and a lot of people out there love that stuff. stuart: looking at growth for 2021, for sure. steve, mark, thank you for being here. >> thank you. maria: we will see you soon. have a great thursday. "varney & co." begins right now. take it away, stu. stuart: mark tapper goes to olive garden? that's news to me. good morning. you know, looking at the market, don't you get the impression some of the air is coming out of the rally, may be tax hikes trillions on new spending or the return of the virus lockdowns in europe. looks like the rally has a stalled. look at the dow jones come up about 150 this morning, s&p down about 17-point and nasdaq down 69. now look at bitcoin,

$51000 per coin. earlier it challenged that it would go just below 50 grand. it's had a very bad week. 51000 right now. i see red all over the place on the financial markets. we will get to it. outside the world of money, there's a lot going on. a few hours from now the president's will hold his first press conference. this will be a test for him and for the media. he has got to show he can answer questions and the media has to show that they will ask serious questions. we are on it. vice president harris is in charge of the border policy, the irony is that she comes from a century state, california and in the past issue and after the trump administration for kids in cages are close to do now? mark zuckerberg, dorsey will testify virtually on misinformation on social media. at this is a great opportunity to raise

questions about censorship of conservatives. let's see if it happens. thursday, march 25, 2021 , "varney & co." is about to begin. ♪♪ stuart: i don't know about the song, but i see the haze in city with the skyline. you can hardly see it. that is new york city 9:02 a.m. eastern time. when to wear a mask and went not to wear a mask if you are a politician answering questions from the media. watch how senator cruise shuts down a reporter who asked him to put on a mask.

rolled tape. >> good afternoon. >> do you mind putting a mask on. >> yeah, when i'm talking to the tv camera i will not wear a mask and we have all been immunized. >> it would make a still better. >> you are welcome to step away, if you like. the whole point of the vaccine, cdc guidance is what we are following. stuart: i'm interested to see if president biden wears a mask at his press conference today. i find it very hard to understand someone when they are wearing a mask. the press conference is at 1:15 p.m. eastern. watch it here on fox business. look who's joining us now, pete hegseth. he is at a diner in cincinnati, ohio. i know you will be watching the press conference and i bet you watch to see if the president can get through it without a major flub. don't try to fool me.

>> no, no, you are correct. that's what people have been talking about all morning here at camp washington surely in cincinnati. their chili is fantastic. the question is whether biden will wear one, two or three masks, but when you talk to folks they are honestly saying the same thing, number one how will he manage through it. he's prepared for it, how often will he turn to kamala harris who he has turned to her to answer questions about the border that he doesn't want answer and then we'll kind of questions for the press actually ask. we know peter doocy has a binder full of questions, but ultimately will there be tough questions probing the way you would have seen of trump administration officials and how does he handle it if he gets the questions. remember the old, come on, man, answer?

we will all be watching because there's a reason they held off this long, for the things that are obvious and right in front of us, but a lot of folks you are frustrated that questions are not answered and certainly the border is front and center for a lot of people as they see the chaos and realizing the double standards from illegals versus american taxpayers and people jumping across that line. stuart: there you have it. pete hegseth, as always right and the love it. pete hegseth, get back on this program again soon, please. >> thank you, sir. stuart: we have plenty of bread this morning with the dow jones down about 100, nasdaq about 60. i want to bring in dr barton. looks to me like the rally has stalled. we keep hearing on this program about a big selloff coming, that's what people keep talking

about. do you see a big selloff coming anytime soon? >> i do not see a big selloff coming. i will give you some reasons. the first is that the market, the number of stocks that are continuing to do well when we make new all-time highs like we just did eight days ago, wednesday, of last week at a new all-time high, so when more stocks participate, we had big selloffs from times square with lots of stocks participating. we also have continued lower volatility in the market, the amount people charge for options premium is also low, so i could see those things as seeing positive going forward right now even though we are in a thaw. stuart: okay, big tech i'm a really retreating from its all-time highs. microsoft is fairly

close, but the rest have really retreated with apple below $120 a share you have always been a big supporter of apple and apple stock. would you buy some more at $119 a share? >> i do like to buy apple on this pullback and amazon. both of those are down. remember how strong may have been enough through earlier this year. they were outperforming microsoft, google and facebook. now, we just have a bit of rotation. microsoft stock and google up, off of that, facebook has been up strong over $300 a couple of days ago, so i think it's a natural shuffling between them and i do like apple right here, stuart. stuart: okay. i went another prediction, we often ask you for predictions. where will the dow jones industrial average be at the end of this year, 32000 now, where is it going by december 31?

>> in the last 40 years we have had five times where the market has dropped 30% and then recovered. we had the anniversary of that just two days ago of the low of the last year, so i think that every time that's happened in the-- the second year also had strong policy. i'm going 10.5% from where we are now to the end of the year so that will take us roughly up to about 35000 and change. stuart: i hope you are right. you have been right in the past. i hope you are right this time. sir, you are on videotape and that never goes away, worse yet, you are on the internet and that absolutely never goes away. we will see you soon. $35000 on the dow jones by december 31. astrazeneca slight gain.

it's released revised data on its vaccine. susan, good morning. what's the new data? susan: less efficacy, 76% instead of 79%, not a lot of difference. that's with a reported tuesday was the 79% efficacy, but they want to reiterate that 100% effective against severe illness and hospitalization, that has all changed. astrazeneca restated their results after pushback from dr. fauci that some of the data in those trials may have been outdated and they were criticized for cherry picking specific numbers and data to make the results look more favorable. they are excited to look for and apply fda approval in the coming weeks despite concerns over a blood clotting, which was the reason several european countries including germany and france suspended the use of astrazeneca vaccine for a short time at least.

stuart: i think they have a problem in the sense that when you raise an issue of a safety even though you then talk about it and sort of satisfy the concern, you still have a lot of people who will say i'm worried. susan: people will rethink, do i want this shot, do i went and a shot? stuart: yep that's a serious problem because right now you have about a third of the population that says i'm not going to get vaccinated. thank you. moving on. days after laughing at the idea of a visiting the border vice president harris is now in charge of the crisis at the border. remember when then candidate harris said this about children accompanied minors? roll tape. >> i strongly believe you should judge a society on based on how they treat their children. it's an awful display of

the work of our government. stuart: the crisis is a lot worse now than it was in 2019. as of tuesday, we have over 16500 unaccompanied minors, that would be children, in our custody and more are coming. harris is in charge. wall street firms are showering junior bankers with special bonuses and perks, encouragement to work easy hours. what a story. quicker check of futures, read all across the board. dow jones up 150. more "varney & co." after this. ♪♪ ♪♪ hes leonard with a big left. ♪♪ you can spend your life in boxing or any other business,

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t now. stuart: but to sum up that's going on in the financial market this morning with an awful lot of the red. dow jones off about 160 before the opening bell in the 10 year treasury, prices are up and that pushes it yields down. 1.59%. you think that would help big tech because big tech tends to go down when yields up, this morning yields are down and big tech is down. apple is back to 118 per share. more wall street firms are giving perks to their junior bankers as incentives i guess to keep working long hours. this started after junior bankers at goldmans complained about inhumane work hours. susan, what are they going to give them? susan: 20000-dollar cash bonuses

this is a one-time cash lifestyle allowance for mid to entry-level investment bankers. meantime, that goldman sachs weekends off now, citigroup offering zoom free fridays encouraging workers to take vacation time. jeffreys offering peloton bikes and apple devices. they are trying to one up each other when it comes to attracting talent. this is after complaints from the goldman sachs analysts about the 100 hour work weeks with no time to eat or shower that went viral and highlights the intense schedules in order to make it in banking where the basket weeded out and you get promoted to these million-dollar banking jobs and ethel right of passage i guess for the industry. didn't court in gecko say lunch was for wimps. stuart: the three martini lunch for lousy stock traders if you ask me. i'm going to bring in a

member of the oldest generation if you don't mind me saying that. his famous art laffer and we are of a similar vintage or so to speak. here's the question: does this generation, the youngsters, do they need to be paid off to work hard and get those million dollars a year jobs? >> well, i don't know if they need to, because they surely got incentives are doing well in these jobs and mean the payoff in later years is huge, but they have to live in the meantime as well, so whenever their schedules are it's probably appropriate. they do work very very hard at their jobs, but they do have huge-- a lot of other people don't have. stuart: you dodged the question, art. >> i meant to dodge it. didn't i dodge it eloquently, though? stuart: yes, you did actually. >> i mean, i tried to get around it. i didn't want to pay anyone, payer, payee,

but these are great jobs these kids have and they will get payoffs if it is anything like the past they will get huge payoffs i mean look at some of these people and all they make, i mean, it's huge. i think they deserve to be worked hard and they should do a good job and i don't know what the starting salaries should be. can you imagine what it would be like to have to miss lunch frequently? i mean, i would be a skinny rail instead of a roly-poly. stuart: that was a very good dodge. [laughter] stuart: let's deal with what you deal with. janet yellen treasury secretary says we need higher taxes to finance infrastructure, higher taxes to reduce income inequality, we need higher taxes, what says art laffer? >> i don't think we need any of that stuff. is their preference, but there need for taxes and higher taxes especially on the rich is their

need to seek revenge for people who succeed. that's what they are saying. that's what the process is saying. there are a lot of these people who are driven by jealousy, by dislike of the wealthy people and that is the group that needs this. if we need higher taxes, if you need more revenue , you would never do it by raising tax rates on the risk-- rich and on the estate. you moved to a flat packs just like i did for jerry brown and you can create lots of revenue much easier with much less damage to the economy, but she doesn't want to do that nor do the people in the biden administration. they want to punish the rich for being successful and that is their goal. i don't think it's the right thing to do, but we are living in a democracy, i guess, and the winner takes all and they are the majority. stuart: okay, so if we do get higher taxes on the rich and even on the middle class as well probably, and we do get

trillions of dollars in money spent by congress and a trillions of dollars printed by the federal reserve, was the result of that? by the middle of the year when this has, what do we get? >> i don't know about by the middle of the year but it will slow long-term growth path dramatically. we will become japan and start diminishing as a powerful economic patient. you can't tax the major producers and earners in this world a lot and expect them to not spend their time trying to avoid taxes, trying to do tax shelters and all sorts of other things other than produce output. what you can see starting with the stimulus plan of w and then obama admin the slow growth, we are in this trajectory bringing us down to extremely low growth rates. that would be okay if you are the only country in the world and wanted to take your time progressing, but we have competitors and china

and these other countries are doing that and they are growing really fast. we are in a world competition and we are starting to lose. stuart: yes, we are. art laffer, thank you for joining us. see you again soon. amazon executive taking a jab at senator sanders took this has to do with union; right? susan: always fun to be with you stuart. given amazon is facing its first serious union fight now about this month, this is a person fighting for years for amazon in the us. dave clark one of amazon's highest-ranking executives says sanders is all talk and no action when it comes to actually putting progressive policies into place. he wrote on twitter: i welcome senator sanders to bring up am and his push for progressive workplace and also say we are the bernie sanders of employers. that's not quite right because we actually deliver a progressive workplace. biting.

sanders is headed to amazon-- alabama to meet with the employees pushing for a union and that will take place next week. amazon says they were the first company to offer 15-dollar minimum wages, that sanders loves to hammer amazon. is become a topic for him. stuart: thank you. hold on a second, we are going to take you to wall street after this. we are going to see a lot of red ink that market opens. back in a moment. ♪♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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stuart: looks like a starting out as a tough day for big tech and on that note i'm going to bring in sandy villere. looks to me like those big-name technology stocks have a stalled. are you ready for a serious fall for those stocks? >> we have been talking about this on your show for months and i think a lot of these cold stocks , facebook, apple, amazon, google and teslas r the world are

overdone. all of a sudden you get a shocking interest rates and interest rates have been moving higher in tech stocks will fall and i would like to be out of the way and be in more value-oriented stocks and i think that's where the money will flow. stuart: i don't know if you are a bitcoin guy, but we have bitcoin stumbling in the past week took this morning we are quoting around 50, $51000 per point. 50900 right now. you could say that is stalled. are you going to buy the dip bitcoin? >> i am not. with my companies i like to understand their intrinsic value and cash flows. a bitcoin is some sort of store of wealth and there is a limited supply. they are only going to make 21 million, but what happens to dogecoin another crypto currency. i would rather be involved with maybe a power or if i had to

that would be able to use the crypto as opposed to investing in the coin directly. one other thing i would add, it makes me nervous if companies start to store some of their balance sheet into bitcoin or other crypto. i went to invest in those businesses, i went to know what i own as opposed to them announcing a quarter where cranes weren't as good because crypto falls 20% or something so i'm a kent companies doing that storing that on their balance sheets. stuart: okay, so you are out of big tech or you want to get out of it. you are not in bitcoin and you are going to get into it. you have 30 seconds to tell me where you would put the money in the stock market today. >> i like some smaller names that are a bit off the beaten path. lie again pharmaceuticals sort of a chicken way to play the biotech industry and its pulled back sharply and i think it will be a nice play and i like

palomar. they have an unbelievable technology and data analytics into the specialty property and d-uppercase-letter business, so something i like there and-- stuart: i'm sorry. i am out of time. the market has opened. sandy villere, thank you we are off and running this thursday morning. we are down. we said there would be plenty of red ink and there is with the dow jones down 150 points. about one third of the doubt 30 are on the up side. it's led by cisco. s&p, i'm sure it's lower , down a half a percentage point. the nasdaq, have to follow this, how did it open, down almost 1%. 20 of red ink today. show me big tech.

it's down, opening lower apple 119. that's how they have opened. let's look at gamestop because they have announced most of them board will step down. the stock is 125. of the board is stepping down. susan: transformation with the members of gamestop board leaving the company after the annual meeting in june this year according to ask yes. that's a great sign that gamestop transformational shift from bricks and mortar store mine, it's being led by chewy cofounder who now own 13% of gamestop. two executives have already left. a new tech experience coo is coming in. yesterday we had gamestop falling about 30%. in fact, closing at its bottom during the session there on wednesday, but then up 10% on news gamestop is ramping up the executive

transition. stuart: transformation, there you go. let's move on to disney, disney plus streaming is going to hike prices starting friday, the first price increase since the disney plus was launched in november, 2019. the new charges $7.99 a month. the annual prescript-- subscription price goes up $10 to $70.99. disney service still about half the monthly subscription price for netflix and hbo. how about nike? i think they opened sharply lower, down 4%, big drop for a company like that. does it have something to do with the china? susan: a big problem in a big market and that's why the stock is down. backlash on chinese social media over past statements about concerns when it comes to forced labor. some celebrities in china have cut ties with the nike on this new

nationalist fervor. china has been accused of forcing muslim uighurs to produce cotton for instance and also facing a boycott and as i mentioned china is a big deal for nike, second-largest market represent cozy 20% of their sales and as you saw from the last three months of last year a big driver of on growing growth along with online stuart: and that is hurting them, down 4% on nike. on your screen shortly darden restaurants are at of olive garden, of three and have percent as a forecast a strong forecast ahead and they will spend $17 million to give hourly restaurant workers a one-time bonus and wage hike. stock is up. playboy, their revenue hits record revenue in their first report since going public, but they

are down three and have%. susan: we went from garlic bread to playboy. record sales for playboy, first report of a public company with sales doubling for the iconic bunny ears company raising guidance for 2021. ceo was on fox business and they say they drive $3 million and specifically highlighted the younger generation who loves playboys streetwear. you can see it everywhere now especially with the younger generation willing to pay up for it isn't that great? stuart: what is the age group for that? susan: off the top of my head i know millennial's go from 27 i think to 38, so that would probably be below the 24 level. stuart: and they are buying playboy clothing? susan: growth of 15 times over the last two years. yeah, they are buying a lot of it.

stuart: show me the dow jones winners. 30 stocks in the dow jones and these are the leading, cisco, 3m, home depot and procter & gamble. s&p 500 winners cisco, fox corporation the bottom of the list. nasdaq winners, cisco-- okay that's nasdaq winners. you get the impression there are some winners in an otherwise sharply lower markets. stuart: good for 2.8% on cisco but the dow jones is down 200. coming about rite aid. susan: talking about earnings, write a down 16% a mean that big move and write data, suggesting they reported a lot for the past business year when the street was looking for profit and the problem for this drugstore chain

, they were hit by a big drop with sales with cold coffin flu related products. people suffered far less of the flu especially during a pandemic because the focus was on covid. restoration hardware going the opposite direction for the furniture maker because people were stuck at home looking around and saying we need to approve our lifestyle and they have reported strong demand for high-end furniture and other luxury goods and expect revenue to grow 50% this year because of the ongoing trend is. stuart: rh had a fantastic pandemic. i hate to put it like that, but they really didn't. next, what we have? dow jones down 200 moments ago. down 180, better than a half a percentage point lower. 10 year treasury yield earlier this morning-- it's important was at 159 and still 1509.

price of gold not moving much. it's now 1744. bitcoin, watching closely, will it drop below $50000 a coin? don't know. right now is 51000. price of oil has been coming down recently because of the problems in europe with a locked down over there and they will use less oil, less gasoline. price of oil is down $2 today 59. price of gasoline national average $2.87 per gallon, up 79 cents a gallon from one year ago. here's what's coming up, this is the big day president biden will hold its first formal press conference. he has been in office 65 days. did it take so long because of mistakes like this? roll tape. >> javier boch reay, becher. wall street to the the

private-- the-- the former general i keep calling him general, my -- my. stuart: is going to be a big test for the president. joe concha media guy will join me in that 11:00 o'clock hour and analyze the upcoming press conference. remember these stocks? seems retail investors are losing interest in the market. that's interesting. we will explain it after this. ♪♪ ♪♪

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stuart: twelve minutes without business and i see red ink especially the dow jones down

200 points. then there is this, new data suggests the retail investor frenzy may be winding down. tell me more about that, susan. susan: is the talk of wall street. the confusion as to the 10 year treasury yield. we are lower, way below the 1.7% level the past few days that tech stocks in the broader market continues to sell off. that's the talk of wall street as they try to figure out what happened and they are pointing to the retail investor some of the average joe's who are not as interested in settling in the $1400 to be less into the stock market after getting burned on the nasdaq and the tech route earlier are traitors are to the lower trading volume as a sure sign of lower interest. nike, new york stock exchange volume 80% of the 30 day average, nasdaq 90% in the reddit favorite, gamestop, ansi

trading a little over two thirds of the recent trading volume also option markets calming down with volumes lower. here's a sure sign of less retail interest, bitcoin, we couldn't even break below 50000. we were close to that this morning with too late-- two week lows. they now account for a third of daily trading volume, so stuart, they are not as interested. the stock is down. stuart: if they are not as interested with those 1400-dollar checks, they are not interested, news to me. lets me see viacom. ouch. this thing plunged 23% yesterday, down the day before and it down again this morning 1.7%. what's going on? i went to bring in mark douglas the streaming guy. does viacom cbs they streaming problem, mark?

>> i think the market is overreacting. everyone thinks the streaming is a subscription -based such as netflix, disney and others, but the bigger market is still ad supported programming so viacom cbs has plenty of content, add rates are healthy and they can still do well in streaming, they will just do well with ad supported programming because cracking into the streaming bundle with the four big players is hard. stuart: what happened? i mean, that's extraordinary plunger. we have the chart on the -- just a moment ago, that's a plunge and a half. you just think it's overdone? >> well, i think there's concern they will overspend to catch up. remember every household will have three or four streaming subscriptions and that's disney, netflix, who will and you just aren't-- you have to push them out to

get that streaming subscription. if you try to do that and spend billions it's likely you are wasting your money so cbs and viacom needs to focus on what they are good at which is selling ads against programming and you should see the stock come back. stuart: you don't think we will go to five or six streaming vehicles per household as opposed to two or three? >> i think you can go a solid four, but people don't want four separate. everyone was used to a expensive cable bill. they don't want for invoices from four different players and they were constantly canceled to watch a show for a short amount of time so i agree with the market that cbs will struggle to crack into subscription -based a streaming, but i disagree it means they aren't going to be a winner by focusing on ads. stuart: can you address this,

president trump reportedly talking to app makers to get back on social media with his own platform. do you think you could do that? >> i think he can. obviously you have apple and amazon deplatformed a social media app. most of trump's breach became from the media repeating what he said on twitter, not the tweets themselves and so that's when people who didn't follow him would hear what he was saying, so the big question is even if he has his own platform, will cnn, fox news, msnbc, will they repeat his words of this new platform and that's a big open question. a lot of people think they will because they need him for ratings, but a lot of people think they won't, so that's interesting. stuart: mark douglas, thank you.

mark zuckerberg, dorsey, they are back in front of congress today actually testifying virtually on social media misinformation. i'm expecting political theater, susan. susan: moore show and not much with policy changes, with big tech social media ceos testify again and congressional hearings, kind of a routine now. look at this chart, since july facebook mark zuckerberg appeared four times, three times since july for twitters jack dorsey and alphabets, so roughly five months they have been there, almost each and every month if you look at mark zuckerberg. opening statements with mark zuckerberg saying regulate as. they say congress should bring more transparency and countably and oversight to the process and they say when it comes to section 230, yeah, let's be a productive partner. when comes to jack

dorsey he says a trust deficit exists when it comes to social media and tech over the last of several years and if we could bring up alphabets, we are concerned many proposals to change section 230 will ultimately hurt the consumer in the us and globally. i would say if you look at where the stocks are trading if there's real concern you would see a bigger selloff from now with facebook trading at close to 300-dollar levels and when people ask me i would say if they were really concerned that would mean the stock would really plummet. stuart: absolutely. nothing happens. them hundreds of billions of dollars to spend on lawyers and lobbyists and buying off politicians. susan: it's across the aisle, that's what i'm saying. stuart: that's for sure. president biden thinks vice president harris is the best person to handle the border crisis. "my take" on that at the top at the 10:00 o'clock hour.

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stuart: we told you quickly about surging lumber prices on this program. well, that's creating a surge in reclaimed lumber, a surge in prices of reclaimed lumber. a workshop in new jersey, how does reclaimed lumber prices compared to regular lumber reclaimed lumber is more expensive. they are taking it from a lot of times old barns we will show you more of that in a moment, but there's a market for it has come out recently showing growth in the industry. it's expected to expand in the coming years through 2028 and expected to reach more than 70 billion-dollar industry, more than 4%

growth and that's good news for people involved in the reclaimed lumber market. here in new jersey we are at real antiques would join by anthony who is operational manager. anthony, your business is involved and not just reselling reclaimed lumber but also the process of going out to the barns and taking it apart. we have video to show folks. you did that recently. while they are looking at that, tell us what makes word good for the reclaimed process? >> the biggest thing we do on a sound structure that over the years has stood the test of time so we ensure the final products we make do the same for our clients, we went good, solid, beans and we go and actually inspected ourselves to ensure the structure is worth reclaiming and turning it into a final product. reporter: and that starts the process. you are here with your employee wire brushing one of the beams that you reclaimed from that

barn in howell, new jersey. to give you an idea, it could probably go for 800 to thousand dollars for one being that that's because of the hours of work that goes into restoring it so good time to be in the business. stuart: a surge in prices, a thousand dollars for that beam? that is a surge. thank you. still ahead, and by the way keep lower right-hand corner with the dow off 239 points, down three quarters of 1%. ahead, ben domenech, brian brenberg, joe concha, lawrence jones with a big second hour coming your way shortly. ♪♪ ♪♪

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51,000 bucks is the current quote. oil dropped below 60 bucks a barrel. trouble in europe with lockdowns, that is problem for the price of crude. 58.87. we just got the number. mortgage rates. this is ashley's moment. good morning, ash, the number, please. ashley: good morning, yes, freddie mac, 3.17% this week. up again from 3.09% last week. by the way, january mortgage rates, let's say, since january mortgage rates have gained half a percent, true from historic lows but it is the same old story. home prices continue to rise. why? because buyers outnumber sellers by a lot. that means prices go up, stu. stuart: yes they do. 3.17, 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate.

high everyone. now this. vice president kamala harris is now in charge of border policy. the president says she is the most qualified person for the job. now the governor of arizona, which is a front line border state, right in the middle of it, he is not buying that. doug ducey says harris has never given any indication she considers the border problem a serious threat, end quote. harris is from a sanctuary state, california. and during the trump administration demanded release of kids in cages. she said it. she likened border patrol officers to the kkk. she said it. this is not the way to instill confidence in our border control officers, now, is it? what will the vice president actually do? close the border completely? plug the holes in trump's border wall? oh, no, no. she will focus on the governments of central america to get them to stop the flow. we are going to ask, beg,

mexico, guatemala, honduras, el salvador for help. i guess we will try to buy them off. this administration is unwilling to admit what it has done. they will not accept responsibility for the mess they created. just look at those wristbands issued by the cartels so they know which migrants have paid in full and which migrants have to pay them off when they get a job in america. it is called indentured servitude. it is back thanks to the biden-harris administration. in the border facility, 100 of the 700 children tested positive for covid. in california, foster parents are getting cold calls from the federal government begging them to take in migrant children, up to six extra kids at a time. this is desperation. it is another clear sign that it is not just a crisis, it is a human disaster. the vice president should go to the border, witness first-hand the mess this administration has

created, and please, stop laughing. second hour of "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪. stuart: you heard what i got to say about vice president harris in charge of the border. we're joined now by ben domenech. i want to know what you think about the vice president now being in charge of border policy? >> well you know, stuart, i got in a lot of reaction a couple weeks ago when i said that i thought president biden someone who only thinks he is running the country but i do believe that. this is another indication of that. more and more we see signs of the administration they will treat kamala harris as someone who is far more qualified to deal a with lot of policy issues

than her record of expertise demonstrates. this is another example. she laughed at this issue over the years. she has not taken it seriously as goof doocy was saying. there is no indication she has any unique solution to this moment. look, one thing to lean on experienced vice president in situations like george w. bush did with dick cheney. that is not the situation here. instead i think you see that over and over again this administration seems more like a kamala harris administration than it does a joe biden administration. this border issue is an enormous problem and it is one of their own creation. stuart: do you think the vice president is being groomed for the presidency? i mean that is a very sensitive thing to say obviously, but i mean that is what a lot of people are thinking? >> i really do believe, a lot of people, including a lot of people within the white house view her as the president in waiting. that is not to say joe biden doesn't finish out his first term. that is to say a lot of people

don't believe he will run for re-election. she will take on a much more sizable role. we've already seen it in terms of her interactions with lots of people in terms of diplomatic relations and taking on this new responsibility about the biggest crisis at the moment when she has no real record of any kind of management of a problem to this scale. i think it is another sign of that. this is going to be a really significant test for her. one of the questions i have is, if this is kind of accidental mistake on her part to set her up to fail. the border as you know is a very sticky subject with a lot of difficult politics associated with it. you have the president of mexico blaming the biden administration policies for what is going on in terms of the cartels as you highlighted. what we're only going to see more questions raised as we go forward if kamala harris isn't able to swoop in and solve a lot of difficult problems quickly. stuart: let's see if those difficult questions are raised at the press conference this

afternoon in about what, three, four hours time. the ben domenech. always obliged to you. >> good to be with you. stuart: back to the markets. we trimmed the ink. the dow is down 136. luke lloyd joins us this morning. he has been saying consistently, it is important to stick to your strategy when things get volatile. okay. things are volatile right now. i think there is a pause in the rally. what is your strategy? >> so over the past six months the winners have been the losers and the losers have been the winners. what do i mean by that? the growth stocks working over the past year since the pandemic have not been working recently. the value stocks, reopening trade has been crushing it. stu, you will my answer how you want to play this. you want to buy a little bit of both. clear momentum shift out of high growth names out of the reopening trade. that doesn't mean you want to sell all your tech stocks.

there are a ton of opportunities presented within the tech space. good secular trends don't go away. artificial intelligence, cloud computing these trends will shape the future. with that being said the market always moves in cycles. the trend is momentum is your friend. vaccines get redistributed and reopening party is getting started. i like to call momentum shifts resets. when resets happen, find sectors selling off, snag them up. that is great way to create long-term trades. find the diamonds in the rough that need to catch up. stuart: stay in stocks? everyone of our viewers who is an investor has to choose. you want to go stocks, bonds, bitcoin, gold, what do you want to do. you're saying stocks, american stocks, that is the place to be. last 30 seconds to you? >> it always comes down to the strategy. so when it comes down to it, you should have allocation actually before you even invest.

so you come up with a allocation what your risk tolerance is. you have decide how much you want to allocate towards stocks, bonds, bitcoin or gold, right? inflation hedges. you come up with allocations, within those sectors, that is what you decide to invest in, right? i think there is a lot of opportunities around in tech and reopening trade. you have to find growth at a reasonable price. over the past year so many people have gotten comfortable, have gone blindly into different stocks. you can't go in blindly. you can't just buy the crazy valuations. find growth at a reasonable price and stick to the strategy. stuart: it is stocks, not bonds? >> it is stocks. stuart: it is stocks. luke lloyd. thank you, sir. see you again soon. we have got some movers here, especially cisco. i have got my eyes on that one. 6.7%. big mover. start with that, please, susan. susan: old tech and new techs one of the top performers on the nasdaq.

goldman sachs calling it a buy. roughly 20% for up i'd sheer. the reason, return to the office, demand for networking equipment. ual adding more routes in the to l.a. and more coastal destinations that starts on memorial day. airlines were selling more than this. a bit after recovery which is a good thing. selloff in growth and value. no rotation taking place today. i want to sell you technology names of china. alibaba is a good example of this. we were down close to 2% at the start. there has been dip buying. most chinese tech place are in bear market territory. and ford just announced they are going all electric in europe by mid 2026. 100% of the passenger cars they say will be electric, hybrid or see row emissions there. stuart: all right. let's see. thanks, susan.

here is on on going story of real importance. remember that giant cargo ship stuck in the suez canal? it is still stuck and may take weeks to move this thing. why? why is it going to take so long to move it? susan: it is so big. it is one of the biggest ships in the world. it is taller than the eiffel tower and two times the size of the washington mon youment. you do the math. it is jamming one of the busiest waterways in the world, the suez canal. it accounts for 12% of the world's trading volume and numerous tugboats are trying to dislodge the evergreen, that is the name of the ship. trying to redirect it. the evergreen was on its way from china to rotterdam when it became horizontally wedged in the canal following heavy winds. experts says if this jams up for two weeks, might increase oil prices and exacerbate the global

ship shortage, exacerbated global sales by. there are implications. stuart: yes, they are. suez canal carries 12% of global trade. that is a big deal. this is what happens when a fully vaccinated senator steps up to the mic without a mic, without a mask. watch this please. >> can you put a mask on for us? >> yeah, when i'm talking to the tv camera i'm not going to wear a mask. all of us have been immunized. >> it makes us feel better. stuart: we'll show you the full response from senator cruz very shortly. what does this look like to you? the internet is calling it shrimp gate. the ceo of general mills is now responding to what looks like shrimp tails in one man's cereal. the story just ahead. migrants arriving by the busload in one small town. that town's mayor says he needs

federal help now. i will ask him if he is getting it after this. ♪. lately, it's been hard to think about the future. but thinking about the future, is human nature. at edward jones, our 19,000 financial advisors create personalized investment strategies to help you get back to your future. edward jones. among my patients i often see them have teeth sensitivity as well as gum issues. does it worry me? absolutely. sensodyne sensitivity and gum gives us a dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. there's no question it's something that i would recommend. 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

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no effect on the stock, it is down 1.5%. let's get back to the border. nearly 2900 migrant children tested positive for covid in the past year. now there are more than 15,500 unaccompanied minors, children in our facilities. steve harrigan is at the border. he is in mission, texas. you were able to get a look inside of one of these facilities. what did you see, steve? reporter: stuart, a small group with one camera was allowed inside of a facility at cari-z-zo springs, texas. this idealized version what the administration hopes for 16,000 unaccompanied minors t has health facilities, schooling, recreation, four bedroom rooms. it is really not the situation for motion of the unaccompanied minors who already crossed the border in places like donna, texas. pictures were leaked out from

there. shows instead at that customs and border protection facility, it is more like a jail with very crowded facilities for the unaccompanied minors who were in there. they showed really idealized picture yesterday to one camera. cameras are not getting in the other places where conditions are much more severe for those unaccompanied minors. biden administration officials on the trip say that they defended the policy of not deporting unaccompanied minors. >> we're sending a very clear message people should stay in the region. we're setting up legal channels for people to migrant. we also are not going to turn back a five-year-old into mexico by themselves. reporter: the age of 55% of those unaccompanied minors who crossed the border illegally, age 16 or 17. even some texas democrats are urging the biden administration to deport older unaccompanied mind norse to relief the

situation in the short term. u.s. military now also announcing they will help out, giving space on two bases in texas, not clear the numbers of minors who will be on those u.s. bases. stuart, back to you. stuart: all right. steve harrigan at the border. thank you, steve. let's go to gila bend which is in arizona. the mayor there declared a state of emergency because of the migrant crisis in his very small town. that mayor is chris riggs. he joins us now. your honor what has the biden administration told you? >> surprisingly i actually got a call last night from senator kelly, he advised me has spoken with the president and secretary mayorkas. that they had agreed that gila bend was not a place where these migrants should be dropped off, due to the fact we have nothing here, no resources to assist them with. i do have a call later this morning with border patrol to

confirm that and confirm that we will no longer be receiving drops. stuart: okay. that is progress. i mean that is something, when you, when your town appeared on this program yesterday, across fox news, it obviously had some impact. but i want to know, what is the attitude of local people in gila bend? what is your feeling towards busloads of migrants in the town? >> the people i have here are concerned about them but they're also concerned about their personal health and safety. so having them dropped here untested, definitely was a major issue for me and my community. so by having at least now we're in, moving forward with getting this stopped in this area. i really have to thank fox for putting us in the spotlight and to help us correct this situation and your viewers

foreall their sympathies and prayers that they gave out to us. it has really made a difference and just literally less than 24 hours. stuart: well, your honor, we're very happy we had impact there, that is a fact but i want to turn to something else our reporter reported on from your town yesterday. hillary vaughn showed us a handful of wristbands which were taken from the migrants. these wristbands had been issued by the cartels. it is almost like a free pass, a pass to get you across the border. were you aware of this, that the cartels organized wristband caravans? >> i wasn't aware of the wristbands. that is news to me now, but i am aware we're seeing a lot more cartel activity just in my small community. i had a young man who was

literally sent pictures of body parts to intimidate him by one of the cartels. he had to be escorted from school by local sheriffs deputies for his protection. so i'm seeing cartel activity here, that i hadn't seen before. and unfortunately that probably will continue but, hopefully we'll be able to fix the migrant drops. stuart: yes indeed. your honor, thank you very much for being with us. chris riggs, the mayor of gila bend in arizona. thank you for being with us. >> thank you, sir. stuart: appreciate it. from a crisis on the border to a crisis of homelessness and drugs in the city of brotherly love. lawrence jones takes us to philly's skid row for a look. he will join us next hour. remarkable stuff. now remember what grocery store shelves look like, maybe a year ago? remember that? we could be facing another

toilet paper shortage. tell you all about it after this

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stuart: the readies still there, down 160 on the dow. down 44 on the nasdaq. did you hear this? treasury secretary janet yellen says higher taxes are needed to finance our infrastructure spending and higher taxes are needed to reduce income inequality. what does our economist, brian brenberg think about that? he joins us now. needed to pay for infrastructure? needed to reduce income inequality? i see you're gritting your teeth there, brian. what is your response? >> no. we don't need tax increases to fund spending that we don't need, stuart. notice all this starts with the dubious assumption we need to spend 3 trillion more dollars this year. we don't. we haven't spent a trillion from last year. we just got two trillion more on top of it. so if you debunk the premise that we need the spending, you

get rid of the conclusion we need higher taxes. stuart: yeah. >> on the income inequality, question, stuart, pre-pandemic we were really doing great work on inequality question. median income was up. poverty rates were down. unemployment was down. wages were up. you want to fight inequality, grow the economy. don't spend a bunch of government money. this is not a economic argument. she is not making a economic argument. she is making a political argument. stuart: just trying to get there. it is a political argument. the left wants to reduce inequality because they're jealous of wealth and they don't like its creation. the left wants to tax us more, not to get more revenue. just to punish the rich. that is what this is all about. i know these people. i know socialists. >> stuart, i'm going, i'm going to agree with you, but i will disagree with you on one thing. i will disagree with the great art laffer. that is dangerous. he was on the show earlier

talking about this i don't think it is about jealously sy. i don't think i think it is fear. independent wealth is a check on the progressive agenda, people are not dependent on the government. progressives fear large wealth, small wealth, because they know it makings independent people. when you have independent people they don't look to the government for answers. they don't look to politicians to solve their own problems. they solve their own problems. they take care of their families. they take cair of their communities. they look at this country, if the company becomes prosperous they won't look for d.c. for all the answers. that undercuts their power, stuart. fear and power always go together. i think that is the story here. stuart: a constant theme on the program has been by the middle of the year when this wall of money and printed money and borrowed money and spent money, when it hits the economy and the market a crunch will come of some sort. are you in that camp?

>> well i'm in the inflation camp, stuart. i'm really concerned about inflation and i'm also really concerned about the position that the fed is in right now. think about this. if we get inflation from all of this spending, the way the fed deals with that, they raise interest rates but as soon as they do, all of this debt and the cost of servicing it with interest goes through the roof. we're talking about a trillion dollars a year in interest expense on the debt. so the fed is in a bind. nobody is talking about this. jerome powell claims that he can move if we see inflation. uh-uh. sorry. but the politicians in washington are not going to be happy if he cranks up interest rates and their debt interest expense goes through the roof. that is a real danger. stuart: a trillion dollars worth of interest on our debt per year. i believe it is about $20 billion every week. that is a great deal of money. good point, brian. glad you brought it up.

mr. brenberg, professor, see you soon. we'll move on to this. a reporter telling senator ted cruz, put on mask, even though he has gotten the jab. bring me up to speed, take me through the whole story, ash. ashley: all right, stu. just as a news conference was about to get underway the reporter asked ted cruz, mask up. but the vaccinated texas senator was having none of it. watch this. >> good afternoon. >> would you mind putting a mask on for us. >> yeah, when i'm talking to the tv camera i am not going to wear a mask. all of us have been immunized. >> would make us feel better. >> you're welcome to step away if you like. the whole point of a vaccine, cdc guidance is what we're following. ashley: ah-ha. would it make us feel better, reporter. conservatives praised cruz.

mocked the reporter on social media. cabot phillips in the daily wire. this is how to respond to a performative virtue signaling reporter pretending to be scared of a vaccinated politician. cruz tweeted very pointedly, lefty reporters have lost their minds. stu? stuart: that was an interesting exchange. i got to say. made me laugh. brace yourself, ash, we may have a toilet paper shortage and this story is for you. ashley: yes, how appropriate. i'm afraid. shortage of shipping containers could lead to another toilet paper shortage. the container crisis has been going on for months now, largely because of huge demand in china. that means countries like brazil, that accounts for 1/3 of global pulp supplies, may be forced to delay shipments creating a domino effect with the container crunch only

expected to get worse. of course the concern is that we could see another round of panic buying, stockpiling just as we saw the at the beginning of the pandemic. so you have been warned. stuart: yes. that ship is still stuck in the suez canal. there is quite a traffic jam right there. ashley: yes it. stuart: all right, ashley, the internet is calling it shrimp-gate. general mills, the cereal company, speaking out what looks like a slim tail in its cereal. we'll tell you about this in a moment. turns out making products in america is an advantage during the pandemic. a garden tool company called little borros joins us. they are made in america and they're doing well. new york city? no, after the break.

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stuart: in new york city, almost feel it, intense desire to open up please. we have some kind of announcement from mayor bill de blasio. what is he saying, susan. susan: he wants to get broadway back and open. it is time to raise the curtain to bring broadway back. outlining some way to get theater company people and actors as well vaccinated that includes a dedicated vaccination site for broadway. a mobile unit for off broadway, pop up covid testing right by the theaters. i want to note a few minutes ago, florida was announcing all adults 18 and older are now eligible for vaccines, starting on april the 5th. that does include, you, stu. florida joins, mississippi, four other states, allowing any

adults, 16 or 18 years old to get a jab. stuart: got you. look at the market. the dow is down close to 200 points. we have the nasdaq down 74. we have taken a turn to the southland over all. however, susan, you're watching gamestop. is it still down? susan: no it is up a lot. we're up 19% coming back from that 30% plus selloff we saw yesterday. "axios," reporting eight out of 10 board members were stepping down. that is majority of the board. ryan cohen, 13% shareholder gamestop firmly in place in transition. gamestop from brick-and-mortars to online. nike ask, trying to boycott the social media backlash, nike expressed concern using cotton could have been made by forced labor of muslim uyghurs in chinese detention camps. viacom cbsing a choiring rights,

exclusive to the serrie a, a soccer league for professional clubs they play. you will explain that yesterday. i want to show you olive garden owner darden selling a lot more broad. drop in diners during the holiday period. do you want to talk about that or talk about facebook quickly? stuart: no, talk about facebook. susan: gave you the choice. facebook is actually outperforming today. zuck is making fourth appearance before capitol hill. why are you laughing about serrie a? do you have skin in the game. stuart: a professional league for professional soccer clubs. >> that is what it said in the pr release. is that not true? are think overselling it? stuart: no, that is just an interesting way for expressing it. a league of professional soccer clubs. that is the first division in

italy. that is the top league in italy. like the premier league in england. like the bun desleague in germany. you learn something every day on this show. let's get back to something serious here, the sec, this is serious, the investigating a boom if spacs. that could be a many pro. susan: they're sending a letter to wall street banks asking for information on spacs, "wall street journal" reported. they raise cashes. sifts there on the ex change. looking for a private company to buy. if they do buy companies, that company, the private company they bought replaces it on the exchange. it is now a traded company. so the sec letters are asking the banks to provide this information voluntarily. that means they don't have to initiate a formal investigation which is a good news by the way. the sec has already warned for people to be buyer beware when it comes to the celebrity led spacs in the tweets we talked about. spacs one of the hottest

trends on wall street. already more money raised in the blank check companies this year than all of 2020. it is already april, stu. that is more than $83 billion and counting. last year spacs made up 50% of 170 billion-dollar april pemarket. it's a big trend. i don't know why we had one. seems like everybody haas one these days. stuart: known would, if my name was on it nobody would buy into it. it is simple as that. all right, susan. this is all serious stuff. let me turn to something not quite so serious in my opinion. talk about shrimp gate. a man shared that photo. he games he found shrimp tails in his cinnamon toast crunch a cereal. what is the ceo of general mills say about that? ashley: he says highly unlikely, any shrimp tails or any crustaceans came from facility. it went viral after a comb median, general son cobb claim

he found shrimp tails as you said in a box of cinema none toast crunch from costco. he tweeted photo. general mills in a statement it is confident it did not happen in their facility but is taking the situation seriously. then added this. after further investigation with our team, the closely examine the image, it appears to be an accumulation of cinnamon sugar can sometimes occur when ingredients are not thoroughly blended. there you go. we will bring you any breaking developments as we follow the twists and turns of shrimp-gate. let's return to the serrie a of italy. stuart: is that the correct pronunciation. is that how it is pronounced? ashley: serrie a. yes. stuart: we've all got something to learn. next, when the lockdowns began, people were stuck at

home. projects around the house. we did a lot of that, didn't we? well the home guardenning company, little -- little burros, they saw made 100% products in america. molly is with us now. we love success stories. especially making your product 100% in america. you did well during the pandemic. we're all locked down, doing a little gardening. what about now that the pandemic is winding down and spring is here. you dropping well still? >> yes. thank you, stuart for having us. we're excited to be here. when the pandemic hit in march 15th, we were set to roll out in store, in brick and mortars. obviously we got pulled in a lot of stores to allow space for essential supplies. we're seeing reoccurrence of being in those stores and having that shelf space that we didn't get in 2020.

so we're definitely excited to be in brick-and-mortars, seeing that same steady sails online. stuart: you're 100% made in america. i'm seeing shots of a rake and a wheelbarrow. those are not tools you make. what tools do you make? >> no. exactly. what we make is the burro buddy, it sifts on top of four, five, six, seven cubic wheelbarrows. it holds the your handle tools, holds your drink and has a compartment for your cell phone. it's a wonderful garden -- yes, exactly. stuart: i just delighted to see it holding the drink. i just bought a deck chair with a little drink holder on the side. how well are you doing? how much of those tools did you sell during the pandemic in the last year? >> well, online we sell 500% increase in sales. the last year on our online

sales. that being said, like i mentioned earlier, because of the pandemic we didn't have our instore sales. we're seeing that really growth in online presence and online sales in the garden sector. we're excited to be able to add those brick-and-mortar stores back in 2021. stuart: 500% increase in sales during the pandemic. you're off and running in the spring of 2021. i want to say we wish you the very, very best of luck. i actually am a gardener. i do not yet have one of those little burro things, what do you call them? >> the burro buddy. we happy to send you one. stuart: don't get me involved in all of this. you're not allowed to send me free stuff. not allowed to do it. molly, from little burros. chief operating officer there

of. great to have you on the show. we love success stories, especially made in america. we hope you come back soon. to see if we did you any good. we hope we did. molly, thanks for being here. >> thank you. stuart: next question, what will the ceos of facebook, google and twitter tell congress bp misinformation and more to the point, censorship? we'll testify today in congress, virtually that is. edward lawrence is here with a preview of the big tech hearing. he will join us after this. wealth is breaking ground on your biggest project yet. worth is giving the people who build it a solid foundation.

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mirror already fractured society. he will argue social media companies did not fracture the society, did not amplify it. he will tell this, lawmakers that section 230, which gives immunity to the social media companies needs to be conditional, saying this, quote instead of being granted immunity platforms, platforms should be required to demonstrate that they have systems in place for a identifying unlawful content and removing it. this is where it gets sticky. who is the one who is identifying the content? , what content is removed? for example, the connecticut attorney general wrote a letter to the heads of three companies asking them to remove accounts that are anti-vaxers -- anti-vaxers nation. ceo of jack dorsey says a deficit of trust building for years. will talk about the continued ban of former president donald trump on their platform. so both republicans and democrats angry at these folks for different reasons.

listen. >> it seems they have gone in one ear out the other. because they have not cleared it up. i think we'll have questions about censorship. i think we'll have questions about illicit use of these platforms. there will be questions about mental health. i have a special interest in that. i think there is a big problem with, particularly our students in the realm of mental health right now. reporter: so these ceos have been through this before in front of lawmakers. again nothing has happened. we'll see if this is actually the hearing that forces some action. back to you, stu. stuart: all right, edward, thank you very much indeed. i want to bring in susan for a second, express my unadult-rated opinion. i don't think anything will happen. these three guys, they have hundreds of billions of dollars, that buys them the best lawyers, best lobbyists, probably buys them a couple of politicians as well. at the end of the day nothing happens. what do you say? susan: if you look at the outperformance of facebook that

clearly says it. this is the fourth time we'll hear from mark zuckerberg in a congressional hearing, fourth time since jump. so roughly, six months, we heard from him four times already. three times with sundar pichai, jack dorsey. this benefits big company like facebook which has $50 billion on the balance sheet in cash. they can afford the lawyers. when you hear mark zuckerberg come rig late us. maybe we need to change section 230. you know who can afford to make the changes, adhere to the new rule changes? a big company like facebook. so this really enstretches the large players. you hear from sundar pichai, as edward lawrence pointed out, alphabet, google, ceo, if you change section 230, he is pointing finger at hurting the lawmakers constituents. this doesn't hurt us. it hurts the consumers, not just here in the u.s. but globally. so there are some typical arguments that you're hearing from social media tech ceos because they have been on capitol hill so many times.

stuart: yes they have. it's a repeat performance really, isn't it? we'll take a break but we're going to figure out what is going on with the market. it has turned big time south. 300 down for the dow as we speak. coming up here is what we have, joe concha, lawrence jones, senator shelly moore capito and more. plus, two hours from now president biden's first formal press conference. big challenge for him, and for the media. that is coming up. we'll take it on, top of the next hour. ♪ i had saved up some money and then found the home of my dreams. but my home of my dreams needed some work sofi was the first lender that even offered a personal loan. i didn't even know that was an option.

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change no need for taxes especially on the rich, and the need to seek revenge from folks who succeed. people in the biden administration want to punish the rich for being successful. i'm going 10% from where we are now to the end of the year taking us to 35,000 and change. >> it makes me nervous if companies start to store their balance sheet into bitcoin or other crypto, earnings were not as good as they could have been

but crypto falls 20%. >> the winners have been the loser than the losers have been the winners, the market moves in cycles. the trend in momentum is your friend. ♪♪ ♪♪ i need some hot stuff ♪♪ maybe tonight ♪♪ stuart: 11:00 eastern time and that is new york city sixth avenue, here we go. back to the markets, plenty of red ink today, doubt close to 300, nasdaq down 150. i want to look at the pot stocks, the marijuana stocks. new york state officials reached a deal to legalize recreational marijuana in new york, that paved the way for a $4 billion industry in new york state.

courtesy of the new york times. in two hours, the president holds his first official news conference and it is a challenge for him in the media. the president has to show he can focus, answer questions forcefully and directly without the help of the teleprompter, no prearranged questions, no calling on favorite reporters, he has to be sharp. no disrespect intended but today the president has to show he is up to the job and in control. is the media up to their job? we will see. in my opinion they failed miserably and disgracefully during the trump administration. they hated him and left their emotions take over. now they love joe biden. is that going to take over? if they want to restore any confidence in their pre-fashion

reporters will have to ask the hard questions on the border, on china, on hunter biden, wasteful multi-trillion dollar spending, massive tax increases that will hit everyone and just as important, why has it taken so long for him to face the press corps? does he need protection? this is serious stuff. we are about to test the president of the united states and the white house press corps. can they do their job? watch here on the foxbusiness network. it starts in the 1:00 hour and we are going to cover it. the 11:00 hour of "varney and company" is about to begin. ♪♪ stuart: let's get straight to joe concha. have we got a picture of the press room where this press conference is going to take place?

it shows very few chairs, limited attendance i would guess. we've got the picture. there you go. there are not many folks. doesn't look like full attendance. what do you make of this. >> that is the east room where formal press conferences are usually held and you would see probably 5, 10 times the amount of seating in that particular room. i don't know why the goal is to be honest and transparent, the weather in washington look decent as it does in new york, warm anyway, why not hold this in the rose garden where out for you could have more people, sort of animal outdoors as opposed to indoors so that doesn't look like a lot of reporters in the room. not a lot of questions for

mister biden compared to donald trump who would do these press conferences for well over an hour or an hour and a half. it is interesting today the administration just this week directed all government agencies to refer to the biden administration as the biden harris administration. if the goal is to underscore this is equal partnership with mister biden and miss harris and the vice president is tasked with fixing the crisis at the border wise and she also there with joe biden taking questions? if there's one person who has been hidden from the press less than joe biden or more than joe biden it has been kamala harris and she has considerable power, more power than any vice president we have seen since dick cheney. stuart: i don't think it would go down very well if the president hand off questions to vice president harris or hand off questions to members of his

cabinet. the president has to show that he is in control, he can focus, he is the guy who can get out and answer any and all questions. i think he fails if he has to have help from his vice president or his cabinet. >> the buck stops with the president of the united states even the vice president having as much power as she does. in this case this is about joe biden answering questions outside the teleprompter, there won't be a teleprompter, logistically that is an impossible thing to do to pivot to an answer, he squints when he reads so that would be obvious from a optics perspective but the fact this took nine weeks, build all this anticipation and hype for what would otherwise be probably a one day story because now it is all eyes on biden. if he did this three weeks and were four weeks in like donald trump did we are not talking about this at the top of the show in terms of a press

conference but all this participation, can he handle the tough questions. i have 3 would like to as, the first being on a business network the infrastructure bill we are talking about, $3 trillion is the number being bandied about yet only a third goes to things like fixing our bridges and improving our roads and transportation system and power grid. instead you have a lot of this money come trillions of dollars going towards free community, paid family leave and climate change. what does that have to do with infrastructure and who is going to foot the bill for the $3 trillion you are spending here in the $2 trillion on covid relief. i would love to hear and answer to that and i have others as well. stuart: we don't know whether the questions are going to be prearranged or whether the president will point at specific reporters that he knows will ask friendly questions. we don't know the actual format so we could avoid questions

like that very easily. >> by prearranged remain reporters wouldto the white house or the president would call on those questions, i want to make sure -- stuart: either that, or he knows what the question is going to be or he knows which reporters are very friendly to him and will ask the kind of nice questions that he wants. it could be that way around. >> i choose the latter. we saw during the campaign and the transition, the few times he has taken questions you have staffers calling unfairly reporters. once we know will be hospitable instead of hostile. and i couldn't see that happening, if that was discovered forget about it. the questions we want to hear in these situations.

and and it would be obvious if he doesn't call on peter doocy of questions like you said the governors, they were neanderthals for lifting their mask mandate yet you are allowing covid positive migrants by the hundreds to be released into the us population. is that a superspreader event, questions have to be specific, not just general, and you have to stay on him with follow-up questions. it will take a lot of peter doocys to do that and we've not seen a lot of those tough questions. stuart: i am going to be glued, you will be glued, joe concha, see you later, guaranteed. we've got to get back to the market. it is down. 300 points lower for the dow industrials, the nasdaq down 158. let's bring in kenny paulpary.

the market is under pressure. how bad will this get? >> the last time we have been going on, so this is what i think, if we see the broader market defined by the s&p and the dow if you call that a broad index is probably going to be between 7% to 9%, tech and nasdaq has more to go, not the deep double digits with 12%, 13%, you saw the nasdaq and the last time, and in correction territory might see a little more pressure just because it had this dramatic move over the last four months, 55% since november, and wouldn't concern me as much as a bigger pullback in the s&p. stuart: is the source a 1-off

shot? call it what you like, does it get worse from here? we have a lot of publicity about money that hits the market in the economy, inflation, the debt bomb building up, maybe this is the start of something big. do you discount that completely? >> not at all, and and there is volatility. they find its way lower and it is a disaster, and it is to the market guide, the tech disruptor, that is in bear market territory. 30%, big moves and names like

that, you don't see that in broad s&p stocks, cyclical boring like last week, we talk about you had given me a hard time a lot and you would give me a hard time but those might be the stocks of the future and that is the way i am leaning because there is more pressure on some of these names that have spun completely out of control especially if we see inflation rear its ugly head. it is going to get to the cpi level like late april, early may when it filters down. stuart: it would be interesting to go to granddad fox like at&t. i know you remember just like me. better take another look at the

markets. up until now we have an accelerating move to the downside, you are watching various stocks including rite aid. way down. >> getting punished with 23%, with sales of cough and flu medication with covid instead. with rite aid this morning. and restoration hardware going the opposite direction, and nike is one of the extracts today on the dow, trying to boycott here, this is after nike expresses concern over distention of local leaguers, and the second largest market in a big deal, game stop recovering a lot, yesterday, 32% selloff, ask he is reporting 8 of the 10 board memories will leave after june and that is the same for the

company to transition online and speaking of which, look at amc up big today and both of these stocks, amc and g any trading 2 thirds of those 30 day average volume, retail traders are not as interested, and that is a good sign of that, what you are seeing, and that is where they are investing the $14 check. >> when he stopped construction of the border wall. the city philadelphia facing a major homeless and drug crisis. watch this. >> what do you see when you come down here.

>> needles, it is a shame. it is a shame. stuart: lawrence jones got a firsthand look at philly's skidrow and joins me with the story after this. i'm a verizon engineer, part of the team that built 5g right. the only one from america's most reliable network. we designed our 5g to make the things you do every day, better. with 5g nationwide, millions of people can now work, listen, and stream in verizon 5g quality. and in parts of many cities where people can use massive capacity, we have ultra wideband. the fastest 5g in the world.

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>> the highest overdose rate of any of the 10 most populated counties in america and in 2019 the highest number of overdoses were right here. what do you see when you come down here? >> needles. it is a shame. it is a shame. >> you are afraid to walk in the path of all the needles and falling over. >> i have been close to all the major cities impacted by this drug crisis, this homeless crisis and never seen this in my life, needles everywhere. capsules everywhere. picking up needles to reuse. it is truly a crisis and the sad part about all of this, this is not just at night.

this is in broad daylight. people shooting up, families walking the street. this is what they say. >> the needle. >> kids are going to be curious and ask, just explaining what it is these people are doing and why this is the way it is. >> this would be the epicenter of this area. all sorts of criminal activities every single night. >> is this destroying business? >> very much so. >> what a city council doing, the mayor, what are they doing? >> nothing. >> from philly or all over.

>> why do you think they come here? >> nothing anymore. you want to be able to readily have it. >> reporter: the city has been impacted like no other. this is just part of it. what do you see? >> the age group of guys that are out there getting high is dropping. >> i go home. >> you don't think there's anything we can do to help the situation? >> down here? know. you can slow it down but never stop it. stuart: lawrence jones is with us right now. is anything being done about this? >> the last gentleman on the package was impacted, someone who has tried to get clean.

i asked him, when we are out there if a homeless person on the streets, they ask you for money, you give me money, i will buy some drugs, the addiction is that real. there have to be this intersection of treating the people who have the drug addiction problem but also maintaining public safety on the street. i reached out to my sources who said when they tried to corral people, there is pushback from city hall and they have this hands off approach. they let people in broad light shooter because of the pushback they will get from the mayor's office. these people do need help and medical treatment but you can't allow them to be out there in the street in broad daylight where kids are walking the street, a public safety risk as well.

stuart: i'm going to change the subject and move on to something i know you are really passionate about, the new survey shows students of color are more likely than white kids to be learning virtually during the pandemic. i don't think virtual learning works very well at all. what is your take on this? >> i've done a lot of research on this, talked about this primetime a few weeks ago. the mental health that has been affected by these young people, that these kids are going to be 6 to 8 years behind, the studies show you're making 6% less than their counterpart, it is not conducive to getting these kids a full education, the interaction with

classmates, any to way you look at this will impact black and brown kids in a negative way. a lot of these researchers and educators want to reimagine education but america is behind compared to the rest of the world. if we continue to do this it is going to make us more behind. i don't think this is the right strategy to keep these kids in their household. the science says back in the schools, only the teachers unions. stuart: i was going to get to that you hit the red button. who do you blame? politicians and the teachers union, disgraceful. >> it is a fact i happen to agree with the you. the narrative is changing, it is revealed where the teachers union stand, couldn't get

school choice past, parents at home that are watching this, maybe it is not about the kids being first anymore. maybe it has always been about the union. not only will they criticize the teachers union but politicians that are in the pockets of the teachers union will pay the price. stuart: well said. we can feel your passion and appreciate it. thanks for being on the show. let's just change the subject completely. that, what you are looking at, is a brand-new facemask that only covers the nose. doesn't look terribly attractive. does it work? we will get into it. vice president harris laughed off a question about the border. watch it again. >> do you intend to visit the border? >> not today. but i have before and i am sure i will again. stuart: president biden tapped

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the president said she's the most qualified person for the job. let's bring in west virginia republican senator is oh who joins us now. in your opinion is the vice president the most qualified person for this job? >> this is a difficult humanitarian crisis. i wish i could say the vice president has shown leadership in this area in the past but i don't see it. she has a tall mountain to climb. it's time this administration did put somebody in charge. i thought the president was in charge with this along with the secretary. i wish her luck but she is behind, she hasn't shown leadership in this area that i think would be best served to tackle this crisis and i hope she is up to the challenge. stuart: we understand the vice president will approach the

central american governments, el salvador, guatemala, hundred and mexico and ask them for help in stopping the flow. is that the way to go? >> we know donald trump and his administration did work with those governments on the remain in mexico policy which president biden did which is one of the reasons we have so many people coming and staying. we have tried to work with the northern triangle countries to say let's have asylum claims in those countries to come to mexico into the border. i think the focus should be for this administration on the humanitarian crisis, the overcrowded conditions, not sure visiting the government of these countries is the way to go. even the president of mexico saying he thinks it is a result of the biden policies. we have to look at policy changes or at least the messages being received.

stuart: one policy change is president biden has instigated a freeze in building the border wall. do you think that is legal? >> i don't think it is legal. a big ladder out of the senate, 40 members of the senate led by me to ask the gao to make a legal opinion. members of congress and appropriators, we passed the bill that donald trump signed that over $1 billion would be dedicated to the wall. the day this president, president biden, got into office, he executed an executive order and stopped all of that so now we have gates open, no technology going forward. when i was there friday they were pleading for us to get the technology back moving again and installing to close these gates because they are having to put border agents at the gates because it is wide open.

really wrongheaded on the part of the administration to not follow through but i do believe it is illegal. the house has joined on this, the house leadership. i think it is illegal for president to undo the will of congress in terms of spending. we will get a judgment on that hopefully sooner than later. stuart: thanks for joining us on a very important subject. we are just getting this news coming at us. rutgers university in new jersey just announced students planning to attend college in the fall of 2021 will be required to be vaccinated. in other words at that college in new jersey you want to go to class you've got to get the jab. there is in a moment of compulsion in this. almost like the jab is a vaccination passport to get into that college in person. interesting development. it may spread. astrazeneca just released new

data after their vaccine study was called into doubt. the efficacy rate, whatever it is, has the rate improves or what? ashley: it went down a little. late last night the drugmaker said it analyzed more data from that study and concluded the vaccine is 76% effective in preventing symptomatic covid 19 instead of the 79% reported earlier in the week. this comes a day after an independent panel accused astrazeneca of cherry picking data to boost the protection offered by the vaccine. the question is whether the new data is enough to persuade us regulators to approve the vaccine. it is already being widely used in britain, europe and other countries despite more questions over data and in europe, the scare over blood clots but they say it is safe.

stuart: that is serious stuff. stay there because i want your reaction to this, the lighter side. it is the covid nose mask. researchers in mexico invented this knows only face covering, you are supposed to wear it when you eat or drink so at least your nose is still protected from the virus. that is an interesting facial expression there, ashley webster. what is your real response to the nose mask. ashley: they cut the facemask in half, hardly great research. it looks like speedo's for the face. stuart: oh, oh. ashley: for some reason hilarious and i'm not sure how much protection it gives you. i'm not a fan. stuart: don't ever wear it on the air. got a number, more than

1.1 million people pass through tsa checkpoint on wednesday making a two full straight weeks is that 1 million people per day have been flying. when will they go cruising again? we will try to tell you coming up. democrats targeting gun owners in illinois pushing for a new tax on ammunition. a report from outside chicago. [announcer] durán catches leonard with a big left. ♪♪

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stuart: lawmakers in illinois targeting gun owners with an ammunition tax was grady trimble in illinois, how much will this cost?

>> it will be a one% tax when you buy ammunition. the democratic lawmaker proposing this bill wants to use that money for state-mandated program to prepare public schools for mass trauma events. republicans say they support that training program but don't think responsible gun owners should be footing the bill. the owner here, this tax has been tried before. you didn't support it then, you don't support it now. >> it should not be a tax on a right we have for the amendment. it is as high as it has been in history and adding more would deter people from training which they need to do when they have a firearm. >> i looked up to see if i can find any data the suggested attacks on any nation does anything to prevent gun violence and couldn't find anything that says that. would it deter people from buying ammo? >> they would keep buying it because they need it but they will slow down on getting used

to their weapon they are going to carry. >> reporter: your sales are through the roof. >> it is phenomenal, guns the last few weeks with the administration and ammo and the guns skyrocketed over the last 2 or 3 weeks. >> as far as this particular legislation goes uncertain if it will pass but a committee in illinois and springfield taking it up today. stuart: i can understand that before the tax hits them. change of subject, look at bitcoin, 51,$000 per coin as we speak. what is this about a bitcoin etf? >> i'm curious if you would buy it. one of the world's biggest money managers, fidelity, provide investment and retirement funds, hoping to launch the first ever us-based bitcoin etf and fidelity will

provide financial backing for the bitcoin etf they want to call the origin bitcoin trust and track the performance of bitcoin prices across numerous platforms tracked by fidelity bitcoin index. the sec says they need to approve this plan but they haven't granted any permission to any company because they said the market isn't ready for this. another provider, the etf applying for bitcoin etf and you might think there's one called grayscale bitcoin trust, that's not etf, it is access and a sliver of ownership to 600,000 plus bitcoin that they currently own. stuart: you asked would i buy the etf? a 5 got a little bit of money and don't care what happens to it and might make some significant money i put some in but i'm not going to devote 20% of my portfolio, that won't go into bitcoin.

>> that is probably not the right investment strategy. stuart: glad you got that in. >> we talk about it all the time. that is all i am saying. >> are we done? now we talk about recreational vehicles, not sure you're in that market, but they are big pandemic winners, should want up double digits, and the sales boom has not stopped. we have the rv report for viewers after this. ♪♪ just can't wait to get on the road again ♪♪ like my love is making music with my friend ♪♪ i can't wait to get on the road again ♪♪

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air travel picking up, airlines up. jetblue in particular launched online travel site called paisley, customers can book hotels, theme park tickets, car rentals after they booked the flight, jetblue also up one%, the cruise lines all over the place, back to work and back to travel environment. it is a mixed bag, no clear trend for the cruise lines but actually will tell us when cruises will start sailing again from american ports, we have a date on this? ashley: migrate one for the cruise lines. november 1st the cdc says that is how long it's no sale order will remain in place for cruise ships despite a plea from an industry trade group lobbying to have that order lifted several months early. the cruise line international association said cruise ships are ready to sail again from us ports.

they asked the cdc to allow phased resumption by the beginning of july. the group says cruise lines should be treated the same as travel, tourism, hospitality and entertainment sectors, the current no sale order issued 5 months ago is outdated. in response the cdc says it is working on updating its directives but for now no sale remains through october. not great for the cruise lines. stuart: a long way away. and now ladies and gentlemen, as promised, the rv report. rv shipments in february up 30% compared to a year ago. that is the best february on record. the ceo of lipid components, jason lippitt, for rvs. let me ask you this. this is my opinion. it seems like rvs are suited to older people and older people benefited a lot from the trump

stock market rally. is it possible the wall street rally taking money out of that and putting it into rvs and that is part of the reason for your rally. mi onto something? >> you are onto something. one of the most interesting statistics in the most recent surveys is 84% plan on taking an rv trip for the next 5 years. that is a significant number. we need younger people to keep our lifestyle in front for people. stuart: younger folks will be renting them. >> 84% was a number millennial plans on owning in the next 5 years. the rental platforms skyrocketed over the last 12 months since covid hit and they were not really on the radar,

to jump into the lifestyle, to running an rv before they go out and buy one. in the past a lot of people were deterred because owning it and using it for 14 to 20 days a year. if you want to buy and rent it out in terms of making money you can do that as well. stuart: these are big numbers. there's always a difference between a huge us like rv and the traditional trailer which part of the market is showing the best growth rate? >> that is the biggest misunderstanding when people think of rvs they think of the tour bus and the 500,$000 motorhome. in actuality 90% of our businesses, most of the travel

trailer business, 12 to 24,000 for the most popular models being 20,$000 with which financing you can get into these vehicles affordably. if you look at the total number we are estimating to hit this year which would be a record. most of those are the smaller trailers and midsized trailers. stuart: welcome to the show, a terrific track record. we are down to the downside but not as bad as we were, up 92 points was waiting for the president's first news conference. we will have more on varney after this. ♪♪ his is my greatest challenge ever. but i've seen centuries of this. with a companion that powers a digital world,

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stuart: as we said for most of the show we've seen a lot of red ink. stocks, bitcoin, across the board red ink. not gamestop. that stock is up 32%. they will replace much of the board. there is a transition for the company in process. investors seem to like it up, 37 bucks. we'll show you a picture of the white house press room or the room where the press conference will be held later on today. it starts at 1:15 today.

doesn't look like many people will be in i think the east room of the white house. they have not got that many chairs out there. we'll watch to see you who the president performs at his first ever official news conference. 1:15 this afternoon. you can certainly watch it right here on fox business. my time is up. neil, sir, it is now yours. neil: i was just looking at east room. one way to avoid tough questions, stuart, not to invite any reporters. holy cow, like four seats? my god. thank you, my friend. we're following that. it is top of the hour at noon eastern time. welcome, everybody, i'm neil cavuto. this is "coast to coast." an hour and 15 minutes from hearing from the president of the united states. in recent memory we have never seen a president wait so long to have a formal press conference. the over will be how long it will be starting about an hour ant and 15 minutes. expect border issue to come