroll their loved ones in nursing homes where they haven't been able to visit them. adding to the financial strain is also the cost of ppe.
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an estimated $30 billion were spent les year by ppe, nursing homes, long-term care facilities. one man was forced to move his wife from a nursing home earlier this year when her facility in new york closed. >> well there is a lot of you know, nationwide, there is a lot of places closing. it is definitely stressful. , if you think the places going to closed, do everything you can right a way to find a bed because they are scarce. they're hard to come by. reporter: now, stuart, industry leaders are asking congress for around $20 billion to help keep these nursing homes open across the country. back to you. stuart: good start, lydia. great to have you with us, we'll see you soon. lydia hu. susan i got? for you, jeff bezos could be an nfl owner? he can have any time he wants so which one is it, susan?
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susan: apparently he is linked to a group that wants to become majority owner in the washington football team. so he is one of the suitors, one of the main backers in a baltimore based investment firm that might be putting in a bid according to court documents obtained by front office sports. bezos, let's be frank. he has free time on his hands. he is stepping back from day-to-day operations from amazon. no longer serving as ceo by the end of 2021. he will stay on as executive chairman. he has deep ties to washington. remember he purchased "the washington post" back in 2013. he also chose arlington, virginia, as amazon's second headquarters that comes with thousands of jobs. he seems to like the area quite a bit. stuart: i don't think he will ever run for presidency though, why do you think? susan: with $100 billion, $200 billion, why would you bother? that is a lot of exposure first of all. we know he is a private guy. stuart: you got it right. this is very true. susan, thanks very much.
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listen to this, please, get vaccinated but don't hug your grandchildren. listen to dr. fauci. >> i'm not going to make a recommendation now. i don't want to be making a recommendation now on public tv. stuart: he was, look, he was asked can you hug your grandchildren if you have gotten the vaccine and he wouldn't answer. brian kilmeade has a few things to say about that and he is here next.
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61.30 right now. that is pushing up gas prices quite rapidly. national average for regular is 2.$64 a gallon. that is up 24, 25 cents in the last month, $2.64. we're about to bring on the screen, our famous friend, brian kilmeade from his radio show. there he is in living color. dr. fauci was asked, if you get the vaccine can you hulk your grand kids. here is the response brian. >> my parents have already gotten their second dose. they're fully vaccinated. does that mean it is okay to spend time with their grandchildren who obviously have not been vaccinated? what is your recommendation? >> you know, i'm not going to make a recommendation now. there will be recommendations coming out. i don't want to be making a recommendation now on public tv. stuart: all right, brian, let's get this straight, shall we.
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i'm a grandfather. i have nine grandchildren, one more coming. i am going to hug my grandkids, what do you think about dr. fauci not saying one way or the other? >> he is being flat-out wrong. hedging on just about every substantial question and getting praised for the interviews driven me nuts for the past year. he might be a nice man. he is certainly intelligent and wonderful track record but he has been terrible on this. he does more interviews than research. instead of saying why you should lock down and hunker down, look at the flipside of not having that interaction. so if you don't feel comfortable saying that, at the very least if you're a senior, life has slowed down more than likely. the little things that you have in life, have interaction with family has been denied. now you say to yourself because i have got a vacs seen that is 94% effective, going to see a kid who the chances of them being positive, me infecting them are infinitesimal, that is
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not even on the chart. the flipside not seeing kids, not having interactions, not getting into the house, are so far greater than any pie chart that says hunker down, sit on your hands and watch netflix. of course you have spot to see your kids. stuart: yes. hug them too. get on with it. there is a cost involved in not getting it together with them. i got to move on. i have got limited amount of time. so far president biden has not held a solo press conference and jen psaki refuses to give a time frame when we might get a solo press conference, even though trump and, trump, he held at least a dozen on his first week. what do you think about this, no solo news conference? >> i watched this guy get elected president without having one tough question. you know, something shouted in the back from one of our reporters. what is he going to do? get soft pedaled questions. talk sure cute thusly.
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watch with anderson cooper, he will talk in circles not make. he got elected because he is not donald trump. i am in the minority, i'm not looking forward to the next press conferences gotcha press conference. he never makes sense, still his approval ratings is 60%. what will it take to what is happening at the border, it is a disaster? xl pipeline, 15,000 people out of work as he sign as form. he has no price to pay. what kind of questions is he going to get? how is he going to skate around it. we watched him contradict his vice president and his press secretary and watched his whole medical team cover for him. there has been no scrutiny. i'm not looking forward to the next joe biden press conference. i don't think they will be impactful. i'm more fearful of his next policy that will be coming down the pike. first and foremost will be that 1.9 trillion, with only a third of it going to pandemic relief. that is the scary thing. no tough question will change my
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mind. stuart: no. but you will all get your 1400-dollar per person checks because that is free money, given away by the government and what politician is going to say no to that? it is not going to happen. you are going to get checks guaranteed. last word to you, 20 second. >> my last question to you, the 1400-dollar check is separate debate. why am i getting a bridge from new york to buffalo? why am i getting a subway in san francisco? why am i getting funding from museums? why am i preserving the nate stiff american language and need millions of dollars for that? that is an insult to the american people. you're saying a emergency. giving a bunch of things to make your constituents happy, you're the majority leader, chuck schumer, you're the speaker nancy pelosi. that is not in our best interests. stuart: press conference on pork would be very interesting, wouldn't it? brian, we're out of time. thanks for joining us. see you again soon. >> go get them, stuart. stuart: big hour to come.
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we'll report on what jay powell is saying in congress that actually brought this market back. steve forbes, steve hilton, kevin fall counter, brian steele with us. faulconer. very rare to read a "new york times" op-ed. i will do exactly that in "my take" next. so you're a small business, or a big one. you were thriving, but then... oh. ah. okay. plan, pivot.
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>> danielle and is scared of bit going. it is one of the biggest threats to the fed and we will see momentum from here. >> you've got new money thinking we've got inflation coming into these market and buying these hard assets, it is an inflation hedge. >> the most sensitive to rising interest rates, the smallest rising interest rates set off a cascading effect in risky markets. >> instead of sitting at home think of what may happen, where inflation may go. sit back and say these are
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quality businesses that are still growing up numbers and if you get a pull back you buy them. ♪♪ down down down down down ♪♪ stuart: markets down but i am not. it is 11:00 on the east coast of the united states of america, tuesday february 20 third. the dow has come a long way back, not quite in positive territory but it is down 80, nasdaq coming back as well. it was down 450. now it is down 160. jay powell, chairman of the federal reserve is testifying, a few things to say about inflation. he says a burst of spending does not necessarily lead to inflation but it is a bit volatile over the next couple years. that is helping the market overall but it is helping to some degree with big text that
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have come back. i follow microsoft. it was down for 5 bucks. noted down one dollar and $0.50. a little bit of a comeback. the other big story, bit coin 10%, janet yellen called its. it was ineffective and highly speculative. that was bit coin and that pushed it down nearly 10%. that is the action on the financial market this tuesday morning. it is very rare for me to recommend an editorial in the new york times but that is what i'm going to do today. bret stephens writes an op-ed titled woke me when it is over.
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it is an arrow aimed at the heart of the cancel culture. it is great stuff and this is it. the new york times. stephen outlines the extraordinary language, a food magazine cleanse its recipes from any form of racism, sexism, cultural basis or anything that offended the woke generation. 5 years ago bon appetit magazine published an article titled how to make actually good home attached, those little small triangular cakes traditionally served by jews. one critic objected on the grounds that the author of the article was not jewish and traditional foods do not need to be updated by someone who doesn't come from that tradition. the magazine immediately responded with what it calls on archive repair project. they are searching 55 years worth of recipes for what would now be considered objectionable
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titles. this applies to all of us. anything you have ever said or written can be held against you and you can be canceled. the statute of limitations never expires for the woke generation. in this brave new world the past must be erased. i am not a fan of the times but it is good to see in his oriole the points out the continuing insult this poses to our intelligence. as long as we are prepared to accept this nonsense, we will win and free speech will lose. in the game of woke, right stevens, the goalposts have been moved at any moment and claims of fairness will always lose out the perpetual right to claim offense. woke me when it is over, he writes. but unfortunately it is nowhere near over and will continue until our society gets a backbone. the third hour of "varney and company" is about to begin.
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i will calm down. let's see if steve wilson can fire me back up again. i was surprised to see the new york times publish this and i have known him for 25 years. he's a great writer but i was surprised to see the new york times publish this. what do you think? >> you are right about britt stevens. he has been a strong crusader on this stuff. a few months ago he wrote a scathing op-ed that the new york times published criticizing its own 1619 project, not just criticizing it for its overall intend in terms of rewriting history but some of the journalistic errors that were made. it is pretty tough stuff.
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britt stevens have got a record of standing up, i couldn't agree with what you are saying about it. and to the principles of which america was based and you and i have come here thinking this is the home of free speech and free expression and you can't be censored for these things but that is changing and that is why we have to fight for it. it is interesting the new york times has a sliver of opportunity for one writer. i can't think of a single other person at the organization that is allowed to publish these views. stuart: let's move on to the covid relief package was a rolling list of all the pork provisions that are in the package and i understand, i
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expect them all to pass, what about the bailout of states like california, new york, new jersey and illinois. $360 billion in that package for the bailout of those states including california. >> you have hit upon the most important part of the whole thing because although that is $350 billion, not a huge proportion of the overall amount it tells a story about what this whole thing is. it is not actually designed to keep the economy going but to keep the lockdown going, it is a lockdown bailout. in relation to those blue states because states that shutdown more aggressively without any improved impact on the pandemic, just have to compare california and florida to see that, no impact on the virus, unemployment, small business and so on and you get
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rewarded with more money as if you are well-run state particularly a republican state that managed to control the virus and keep the economy going with sensible policy you get punished. no money for you and if you add on to that all the other measures, continuation of the enhanced unemployment benefit that will keep unemployment higher than it otherwise would be, the whole package about where the government can keep the economy floating on public money and creating an incentive where state and local authority to lift the lockdown, get people back to work, that is the lockdown bailout, what the whole thing is. stuart: i do feel my outrage level rising gradually and i will tune in sunday night at 9:00 pm on fox news because i know i will get another dose of
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outrage, rising outrage from you and i will be watching 9:00 fox news sunday night. i want to get back to jay powell who is testifying before congress about the state of the economy. what is the latest? >> questions from elizabeth warren. the take away is he has given us an outlook of the economy as we head into the back half of 2021, the second half of this year could be very good in the us and everywhere else as more vaccines roll out and covid cases come down before the wall street markets, the biggest take away is stimulus. powell says over time the balance sheets have to flow. that is definite. asset purchases will continue until substantial progress is seen. wall street usually has a time when a punch bowl and stimulus
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is taken away and then you see stockmarkets fall. the second most important point is about inflation with treasury yields going up, and stock market selling off. translates to wall street inflation expectations and on that front powell saying inflation will move up temporarily. with all the money printing, they tend to go up and you see this with prices at the highest since 2013. a caveat, he does not expect inflation to rise to troubling levels which is important to take a and it doesn't seem likely increase in spending would lead to large or persistent inflation and that is good for treasury yields. we don't get to those troubling 2% yields plus. when does the punch bowl get taken away, inflation
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expectations, doesn't see a lot of inflation on the horizon for now. stuart: that is why the market comes back to a minus 45 of minus 450 on the nasdaq to a minus 120 or something like that. that is powell's testimony. steve forbes is with us, following what powell has to say and a summary of it. what do you make of that? jay powell says no real danger of major league inflation. this burst of spending will not create inflation, not necessarily create inflation. what do you say to that? >> how do you finance this massive spending? $1 trillion of unspent money and previous packages spent, this $2 trillion package coming down the pike will be passed in the next few weeks so how the treasury department financing? the federal reserve has to buy
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tens of those which increases the money supply which means inflation. the federal reserve has the idea you can control inflation with a light switch or turn it on and off, that's not how the real world works. once this starts to go it is hard to stop and the way the federal reserve sees the world, the only way to slow down inflation is by slowing down the economy. it is not a baseball pitch but a crazy idea, if you want growth you have to have inflation, low inflation, high unemployment. it is a bogus theory but the fed worships it so inflation starts to rise. what is powell going to do? slow the economy down? i doubt it. it means inflation gets worse. at the end of the year powell's four your term comes to a close. he wants to be appointed another four years so he will go out of his way not to get in the crosshairs of this administration for janet yellen. i am afraid a lot of trouble. stuart: we hear you. nicely put.
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steve forbes, sorry it is so short, big news day. thanks for being with us. next coming up, illegal immigrants could pay cheaper tuition than some american students at state run colleges. campus reform has the story. ♪♪ [announcer] durán catches leonard with a big left. ♪♪ you can spend your life in boxing or any other business, but one day, you're gonna take a hit you didn't see coming. and it won't matter what hit you. what matters is you're down. and there's nothing down there with you but the choice that will define you. do you stay down?
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or. do you find, somewhere deep inside of you, the resilience to get up. ♪♪ [announcer] and this fight is a long way from over, leonard is coming back. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ we started with computers. we didn't stop at computers. we didn't stop at storage or cloud. we kept going. working with our customers to enable the kind of technology that can guide an astronaut back to safety. and help make a hospital come to you, instead of you going to it. so when it comes to your business, you know we'll stop at nothing.
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it's time for the ultimate sleep number event on the sleep number 360 smart bed. you can both adjust your comfort with your sleep number setting. so when it comes to your business, you know can it help me fall asleep faster? yes, by gently warming your feet. but, can it help keep me asleep? absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable. will it help me come out swinging? you got this. so, you can really promise better sleep? not promise... prove. don't miss the final days to save 50% on the sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. plus, 0% interest for 24 months on all smart beds. ends monday. to learn more, go to sleepnumber.com. stuart: tuition at the university of georgia is cheaper for in-state students than those from out-of-state. illegal immigrants could soon get that discounted rate as
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well no matter where they are from. campus reform lady has been with us before. what is going on? >> georgia and arizona are considering bills that would grant in-state tuition to students who are not lawfully present in the state and to make matters worse in the state of virginia, signing a bill that was passed by the state legislature which would allow illegal immigrants to access state and school-based financial aid. this is patently unfair on its face and we know this. congress knows this. in 1996 they passed an immigration bill call i ira which pushed up a secondary education industry, public four your institutions are at $300 billion set of businesses and it says congress has decided you cannot offer a
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discount or a benefit to someone not lawfully present unless every other citizen in america can access that benefit as well. stuart: is contrary to what congress has already said. this is a contradiction here and we're in the middle of it. president biden wants to write off 50,$000 of your student loan. what is wrong with that? what is the problem with doing that? >> it is patently unfair on its face. the leadership institute for campus reform we talked to tons of students who looked at what they wanted to study, where they wanted to study it and made the biggest choice of their lives up to that point to go in state or to pick a different school or a different program because it would allow them to fulfill their student debt obligations. what this does, some of the
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left wing senators, warren and schumer are trying to convince biden to forgive 50,$000 in student loan, biden said no, he would forgive 10,000. whatever the number is schools are going to know they just raise their prices by that amount. it is not going to save money in the long run and what it teaches students, these are after all places of education and learning, what it teaches america's young people, this rising generation is if you have debt you don't like, the louder you get about it you can wipe out some of that and that is not responsibility. that is not what we ought to be teaching. stuart: i agree 100%. on the other side of the coin if you do forgive that kind of money and take that off the back of so many students you do help them and you do help the economy. do you agree with that? >> you certainly help them but you have to get more specific about which students we are talking about.
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most student debt is held by graduate students so you're looking at the highest earners in the country getting bailed out by the lowest earners in the country including the 2 thirds of adult americans who do not have a 4-year degree. this is a massive transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top and while it may have temporary benefits to those people, in the long run we are going to be paying more for college. there is no real free-market for higher education. the government has intervened to an extent that these schools do not have to compete with each other. they know the government meaning you and i, the taxpayers are on the hook for the bill. stuart: i think you are right on that. thanks for joining us again. come back with other good stories soon. see you soon. i am sure if you watched the super bowl you remember this, the oakley super bowl
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commercial. that company quietly filed for its ipo. they make oat milk so what are they going to -- >> now you know why they pay $1.5 million within 30-second super bowl commercial, we keep talking about it and they got a lot of exposure. in terms of when they ipo, it would be worth $5 billion at least that is the valuation for the company so they sell oatmeal products in 20 countries including right here in the us, the starbucks partnership and something online and in retail stores and they have star-studded backing not only oprah but jay-z, starbucks, howard schultz and even natalie portman, the actress, our investors. they paid $200 million in july from a group that does include blackstone, oprah, only valued at $2 billion last july so less then a year double that looking for an ipo. stuart: tony patterson, the guy
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in the commercial knows how to attract attention. he got a lot of attention. >> whatever agency they paid the money to come up with that concept to they spend their money well, got their money. stuart: one more for you, roadblocks or whatever it is. >> you have been practicing it for a year. robblocks. stuart: i have converted to robblocks. >> march 10th we expect robblocks to go direct, no new money being raised, that change, because if you think of it, last year at the end of last year there ipo along with the unicorn frenzy, then they held off of their plan after seeing that frenzy of specific stocks and that had many concerned about this ipo process.
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it only rewards wall street big-money where it should reward the founders and early employees. they are going direct instead, no cash being raised. they cast up in private rounds, race half $1 billion, that values the company at $30 billion and that is a sevenfold increase, 600% in less then a year for this company. stuart: that is quite a gain. they are doing well. let's have a look at the market because we have come back on the dow, the nasdaq, the s&p is down half a percentage point. show me the big new movers. >> let's check the nasdaq, the benchmark was on pace on the worst day since september rate than the lowest for the nasdaq since the end of january. fear, the fear gauge, volatility index at the fastest rates and the end of january. the best example of this fear,
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money coming off the table is tesla, lowest rate since the end of last year when it got added to the s&p 500 and monday was the worst day for the stock in 5 months. tesla stock is tied to bid coin prices, shop ify losing a lot today, they raise the billion dollars of stock, $1,315 is the rate they sold the stock at, it is indicative that the company thinks of shares as a bit overpriced and a bit rich so they might take advantage to raise cash at this level. bid coin's losses weighing on payment companies, square, paypal and reporting after the bell and squares one of the first to buy into bid coin when they purchased $50 billion worth. last year so you can imagine how much that is depreciated.
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facebook going against the decline. they struck the deal in australia to provide new content. the news is good for facebook in this case. stuart: it sure is, one of the few technical technology stocks. >> they sold off problems in australia. this is a bit of a catch-up rally for facebook today. stuart: 263 on facebook as we speak. i will show you some terrific video, this video is from the perseverance rover landing on mars, the first ever audio recording from the red planet. we will play it for you shortly. california's governor under pressure to reopen the schools. some teachers unions won't. until they get vaccinated first. the governor of california state, what would he do if he were the governor. i will ask him because he's on the show next. ♪♪
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can't take one more day of forcing them to sit in front of zoom when they are not learning.
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stuart: those are students who wants to go back to school. they want to go back to the classroom. if the teachers in los angeles a refusing to return until they are vaccinated. kevin for is with us, republican gubernatorial candidate. if you were elected governor as of today what would you do with those teachers? >> schools need to be open. you have to get back in the classroom now, not next week, not next month, but now. what you are seeing is rightful anger of parents all up and down our state and crosses all party lines. it is just common sense. the cdc said to have our schools reopen, schools across the country have safely reopened. the fact that private schools are open in california but public schools aren't, like i said the fact that you are seeing this anger is justified.
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stuart: i want to hear a republican candidate who says something dramatic, tell him to go back to school, if they didn't go back would you fire him? would you take their money? >> you have to look at all options on the table including not funding districts opening for our kids. that is happening in california and we have to have leadership, this governor has abandoned all leadership, time to have teachers back in the classroom. stuart: my advice is pounds the table, cut taxes, go back to school, open up, enough of this semi-we ought to do this and we are to do that. is in california crying out for ronald reagan? back to school, back to work,
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cut taxes. >> that is why we are addressing this issue head on and i say that not just as candidate for governor but as a father with two kids in public school. the fact that a computer screen is no substitute for classroom and we have been so vocal against this cancel culture spending all their time in san francisco trying to remove the name of abraham lincoln off a high school instead of getting the kids back inside the classroom to safely learn in that high school. stuart: i believe you were successfully leading that charge. you told the san francisco schools, forget about renaming the schools, just get the kids back in the classroom. that was a victory for you, wasn't it? >> victory for all of us and the fact that they backed down and rightfully so, not just parents in san francisco but across california that are at their wit's end and we had plan after plan, the governor said schools will be open in california, public schools by february, another failed plan, that is why i have been spoke
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of it is so outspoken in pushing so hard, you have to cut through it and say we need results. it is not time for another plan, it is time to get public schools open in california. it is a national embarrassment. stuart: do you think california will open up, restaurants, bars, gems, and all the rest of it in the next two month? >> unfortunately i think the answer is no and what we have seen in this state is not that you have to protect lives and livelihoods. i focused a lot on protecting livelihoods as well as lives and we have seen so often changing metrics in california that are not based on science. that's why you've seen businesses closed for 5 different times. it is time to protect our
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economy, keep people safe, protect lives but bring some common sense back into this and that is been missing in california. stuart: stuart: kevin faulconer thank you, come back anytime and pound the table, thank you. let's get back to nasa who released the new video from the mars rover landing. the recorded sound, the first downs ever from the red planet. >> reporter: first video of its kind. this begins 230 seconds after the rover entered the martian atmosphere, the rover parachute 7 miles above the martian surface and it started feeding back audio and video. take a listen. [wind sound] >> reporter: do you hear that, a few seconds, sounds of the
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rover operating once it reached the surface. it is quiet. you get that but there's a bit of wind but mostly quiet but what you have to take into account what an incredible feat this is to land a rover and a helicopter on mars where it is 100 degrees below 0, 120 miles away. why can't we fix electricity grid in texas? stuart: do you say 120 miles away? >> 120 million miles away. isn't that incredible? stuart: it is incredible. i love seeing that stuff. space turns me on for whatever reason. here is another space story and it is for you, space x announced the second crewmember for their civilian mission named haley aronson -- arsoneaux. >> she's a cancer survivor and
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physician's assistant at children's hospital. >> part of what? >> did prepare me for this. i would like to think it made me tough and it taught me to expect the unexpected and to go with it and keep a positive attitude. it showed them anything is possible. >> reporter: part of saint jude, a charity of a 38-year-old a billionaire funding this mission wants the benefits so she will be one of four crewmembers on inspiration 4, the first space flight made entirely made of civilians, no professional astronauts on board, and it is slated to take off in october of this year, 2021. she is supposed to become the youngest american, the first pediatric cancer survivor in the first person with a prosthesis to journey into
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space. how incredible is that? she wants to inspire people with disabilities that you are limitless, you can do whatever you imagine in life. stuart: the struggle is the story, i believe. thank you, appreciate it. what is in a democrat's stimulus bill? a lot of pork, like $200 million for new zealand. what has that got to do with covid. can republicans trim that thing down? we will answer the question shortly. florida open for business and now it is ramping up vaccinations. we go back to ashley webster from live report. he is in florida. back after this.
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stuart: back to the system and by jay powell going on on capitol hill, senator elizabeth warren pressed him about a wealth tax. what was his response? >> i want to talk about what he said about the stimulus package, senator kennedy and jerome powell, he was pressed by senator kennedy, on way to comment about $1 trillion in his apps. would you be cool or uncool with the passage of $1.9 trillion bill. forget the deficit, the economy going faster than the debt. the economy will grow faster, $1.9 trillion. it is interesting he was asked about catwoman on the budget, is it cool or uncool?
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the latest we have on jerome powell. stuart: we will take that. the market has come back a little bit. let's get to vaccinations and the great state of florida because florida is ramping up vaccinations was they will get a whole lot more doses issued to florida by the federal government. ashley webster is right there at a vaccination site in palm beach county. how many people will get vaccinated every day? ashley: today, 1600. tomorrow 1600, thursday, friday, saturday and so on and you are absolutely right there ramping up that effort in florida. there was a slight delay because of the winter storms that prevented some distribution of the vaccine but they are trying to make up for that lost time. also today i should point out cvs announced it would join the effort by providing vaccines in locations across florida.
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florida governor ron desantis making that announcement earlier today saying cvs is the latest company to begin to pitch in on this vaccination effort. he says it is critical for the private sector to help and he started to tell reporters the long list of those already pitching in in florida. take a listen. >> we have close to 600 publix pharmacies and almost 120 walmart and sam's clubs, 42 winn-dixie's, 52 different counties in the state of florida where you have an ability to do a retail pharmacy. ashley: publix offering its employees gift cards of $125 if they become fully inoculated against the vaccine. a nice incentive. stuart: i would agree with that. before we go on i want to show you can we get the coin up there. it is down 12.5%.
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jay powell just said, considering a digital dollar. that would be competition from bit coin, bit coin edge to further down, 47,000 as we speak. next. new report claims john kerry colluded with iran to undermine the trump administration, this as president biden considers rejoining the iran nuclear deal. congressman brian steel says that is real bad but global security, he is with us after this. ♪♪ mobile app so you can quickly check the markets? yeah, actually i'm taking one last look at my dashboard before we board. excellent. and you have thinkorswim mobile- -so i can finish analyzing the risk on this position. you two are all set. have a great flight. thanks. we'll see ya.
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>> a bombshell report from the washington times. and met with iran's foreign minister during the trump presidency. wisconsin congressman brian style with us now. is there evidence that kerry met with him and in what way does it undermine the trump presidency?
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>> these early reports are disturbing in these questions have to be answered. the reason we should be so concern is the obama biden administration negotiating a position of weakness against iran. a major state sponsor of terrorism. i'm concerned we will see that continue in the biden administration, deal a good hand to iran rather than standing up against iran's mission to obtain a nuclear weapon, standing with our allies including israel. there's a lot of questions that have to be answered from this report. stuart: but we don't know what he may or may not have said. the fact that he was in communication is undermining in and of itself. >> the early reports that he is out there engaging as a private citizen undermining the trump administration leaves a lot of questions to be answered. the trump administration was negotiating from a position of strength the whole iran accountable, prevent them obtaining a nuclear weapon. knowing reports that at the
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time, private citizen john kerry was engaged in direct communications with the iranian regime come undermining the trump administration's efforts to prevent iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. a lot of questions to be answered and we need to get answers to these questions. stuart: i thought it might have been illegal. i just want to get your opinion on all this pork that has been stuffed inside this $1.9 trillion stimulus bill. we are showing a rolling series of pork measures across the screen. i don't think anything is stopping all that pork from getting past. this is the way politics is done in america today. what say you? >> we are see nancy pelosi and joe biden working to put forward a liberal spending wish list, rather than addressing the real issue which is reopening our schools to get americans back to work to reopen our economy. we are using this as a guys to
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take out $1.9 trillion of debt to spend on a liberal wish list. we need to make sure americans are aware of this bill and tried to stop democrats from ramming this forward. stuart: thank you for joining us, we appreciate it. i want to look at bit coin down 11% or 12%. is this to do with jay powell saying the fed is considering a digital dollar, not sure i understand that. >> there will be more digital competition. jerome powell said us digital calling is a high priority project so he is backing of janet yellen who has said in recent days that she is interested in backing digital
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dollar research. digital dollar in her view would increase access to financial services especially those that are underserved and could also help deliver payments faster, safer and cheaper and yellen's interest, the new biden administration 180 for the trump administration, they were not interested in a digital coin. china rolling out -- a digital dollar is not a bit coin per se because it is backed by government and you would imagine backed by fiat currency and gold reserves, bit coin disassociated from any government form which they want, they want to be free from any government policy. stuart: competition out of regulated digital dollar is competition indeed, 12% now. thank you very much, there will be more varney after this.
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stuart: hillary clinton, fiction author, question mark? looks like she is teaming up to write, state of tear tore. that is the name. book. a novice secretary of state working in administration after rival politician. this is fiction. its the book tours october the 12th. meanwhile the markets come back nicely. susan, what i will we got you
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here, let's have a recap of the main headlines on jay powell on inflation. susan: he sounds very dovish. looking recovery in the back half of 2021. the federal reserve will remain accommodative. meaning they will keep interest rates close to zero, very low. will continue buying $100 million every month. no inflation. in the higher yield environment that is the reason we're looking at a stock market selloff, he says there is virtually no inflation, he doesn't see any signs of inflation and prices coming down in the pine line. that the inflation may not be permanent and may not cause higher thresholds. stuart: maybe because bitcoin is so much in the news today i focused on jay powell talking about a digital dollar which they are considering. it is down 12% on that. that is 47,000 bucks for the coin. it was 60 grand last weekend.
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susan: yeah. stuart: jay powell talks about a digital dollar. the decline is connected to some degree. all right, susan. good stuff. i know you're shaking your heavy. there you are. my time is also up. five seconds left i will use it this way. three, two, one, neil it is yours. neil: stuart, thank you very much. no matter what jerome powell is saying he was supposed to soothe the markets. it is not working out that way, susan pointed out he is saying the things the right way. very dovish. not near the full job growth we're seeing in the economy. if you're worried about the federal reserve pouncing on raising interest rates not going to happen. he is doing everything you think he should be doing. janet yellen, i don't know why we're showing that. bottom line she might rain on the parade talking about other tax hikes beyond what we're

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