protected. ♪♪ and even when things go a bit wrong, we've got your back. here, things work the way you wish they would. and better protection costs a whole lot less. you're in good hands with allstate. click or call for a lower auto rate today. neil: let's look how the markets are faring right now. welcome, everybody, i'm neil cavuto. you're watching fbn trying to get a gauge what these markets are telling us. right now very worried about the contagious nature of omicron but encouraged by the fact it appears to be an 80% lower risk of hospitalizations in south africa and about a 70% lower risk of hospital -- hospitalizations period around the world. that mitigates the shocking

notion that this thing accelerated rapid rate, some countries doubling, tripleing day after day particularly in the britain, the united kingdom. as many states and countries retrench a little bit impose new restrictions it doesn't seem to be with sort of devil-may-care alarm here out of old abundance of caution. all the major market averages coming back on this as they were yesterday. they're not dismissing this. they are finding these developments to be somewhat encouraging. we're also watching what is happening on the supply chain front. the president indicates today when he met with private ceos, that is his supply chain team, that we're through the worst of it. not everyone agrees with that. but the fear of empty shelves we feared materializing across the country so far does not appear to be the case. now i might be speaking to some of those moms and dads who have

been lacking for certain toys, electronic items that are in extremely short supply but again, for the most part not as bad as some had feared. nevertheless back to what's happening on the variant front. it is prompting a number of changes, pretty sweeping including talk in a lot of countries of restricting in-person christmas get-togethers, certainly parties. we had jonathan serrie keeping track of all of that in atlanta. jonathan? reporter: neil, covid continues to cause major disruptions to professional sports. the national hockey league made it official today, announcing that its players will not participate in the 2022 winter olympics in beijing. nhl commissioner gary bettman explained in a statement, unfortunately given the profound disruption to the nhl regular season schedule caused by recent covid related events 50 games have been posted.ded through

december 23. olympic participation is no longer feasible. it is also disrupting personal plans. bill gates tweeted omicron will hit home for all of us. close friends of mine have it. i canceled most of my holiday plans. covid is having an impact on new year's eve celebrations around the country. new york mayor bill de blasio says he will make a decision before christmas whether to alter his city's plans to return to in-person celebrations in times square. as americans look to booster shots to increase the effectiveness of existing vaccines against the omicron variant, scientists at walter reed army institute say they're conducting early phase trials of a covid-19 vaccine that may provide broad protection against variants of concern in this pandemic as well as other coronaviruses however it has yet to be tested on omicron. >> one thing we've been hoping for a long time, scientifically feasible, that is you create a vaccine that is a

pan-coronavirus vaccine. it works against all variants. reporter: as the holidays approach many americans are waiting in long times at covid testing sites and there is a backlog of home testing kits at stores. cvs, walgreens, announced there will be limits on number of tests customers can purchase. neil, the biden administration pledged to ship out 500 million free rapid tests starting in january. back to you. neil: thank you, my friend, very much, jonathan serrie on these developments and just to add to that long list that jonathan pointed out, now spain the latest country to take some restrictions to put them in place, requiring face masks be warn outdoors again. if you're keeping track of what countries are doing, jonathan touched on this, israel banning travel to the u.s. and canada for the time-being. france as you know already closing travel off to the uk and vice versa. netherlands is in lockdown.

thailand is in a lockdown. japan is ceiling its border to foreigners. beyond that, beyond that, these could change within days if there is a sign that the rampant spread of the virus or this particular variant has begun to slow. we'll keep an eye on that. also keeping an eye on the supply chain issue. the president making that the major topic today at the white house. we will get the very latest right now from edward lawrence who is there. edward. reporter: neil, yeah the president saying, or he is saying that the ports are starting to unclog but the data is showing that yes, containers are moving a little bit faster but we still have a space issue. the ceo of the harvard trucking association, matt shrap, the focus is getting full containers off-loaded quickly. in fact $8 million of the 17 billion in the bipartisan infrastructure bill will buy land for five sites inland to move containers away from the port of savannah by train

clearing space but that will be up and running in about 90 days, well into 2022. the issue according to shrap is empty containers coming back now. >> as we head into christmas here obviously there is a mad rush to get those boxes unloaded, to get them out the door, out the gates, out to warehouses and retailers but again, everyone of those loaded containers eventually becomes empty and so it will just create the same exact problem again where there is just no space. reporter: he says chartered ships from costco and walmart added to the issue for ports of long beach and los angeles. they chartered to drop off and then left without taking empty containers away, leaving them on the docks. president joe biden meeting with ceo's representing all parts of the supply chain today from ports to retailers, to trucking, to the last mile service like fedex. he is making the case that his plans are working. >> packages are moving. gifts are being delivered. shelves are not empty.

reporter: the bottom line is that you know if you waited to buy your christmas gifts to the end of december you will probably get the gifts after christmas eve as, i know from experience some of the gifts you bought before christmas or mid-december said they would be delivered this week, have now been pushed to after christmas. i do know that from experience. back to you, neil. neil: all right. thank you for that. edward lawrence, very, very much. wall street having a better day of it for the second day in a row. we have made up now about close to half the ground we were losing, for example in the s&p 500 over those three prior sell-off days. still a lot of volatility out there. i tend to focus on the fear gauge, that cboe, volatility index. it had hit close to 40. still going in and out of the 20s, which is still reasonably high, at around 19.53 right now. kind of hedging their bets right now.

let's gocharles payne, get his read on all of this, the "making money" host, best-selling author. charles, how do you read the markets these last two days? more indicative of what they should be doing in this environment or the three days prior when they were selling like crazy? >> i think this is a market that is getting a grip on the two major issues. one is the omicron variant which you know, you started your show pointing out trends in south africa are very, give us a lot of optimism. we've had two studies. in fact the headlines this morning, two studies around the world that sort of confirmed that this is a lot less fatal, less hospitalizations and that is when this market was which was extraordinarily indecisive before the open and right after the open, started to get a big head of steam to the upside. i liked the fact you pointed out volatility, neil. for a lot of investors this has been a tranquil market for a

long time. they will have to get used to this. so far this december this has been the most volatile month of the year. this dice is about 50% more volatile than any december on average going back to 1953. i say buckle up. i do love this action. i do love the fact we were smacked down on these anxieties between the, you know the new covid strain and a new federal reserve, powell, 3.0. the market is coming to grips with both of them. we have to live with both of them. looking beyond that. that is what i like about markets, they do eventually adjust which is why i spent a lot of my time asking people not to panic when we go through periods like we've gone through here recently. neil: you know, a lot of this really, in the future direction of the markets will probably ride on how omicron is riding out here. i'm not so worried about the virus variant as much as i am maybe an overreaction to it. when i see a number of countries all about shutting down, locking down, closing their borders,

when i hear of companies and others you know, really sheltering their workforce, you know, again out of abundance of caution, i get that. then big events that are put off at least in-person events. who knows what bill de blasio will rule on saturday about a new year's eve celebration in times square, that is the kind of stuff i suspect the markets get rattled about too, if we overreact. what do you see or think about that? >> you're right but the market now starting to discern that there are pockets of places like a new york city or los angeles which are prone to overreact, have more draconian rules, than a place like nashville or florida where they probably won't. i actually feel really bad for those local populations where restaurants have already suffered, where workers already suffered. it is not a coincidence that those economies are coming back much slower, they have far greater unemployment rates than other parts of country which have taken a more proactive

approach. there is one place we have to watch carefully how they react. that is china. you started off the show about the supply chain issue this is talking about china, right? empty ships going there and premium on containers, rather, come back from over there. that is why they're paying so much money. one border town, 200,000 people, one person got covid. they closed down. in part they took ham-fisted draconian measures. they're not prepared. we'll hear more about natural immunities, acquired immunity in our country as it becomes less political. we will find out it helps us a lot and give an advantage of china but our overreliance on them continues to be a serious problem. i think that reflects in the market from time to time. president biden promising 500 million tests or some wild number yesterday, we'll not create those in america. where do we get them from? i hope this is also a learning opportunity. what is interesting one of the

hottest stocks in the last three days is live nation. that is a concert company, right? neil: right. >> the market looking over all of this but i think the supply chain part and the relationship toe covid and any new variant is always going to be a dark cloud until we actually start to produce more things ourselves in this country. neil: you know, i was thinking about you, charlie, when i was watching what has been driving some of the major averages. a lot of it is just in a few big names. certainly s&p 500. saw "the wall street journal" piece about it. it is really driven by five stocks, microsoft, nvidia, apple, alphabet, tesla accounting for about half that roughly 24, 25% gain. >> yeah. neil: that is not the first time we've seen numbers like that where the few are leading the many but does that part worry you? >> neil, i talked about this on my show for years, right? i always, always, always talk about this. this is why i get frustrated. i don't ever say that the dow is

the market. i'm reluctant to say the even the s&p is the market. to your point when five names or six names can drive that market -- i've seen days recently had on the nasdaq 3,000 stocks down, 900 up and nasdaq was up. that is misleading. we have been an actual market implosion. folks compared now to like the tech bubble. guess what? our tech bubble blew up this year, beneath the surface out of site. it has been extremely painful. so it does worry me and two things. people who get stuck in some of those names have to make major decisions. do you ride them out, do you buy more, do you sell? and so it is misleading. and that is why i think it is always better to sort of delve into the market. how many stocks were up? how many were down? how many new highs? how many new lows? the bias is strictly to the downside. even with this rebound we're get far more stocks hitting new lows and new highs. that is something that will have to change, if the booed market

comes back, that gives us opportunities to make more money and more sustainable. we don't want everything to hinge on half a dozen names. neil: finally, charles, while i have you, did you buy goldman sachs with that estimate of paring gdp growth? i thought it was outlandish. the only major firm had that view without build back elder the economy will churn out less next year, to my knowledge it is the only premier firm that has stated that. >> yeah. neil: it goes against the grain and common sense. obviously the president lept on that. what did you make of it? >> i thought it was political. i feel like you know what? that is the donor class saying -- i've always said this to you, wall street firms, the goldman, they don't care. forget about consequences, what happens to our economy. push come to shove we will bail them out, the american taxpayer. so yeah, pump, pump, pump, keep pumping, go over the cliff. we don't give a damn where the cliff is, go over it, pump,

pump, pump, especially right before bonus time. i thought was ridiculous and the amount they said it was going to decline. here is what they didn't say? how much will inflation decline? you remember our buddy jim rogers said give me a trillion dollars i will show you a good time. of course if they pour a trillion dollars into the economy it the gdp will be higher. what will the real gdp, what is your purchasing power going to be if you keep fanning flames of inflation. it doesn't make sense if i make a buck 10 and cost me a buck 20 to live. neil: good point. put you down as maybe on that goldman forecast. not to mess with you,. >> i like disingenuous nature of it. neil: i thought the same thing. are you kidding me? that would be like saying eat all the dessert you want, never gape gain a pound. wait a minute. see you about an hour 45 minutes. he is the real deal, charles

payne on all of that. we're following on another deal the president has not given up on, build back better. hopes to resurrect it this time, not fighting joe manchin. cobbling it together with joe manchin. how will that go? ♪

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♪. neil: this was anticipated but it is still a big deal. for those who are a little leery of taking shots or direct infusion therapies to deal with covid, the fda gone ahead and approved pfizer's paxlovid, for covid. expected to rule on merck's pill not as effective as pfizer but the green light is on. a lot of people afraid of shots, a good number of people, could explain not all who have not been vax knitted but this could be welcome.

the fda approving pfizer's paxlovid to treat could have individual, assuming the fda rules on merck's pill, the other prominent biotech firm that has such an offering. keeping track on developments in washington, not on the covid front, big spending front, 2 trillion-dollar build back better program that the president was pushing, might seem like it was falling apart with the rejection of joe manchin but the president indicating he wants to go back at build back, this time with joe manchin every step of the way with him. let's get the read right now from aishah hasnie following these fast-moving developments on capitol hill. ashiah, what is happening here? reporter: neil, saying something is different than what's actually happening. look, even if leadership says that this bill is still alive the fact is that it is hemorrhaging some key provisions right now. that is why you have progressives sort of scrambling

to find some out of the box options, some back up plans. let me remind you that this bill is still not fully baked just yet. several provisions in the bill are still being negotiated. it is still going through the senate rules process that could strip and change the size and scope of this plan. it is already killed immigration three times. democrats want to try immigration a fourth time. all of this will really frustrate progressives if bill comes back way smaller than they anticipated. because they don't have any leverage anymore, they don't trust senator manchin, the progressives are calling on the president to take executive action on certain parts, canceling student debt for example. as the president indicated yesterday, as you just mentioned the white house really wants to keep working with manchin. >> we have to work with everybody in congress so that the president considers senator manchin a friend. he is somebody he worked with a long time, even if they disagree

and they certainly disagree on some things. reporter: okay, so another plan, neil, is to call a vote immediately when the senate returns after the holiday, even without manchin's yea. leader schumer is on board with progressives on this idea. that would force democrats who are up for re-election in those purple states who have been hiding behind manchin to finally go on the record which could be political suicide. >> i find this very dangerous. democrats need to unite and they need to be in the business of flipping red seats to blue, not blue seats to bluer. reporter: so how they do that, how they unite is still unclear. we find out senator manchin joined that big democratic conference call late last night, cording a source familiar with the call. he mostly listened to his colleagues but then reiterated exactly what he said in the press but the bottom line is that we still don't know what this build back better bill looks like and the talk on the

hill right now is the question whether democrats will try to piecemeal this thing instead, maybe move provisions like paid family leave through with maybe a few republicans on board with that. we just don't know yet. neil? neil: i know it is sort of like a crapshoot, ashiah, i'm curious whether joe manchin is going along with a retry, do-over, along the lines of priorities he wanted? or is he so burnt by the reaction he go the, certainly initially from the white house and progressives that once burned he is going to be more than shy? reporter: well he is definitely stayed quiet after the massive press that he got being on "fox news sunday" saying what he did but you have to think that if the white house is coming out saying they're willing to work with manchin, that they have already had conversations with him and again he was on that democratic caucus call late last night so he is still talking and listening. neil: you realize of course

ashiah, none of this nastiness before you became our congressional correspondent. reporter: it wasn't. all my fault. at least i give you something to talk about. neil: you do. you absolutely do. ashiah, thank you very much, great job, all this year, following those developments, how likely is something ashiah was outlining there? let's ask south carolina republican congresswoman nancy mace, kind enough to join us right now. congressman, great to see you. what do you think? do you think democrats could succeed redoing this, reprioritizing this? the white house hopes so? >> it is hard to say at this point. i don't know why democrats are so surprised. senator joe manchin was been the one consistent voice on day one on feelings early on on build back better, going so far to draft a memo this summer, outlining his opposition to certain pieces of build back better. not to mention the spending and inflation issues he brought time

and time again. i think the real question will be what happens january 12th. the bureau of labor statistics on january 12th will put out the next consumer price index or inflation report that will be very telling depending how inflation has grown so far this year. going forward spending as you know, taxes will only continue to exacerbate that figure. neil: congressman, let me read a list ever super priorities, that is what democrats are saying, in a revamped build back better plan. they include 10-year funding for universal pre-k. would you be against that? >> well it depends on what it is going to cost and how it will be paid for. universal pre-k, 4-year-old pre-k is enormously popular with americans on both sides of the aisle. for me personally i would really want to know that nuts and bolts

of the finance or funding piece of it too. neil: there is a concept. knowing how much it costs. how about the child tax credit? the push on the part of the administration is too keep it going next year, maybe it a monthly check that upwards of i think 37 million families would be able to take it as a -- >> again another, yeah, the child, the child tax credit is also popular on both sides of the aisle. again it is how do we go about doing it. i'm not keen on the idea of folks getting a check from the government every month. i mean that is leading into really socialism kind of territory the way i feel. like i think many republicans feel the same way. we're not, you know, totally cold to these ideas but it is how do you go about doing it? how do you work with folks together? so far this year everything we've done, republicans have been largely shut out at least in the house. and so, how do we work together to accomplish things for the american people because i can't

think of one food thunk over the last year that has happened for them. i went to the grocery store the other day. shelves were empty. i filled up my tank again. twice as much as last year. we're not working together. neil: so maybe recognizing the new realities, congressman, we're told that right now and progressives are not keen on this, they're going to hold off on paid leave in the bill, maybe push it off into next year if at all. we're also told the push to get dental, vision and hearing benefits lumped into medicare will also be pushed off in the next year if at all. what do you think of that? >> well, i think, we're not looking at the bottom line, the figures on how, how much this will cost and then how it will be paid for. you know, health care is more expensive today than ever before because of the government's involvement in overregulation of the market. now we have hospital monopolies across many parts of the

country, most of the country in fact. we've contributed to this problem, rather than looking at it holistically, figuring out what we have done to make it worse rather than making it better. lack of competition always in health care has been a major contributor to that. neil: but you're not a solid no on some of the first features i mentioned? you want to check what the costs would be or how they intended? >> i think it is worth having a conversation about long term. these are things that are popular with the american people but, i mean it is just like on infrastructure, right? i mean republicans were shut out. i certain live don't want to see us add to the deficit or increase taxes to pay for different things. i do think we need to do obviously more for the american people. people are hurting right now. we're about to go through omicron. delta variant was tough. we have omicron on the horizon coming at us. that will affect businesses large and small in the days, weeks, months ahead. we have all the infighting both within our parties and against republicans an democrats alike. we're unwilling unable to work

together to do right for the american people right now. it is very disappointing. neil: congresswoman nancy mace, if we don't chat again. hope you have a merry christmas. your family as well. it has been an eventful year to put it mildly. beautiful state. >> mildly. merry christmas, mildly is a good way to describe it. up corner of wall and broad up 180 points. s&p 500 racing along, the notion that the s&p is bifurcated right here. much of the action is concentrated in large tech names. apple and microsoft, take them out. equation, not nearly robuster. a green arrow is a green a irrow. after this. i have something for you. [husband whistles] ♪♪ hi. [wife laughs] i have something for you too.

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♪. neil: i hope you didn't throw away that mask. in newark, new jerseys the latest city right now to require

masks indoors. that will be effective immediately according to the mayor because of a serious spike in cases a smattering of other cities in the garden state is doing this, new york city is doing this. on the heels of paris, los angeles, rio de janeiro cutting in-person new year's eve celebrations with talk new york city could do the same, the final decision of outgoing new york mayor bill de blasio, as whether revelers can batter in times square for the big ball drop. no indication he is leaning, but given the spikes in the city not surprise many if he holds off on that for the second year running. we'll keep track of all of that. keeping track how consumers, you and i are dealing with all of this. when it comes to going to stores, masked or not, it isn't getting in the way. we're buying like crazy. what could be one of the biggest holiday shopping seasons in

history. let's get the read on all of that with matt che, the national retail federation president and ceo. it is incredible, matt, when you look at all the obstacles in shoppers way but they're still shopping. >> neil, good to see you. merry christmas. it is incredible. i think consumers have demonstrated time and again not only their resilience and been flexing the financial muscles they have got as a result of all the money that has been pumped into the economy but they also make smart choices for themselves, for their families, to the people they love around them. they understand that while there is some uncertainty in the current health climate, that they can continue to be out in the economy. they continue to be in stores going on with their daily lives and doing that in a way that keeps them and those around them safe and healthy. and your point as few minutes ago with charles about what is going on in the market. i think you really hit on something, which is we're seeing

a massive, i think in many ways overreaction based on the data that's out there and based on the experience itself. africa, other economies, this is coming straight back down. it is not nearly as lethal. and we all know that if we close the economy there are really serious, dramatic negative consequences of that. we can't go backwards. we have to go forward. neil: that is a good point. we try to put all the numbers in perspective as you do. that is a big job running all the retail guys. the fact of the matter is, while cases have grown about 22% in the last few weeks, on an average, deaths are still under 3%, surging under 3% which was about the level we were at prior to omicron. so that is not to mitigate any death but the fact of the matter is, this is not nearly as serious or dangerous as it was feared to be. having said all of that, another thing that is not materialized to be nearly the worry that a

lot of your retailers at first raised is the supply chain issue, whether all the shelves were going to be empty. turns out that some items are indeed hard to get. i'm not minimizing it, not nearly as doom and gloom as was forecast back around thanksgiving. what is going on? >> a couple things again. we saw consumers change their behavior. we saw retailers adjust their patterns. so the holiday season began much earlier this year all the way back in october. you saw retailers out in the market with promotions and deals and opportunities. you saw consumers planning ahead, preparing for that. you saw logistics since the supply chain companies trying to get ahead of things. we learned a lot over the course of the last 18, 20 months. we have already built in a lot of investments in the digital supply chain and in making logistics and delivery much more efficient in inventory build up. we ran a better place going into the holiday season.

for all the maligning of the supply chain, when you consider the fact that we have a supply chain that was built for the last generation, 3% annual growth. as experienced in the last 24 months, 30% growth it is not only the supply. we have to really look at the demand shock in this economy and that's driving a lot of the price increases, shortages, inflationary pressures. it is not about supply. supply has been nothing more than keeping pace but dramatically, robustly increased. but it hasn't kept up with even bigger demand because we put $6 trillion into the economy. we shut half of the economy. so it is going to get itself sorted out. i think we're in a really good place for the holiday season. we're nearly 15% up compared to a year ago. as you started the segment, this will be a record year. neil: it would take a nuclear event to slow my wife down. so obviously -- >> let's hope not. neil: the passion is out there to shop, shop, shop.

matt shea, thank you so much. have a merry christmas. >> thanks, neil, you too. neil: matt shea following those developments here. we're also following some general trends going on in housing here. that too is closing outs on a very, very strong year with some very strong numbers on the existing home sales front thanks to hot markets like florida around out on the west coast, some pricey neck of the woods. the fact of the matter is the strongest activity and the fastest pace we've seen in close to a year. after this. ♪. i've spent centuries evolving with the world. that's the nature of being the economy. observing investors choose assets

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at vanguard, you're more than just an investor, you're an owner with access to financial advice, tools and a personalized plan that helps you build a future for those you love. vanguard. become an owner. ♪. >> welcome back to "cavuto: coast to coast." i'm madison alworth in tampa bay, florida, where inflation is the worst in the country. inflation is 8% year-over-year. the rest of the country is 6.8%.

when you break it down into individual cat you see how high prices have risen. when it comes to apparel up 7% year-over-year. used cars up over 30% and gas up in tampa bay by 69%. i've been talking to shoppers here at this mall all day and they tell me that they feel that pinch on their wallet with everything from housing to food. >> we sold and we thought, okay, we'll make great profits. but we ended up looking right now the inflation is so bad, we're holding off selling or buying again, probably for another year or two. >> i usually don't care. i'm out having fun. we go for fajitas, drink water and it was $50. >> going to the store to buy basics. seems like our bill is $200 every time. that is where i notice it the most. reporter: the worst inflation in the country, neil, and the reason why people in tampa bay are feeling it is because of the

popularity of the area and the growth in population size. while the rest of the country was shut down florida and tampa bay was open. so people were able to work and those who wanted to work and experience stores and shops, they moved down here, driving the cost of everything way up. neil? neil: that's what happens. madison, thank you very much for that. all right, all of this comes at a time when the overall, you know, shopping for homes and all of that is still very, very strong, certainly existing home sales front. here is the conundrum though. in the latest period as rates are declining to a four-week low i might point out, the available supply is declining even faster right now that puts potential buyers in a bit of a catch 22 predictment. pierre devos, robert devos managing partner. pierre, good to have you. it's a good dilemma with rates

declining but when you are able to look at properties there are fewer properties to find. so where does things stand? >> what you're seeing the first-time home buyer is the one suffering the most in this market. the average day, the average number of days spent on the market for a home in november is only 18 days which shows you that demand is still there. 18 days in the market is unprecedented number. so when you look into going into next year, clearly it is not just rates, it is really supply and pricing. right now, when you're looking at average principle sum after mortgage it is over $400,000. which shows you the majority of activity is in higher end market. the lower end is first-time home buyers are being priced out. first-time home buyer demographic suffering. you still have a lot of investors going in to buy up the properties. investors purchasing at the price point are largely buying in cash. so you're right, it does put

quite the predictment going into 2022. neil: how do those buyers then, who are competing against those paying cash and those syndicates or investment firms that are buying up a lot of these, how do they muscle through or can they? >> you know, i think that is the million dollar question. how are they going to reenter the marketplace next year and what percentage of them will maintain being renters for the foreseeable future. at some point you're seeing it now. when you talk about interest rates being at a four-week low, impacts of that, you would think that would result in a spike in, spike in activity, especially first-time home buyers is that the fatigue that they're encountering is, was really will keep them out of the market and continue to towards renting. neil: yeah. that is what happens here. thank you very much. i apologize for the truncated time. we're following right now the dow over 207 points. we're getting news out of general mills as expected it is going to start hiking prices on

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neil: take a look at the markets. we have another leg on the dow, up 226 points. on news that the fda cleared the first oral anti-viral treatment when it authorized pfizer's paxlovid, to deal with covid. another pill to hasten our scares or ease the scares over omicron. let's get the read on markets where we stand with shana sissell, chief market strategist. what is driving this, shana? >> there is somewhat of a rebound as omicron is not as bad as people had once thought. but the messaging from the white house yesterday was sort of a change of tune. it was not as positive as i would like over any stretch of the imagination. i am not confident the new

pfizer pill will change anything. i think people are drunk on power to some extent. the white house changed its tune, they will not shut everything down. they want to keep schools open. i think that was a positive sign, not as positive as a lot of people would like but certainly much different than change of tune from even a few weeks ago. neil: you might be right on that, shana. the biggest concern is not so much omicron which does not appear to be serious, so far, but an overreaction to it. so far. we've known of cities and states and governments across the world that are imposing restrictions. some going so far as to have countrywide lockdowns or citywide lockdowns. rio day. -- rio de janeiro and germany comes to mind. i wonder if that rattles markets whether we come out of this or return to sort of slow-moving kind of recovery?

>> i think it does and i'm not even sure it is rational. here in chicago mayor lightfoot just announced yesterday starting january 3rd they're going to require vaccine passports to get into any sort of indoor activity, entainment, health and fitness facilities, restaurants. so on, so forth for anybody five and over. why january 3rd if omicron is that bad, why not immediately? it suggests to a lot of people in the market these measures are more about control and not necessarily rational reactions to the variant and that's a concern, so i expect the markets continue toing quite vote tile actually as countries and cities take these actions that just don't make sense. neil: we have a 20 plus average market return this year, two prior years being of similar heft. how do you see next year going? i think next year will be volatile. i also think gdp and overall economic growth will likely be

slower. inflation continues to be a concern and then the fed action, accelerated tapering, likelihood of a rate increase is going to be somewhat of a headwind to economic growth. i think next year we'll see more muted returns and you will see a rotation in what performs best with valuation actually mattering and stocks not trading so much on hype and hope and more on fundamentals. neil: we shall see. shana, thank you for touching base with you again. travel is very strong. we'll detail that other side of the equation after this. have. (other money manager) how do your clients know that? (naj) because as a fiduciary, it's our responsibility to always put clients first. (other money manager) so you do it because you have to? (naj) no, we do it because it's the right thing to do. we help clients enjoy a comfortable retirement. ...

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♪♪ neil: all right, that song is so calming, "i'll be home for christmas" unless you're dealing with packed planes and airports and people are fighting and throwing things at each other then you might lose your holiday cheer but people are trying to avoid that even in the rush. hillary vaughn in the middle of it all all as it builds up for the big day at reagan international airport, hillary? reporter: hi, neil. well everyone we've talked to today, so far, has been in good spirits, and it's clear that holiday travel has not really been hindered much by the omicron variant. demand is not dropping but instead, doubling. the tsa says that last friday and saturday, 4.3 million people

traveled through tsa checkpoints at airports around the country. that's compared to 2.1 million on those same days last year. we've been talking to travelers today. some of them are cautious and taking extra steps to protect themselves in light of the new variant, but others say it's business as usual. >> i did try to get tested before i went flying but i didn't end up getting my test results back so that was kind of rough but i haven't had any symptoms so i'm a little anxious but doing all right >> no, basically masks and hand sanitizing. >> i am hoping that it does go away soon, hopefully next christmas we can be free again and just travel without much restrictions but so far it has not hindered me at all. >> i think i'm going to have a good holiday with my friends and family. reporter: but even though travelers this season are out in full force, delta airlines ceo

ed bastian is worried about omicron causing a shortage of workers asking the cdc to cut its recommended quarantine period for breakthrough cases from 10 days to five, saying, " with the rapid spread of the omicron variant, the 10 day isolation for those who were fully vaccinated may significantly impact our workforce and operations. the omicron surge may exacerbate shortages and create significant disruptions." the white house is also aware that a vaccine mandate for passengers to get on planes would also have a disruption to traveling and to the airlines. white house press sec jen psaki was asked about that today. she said the white house isn't really ruling this out but they're not there yet. they said if there is the science backing it that there would need to be a vaccine mandate in place, they certainly would do that but for the moment , neil, they think keeping masks, keeping travelers masked on planes is enough. neil? neil: got it. hillary, thank you very much. hillary vaughn, so again, at the nations airports, train stations

we're also finding things relatively calm, the crowds are building, and the same cannot be said for many localities and governments are responding to this spike in some of these omicron cases. it is certainly very very contagious but as we've said many times on this show not nearly so dangerous, for example , running at about a 20% clip right now on the new cases while deaths overall are barely running at a 3% clip. any death is one too many, of course but it is a reminder there's a huge disconnect between the widespread nature of omicron and the relatively few serious cases produced. that's something that has gotten to susan li to look at whether companies and countries and individuals might be overreact ing to this. the fact of the matter, susan, is they are reacting, right? >> in abundance of caution so we have the cancellations and delays piling up over these concerns of omicron spread, so the nhl being the latest

confirming they will not be participating in the beijing winter olympics, so that means the world's best players on ice will not be competing and like other major league sports the nhl also had to postpone games in their own season owing to this covid spread. now we also know that the other major leagues bike the nba has also postponed five games and the nfl delayed three, but it's not just sports. new years eve celebrations might also be canceled. fox entertainment says they will not be going ahead with their new years eve broadcast. they have new york mayor eric adams who is still considering whether or not to cancel the times square extravaganza at least to the crowd. meantime the new york mayor himself, eric adams has already taken the preemptive move to cancel his own inauguration ceremony, add that to the growing list of events and performances that have been delayed or outright nixed. the rockettes canceling a few hours before performance opened the flood gates of these

cancellations, snl canceled their live audience and hit broadway shows like hamilton, harry potter bringing down the curtains because they had covid cases amongst their cast and also the annual meeting of the world's richest and most influential in davos put off again for a second year in a row not to mention by the way the companies delayed their returns to the office. right now it's indefinite for apple and google, cnn we know closed their offices as well but there are some rare, some events that are brave enough to go ahead and that includes still the consumer electronics show, still taking place next month in las vegas, you have extra testing, vaccine requirements will be in place, but still, neil, i would say that the ces going ahead with their event is something we rare ly hear these days. neil: yeah, that is interesting, even though companies like meta and twitter and amazon won't be there for it so those are big names opting out. susan thank you very much, susan li following these developments. so are these all over reactions? let's talk to

dr. debbie naparample, a physician extraordinaire, we pon tificate about it they actually know what they are talking about. so doctor your thoughts on how various companies, associations, countries, states, cities, are dealing with this. we mentioned a little earlier and susan touched on it, clamp ing down with new restrictions, mask requirements indoors now added in cities like newark and los angeles and certainly new york city. what do you think of all of that >> well i think our strategy towards the pandemic has always been a combination of three things, so we have prevention, we need to have early and accurate testing for diagnosis and then we need to have treatment and, you know, our technology and the things we've been doing has improved on all those fronts, so the lockdowns, that was sort of like a primitive move when we had nothing else in the beginning, but now we have so much more.

we have life saving vaccines that have come out, we have all these treatments in terms of monoclonal antibodies and all of these other treatments even in the past half hour we've suddenly got an approval for an oral antiviral pill that can reduce hospitalization so we have so many advances. neil: what do you think of that, doctor, that pill, the pfizer pill? still waiting word on whether the fda will do the same about merck's but that could be a game changer for a lot of folks who are just anxious about shots, right? >> well, i think we need to go with the things that are moving us forward, rather than the things so controversial so this is something that could be a game changer but i think that we should anticipate the controversy here, that it can reduce illness, it can reduce hospitalization, so it can help in two ways. the people may not get hospitalized, they can stay-at-home and free up healthcare resources and help with the fatigue of the healthcare workers, but it's probably going to be in limited supply and what's happening, if

you have a limited supply we have people who are really at risk and we have people who are afraid of covid, terrified of covid and those two groups may not be the same people, so most likely, we're going to have a problem there where the people who get the drug may not be the people who necessarily need it, and so we may once again see some controversy so there should be a plan in place for that, so i'm optimistic, i'm glad it's out there that we have new technology, especially since the variant seems to be evading the vaccines to some degree, that's why this big push for the booster and why we are kind of getting this message, and the monoclonal antibodies they aren't as effective as they have been for the older variant, but at the same time, there are new problems kind of heading towards us so we have to anticipate them rather than waiting for them to hit us again neil: you know, you mentioned about the virus fatigue, doctor, and a lot of people are already getting vaccine and/or booster fatigue, especially when we

heard at israel is contemplating a fourth required dose for i believe those 60 or over. now, a lot of people hear that and say are you kidding me? when is one fully vaccinated now it's a moving target. what do you tell people? >> well i think israel is handling it a little differently their ministry of health has been somewhat transparent so they said it's not necessarily based on data. it's based on their expert opinion and they're not mandating it. they're offering it to people over age 60 so it's more voluntary so people who are afraid, who are at risk want to get it, they can, which i think still builds a little bit more trust with their community versus here, we have a lot more controversy because people who want to have these boosters can't always get them, necessarily, whereas people who don't want a vaccine -- neil: but people in general, do people need that booster?

they thought with two shots, johnson & johnson i know was one shot in the beginning i know but there are a lot of people say now i need a booster, now i need to think about treating this like we do the common flu and get a shot every year. where is this going? >> i think we need more data. that's the way i look at it. when i say more data it's not more people. it's more fine tuning of the people that we've already studied. we need more information on who has antibodies from natural immunity so whose actually had covid and recovered, you know, what other conditions do they have, and people are being hospitalized what are they being hospitalized for? is it for covid or for something else and they happened to have covid and what are they actually dying from? is it covid as the primary cause of death or is it something else and they happen to also have covid at the same time, so there's more fine tuning of this data that needs to be released and then people can make a more informed decision, so it's not necessarily that you need millions more people that

you need to know more about the people who have already been studied. neil: so doctor, where are you on the mask requirement thing? it's the rule in new york city, it's the rule now in newark, a host of other cities that are requiring this indoors. maybe indefinitely. where are you on this and how wise is that? >> well i think there are two big problems. the biggest problem to me is that we have people who do not trust government at all and just throwing more fuel on that fire is make everything worse, so pushing for something that a large segment of the population does not accept, i don't think that helps us at all. it actually makes things that could be more acceptable and could work more effectively. it makes it so that people want to pushback on those things also , so i don't think this mask mandate is effective. then the second thing is are masks effective? well i think that they can be effective, so people can wear them but we could try to go with that being more voluntary, but

at a certain point with the omicron variant with it being so contagious, i don't think the masks are enough to protect people, so it's not that you have something that's so highly effective that people are avoiding using, but you have something that's a tool that might be able to help some people that are high risk but it's probably not enough so you really gotta focus on a lot of other things and put everything together and have everybody on the same page rather than everybody sort of distracted fighting about all of these other things and then you're losing out on the technology that actually could save people because we're distracted fighting about some of the more primitive methods that were the only things we had at the beginning of this pandemic. neil: yeah, we are at each other 's throats of that too aren't we? thank you very much, we'll see where all of this goes. by the way, as the doctor was wrapping up there, we're getting word out of the white house that the president does indeed intend to revisit build back better,

this time, any possible extension to that series of programs, some very popular with progressives and they don't want to lose, others not so with moderates that they sooner go ahead and lose but promising that any program that is extended, it's fully paid for. we'll go into that, after this. ♪ you're a sunflower, i think your love will be too much, or if you're left in the dust ♪

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neil: all right, it ain't dead yet, build back better could have a new lease on life the president determined working with joe manchin to go line-by- line over must-have items that they can res rectangle next year, how doable is that? to chad pergram on capitol hill with more, hey, chad. reporter: good afternoon, neil, joe manchin joined the digital conclave, his spokeswoman says the senator had an honest conversation with his colleagues for whom he has a great deal of respect. senate majority leader chuck schumer told members there will be a vote in january on the social spending bill.

democrats are trying to decipher the reluctance of manchin. >> i just don't understand where senator manchin is coming from, because west virginians benefit disproportionately from this. we have one shot at this , because not a single republican is going to vote to provide child care for all-american families. reporter: president biden is now trying to patch things up with manchin and advance the hallmark of his agenda. >> senator manchin and i are going to get something done. reporter: there is chatter that if democrats push manchin too hard he could abandon his party. >> well i think it's unlikely. it is christmas, so anything's possible but i suspect even santa is not that generous to us maybe the only thing that could convince him to switch or register as an independent and caucus with the republican which is is far more likely, if the far left continues this

relentless demonization of joe manchin. reporter: the last time there was a 50/50 senate the gop lean ed too heavily on then- republican senator jim jeff ords, who left the gop and shifted control of the senate to democrats. on the democrats conference call schumer says the senate will consider rule of changes next year if democrats are still stymied by a gop filibuster on voting rights. neil? neil: i'd forgotten about that, chad thank you very much, my friend. let's go to tom bevin the real clear politics co-founder. tom where is build back better going? >> well, i mean, all indications are they are going to try and reboot it. it's in sort of a zombie phase, it was dead but now it's sort of wandering around aim leslie trying to president construct it this is all going to come down to joe manchin again and whether he basically writes what he wants and the democrats and the progressives in the house in

particular swallow it and that's kind of what its always been, but there was this back and forth between manchin and the white house he said the white houses staff people, that they were pointing fingers at each other and the white house released this blistering statement but now it appears they are trying to patch things up, nancy pelosi has signaled she feels like there's progress to be made after the first of the year so we'll see. i think it's still maybe 50/50 at best, neil, something gets done at this point. neil: so you know, if they have to open it up again, and just sort of prioritize on what they want, we're told the things that democrats can wait on, although not happily, is this waiting on paid leave, maybe address that next year or the year after. also this idea of expanding medicare to include vision, dental benefits, that sort of thing. that too can wait, but just shelving those for the time being might make this more

palletable to manchin. i don't know though because he's still going to want to know how you pay for any of this , right? >> right. he had the concerns about specific pieces of the legislation, the tax credit, for example, but also the sort of budget gimmickry, which the house bill passed and front- loaded everything, these programs were only paid for for a year, maybe two at- most, and manchin said wait a minute. we need to have a real accounting of what's going on here, we need to pay attention to the deficit and make sure this stuff is, in fact, actually paid for , so i think that is probably where the biggest stumbling block is whether he can get democrats to agree to that and as i think chad pergram just said, you know, biden seems open to going through this line- by-line with manchin and saying, you know, figuring out how all of this stuff is going to be paid for and if manchin gets that if the final number is 1.2, 1.3 or 1.5, whatever, it might be his concerns might be enough to get

him to yes on this. neil: but you're still not anticipating any republicans going for even a scaled down version of this , right? >> no. i mean, democrats were sort of wish-casting maybe they could get since manchin was a no initially that they be able to pull in collins or something like that. it doesn't seem like there's any indication that that's going to happen. i think that again was just sort of wishful thinking. they have to do this on their own, they have to do it with manchin and with kyrsten sinema and with kamala harris breaking the tie. neil: did democrats or progressives buy this connection that the more government spends, the more inflation is a worry, inflation is a number one issue to americans, because i suspect that even if they don't buy that connection, and many don't, why would you want to mess with it going into a mid-term? >> well, i think they probably assume that the cake is sort of

baked in that regard but i agree with you and i think a lot of democrats and progressives simply don't buy the argument and the white house continues to stick to this line, well we've got all of these economists that say this is going to decrease inflation over the medium and long term, when we know that we spend more money that that tends to increase inflation, not the opposite, and so that's their line, they are sticking to it, and i think they just believe that the benefits of getting this package passed particularly with their base out weighs any sort of adverse effects that might happen between where inflation is now and where it might be in november. neil: you got the base, they turn out, they're not jazzed, they don't turn out so i guess i could see the method to that, tom bevin, great talking to you again my friend if we don't again have a merry christmas, following these developments, fast-changing in washington, we got the dow up about 228 points, you might have heard about how strong housing was. well, they are having net

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where you can pay a little less and enjoy the ride a little more. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ now, get new lower auto rates with allstate. because better protection costs a whole lot less. you're in good hands with allstate. click or call for a lower auto rate today. neil: all right, elizabeth warren is having a food night right now with major grocery store chains. she says are behind the big up-tick in prices we've seen at grocery stores everywhere. she did not include the smaller

firms but the fact of the matter is, it could be as simple as supply and demand, but given the fact we've seen the white house and the party in power go after oil companies, for potentially rigging prices, or at least throwing it out there, and get the ftc on that and also to go after meat packer s to look at what's going on with rising meat prices, this does seem to be a deflection to many. stu leonard joins us right now, and very very popular high end establishment and new york, new jersey, connecticut area certainly not one of the huge grocery store chains that the senators addressing but i'm wondering, stu, how you feel about what she's saying. it's not supply and demand something more nefarious. well, you know, neil, first of all thank you, it's great to see you happy holidays everybody neil: you as well. >> we're right in the middle of our family business and i think elizabeth warren is wrong. we are not raising prices or

anything. we have to pass some prices on, obviously we're dealing with a lot of small local american farmers right now, just look at what happens when they go to fill their tractor up with fuel in the morning. look at the fuel prices that are hitting them. the feed prices are hitting them , the labor, every single one of our suppliers from our ranchers to just our dairy farmers are telling us that it's just overall the cost has gone up. we're trying to hold back as much as we can and not pass them along to the customer. neil: you know, i just wonder, without playing politics, a deflection like this will really be a waste of time if you want to talk about the supply chain that's one thing and the problems there if you want to talk about simple supply and demand and how unprepared we were coming out of the pandemic, for what be a sharp rise in demand for goods that, you know , certainly have been

distant during the pandemic itself. that's one thing, but this sort of gets americans angry in and of itself because then you're not chasing the root of the problem. >> yeah. well, you know, neil, i feel really half of the cost that people are experiencing right now have to do with real life increases in fuel and labor and feed prices. the other half, i think, has to do with this explosion of demand look at the store right now. this is like our most popular items like oven-ready fillet, we had to raise the price from 16.99 to 19.99. i didn't want to have to do it but our ranchers our west did it this is still our most popular item. neil: is that right? >> people are tired of the pandemic effect on everybody and they want to get out this holiday and you're seeing that with increased demand in

everything but especially food. neil: you know what's interesting too, they haven't stopped doing that, have they, stew, and it maybe owes to a lot of people improved their finances, not everybody but a good man it, certainly your shoppers. >> yeah. neil: so they came out of the pandemic in better financial shape than they went in. they want to have a good time, they want to have a good holiday and christmas and i get that and they are paying for that, so doing it could drive up prices still more, so what are you envisioning for next year? >> well, you know, i, unfortunately, we deal with a lot of local businesses and farms and so forth, and we've had to basically split the price increase with them right now. we're trying to hold prices down like pizza same price as last year, milk the same price as it was, eggs and butter. we've held all of them but what we're hearing from the big consumer package companies is

just wait until january. coca cola has already come to us with a sharp price increase right now, but it's after the holidays, so i think there's some more inflation left here as far as price increases but most people will experience it probably two, three, four weeks. neil: all right, we'll watch it closely, my friend, in the meantime have a merry christmas. i know your customers are looking forward to just that. stew leonard, ceo by the way speaking of inflation on the white house, a press conference is going on right now jen psaki answering a question from our, is it edward asking the questions, guys, today? i think it was. right, asked jen psaki about what's going on in the inflation front and fbn polls shows it's a prominent worry, jen psaki is saying that we're empathetic to the challenges are going through , so again, a message

from jen psaki to edwardsville that they aren't oblivious to what's going on and are working to address it. in the meantime here, keeping you abreast of some big developments right now concerning the markets up across-the-board but what's going on with tesla, no sooner had we heard that elon musk was done selling his stock, then it's up about 6%, close to $58, teasing the $1,000 level yet again. more after this.

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i'm so glad we did this. i'm so glad we did this. i'm so glad we did this. life is for living. let's partner for all of it. i'm so glad we did this. edward jones neil: you remember the 1800s saying go west, young man, i guess, extension today would say and young woman. well they're not heeding that advice these days, post the

pandemic. a 38% decline in people moving to california. what's going on with that, kelly o'grady is looking into that phenomenon and joins us in san francisco, kelly? reporter: hi, neil. yeah, i mean, this is already a problem before the pandemic, but since then a number of californians leaving has increased by 12% and on top of that like you said people don't even want to move here as much anymore. that number is down by 38% and can you blame them? the weather here today is terrible but the biggest driver of that is the cost of living, especially here in san francisco, so according to a new study a family of four with combined income of p 300,000 is living paycheck to paycheck in the bay area and that stat is astounding and that's a middle class lifestyle, rent is sky high unless you bunk with a number of roommates but even if you own the average home price is 1.8 million. >> $1.8 million median home price in san francisco, plus or minus $100,000, but if you go

to the hard land you can get homes for 300,000, 400,000, $500,000 so it behooves us if we want to save on cost and save and invest more we should look around the country. reporter: critics also pointed to california's taxes and business environment. they have the highest income tax rate in the nation and many people are frustrated with covid restrictions when states like florida and texas have kept businesses open. now, crime, you and i, neil, have talked about this that's a hot button issue. theft has become so bad some residents are leaving their trunks open so robbers won't destroy their cars. it's crazy so when you make 300 grand you still live paycheck to paycheck and you're enduring all of this people start to leave and by the way with inflation soaring that salary doesn't go as far this year. silicon valley is known as the tech capital of the world but with talent and innovation leaving the state in droves that may soon change and it begs the question, when will government officials start to worry that their policies are contributing to this exodus, neil? neil: those are staggering

numbers kelly o'grady great reporting as usual, in san francisco, rainy san francisco at that. joe piscopo sees the same thing happening on the other side of the country in new jersey and he joins us right now. joe, you know, you raise the cost of living too much or taxes, it's not a shocker that people are not inclined to want to stick around, so the exodus continues in states where this is continuing, right? >> neil, thousands of people every month leave new jersey. not to mention new york. it's true. we always talk about business and with the gyms and everything you've gotta watch your prices, where you set your prices, membership fees. it's very competitive, it's very tough, and what kills me, they don't address it. the politicians don't seem to address it. they assume that prices are built in, the inflation is going to be there and life goes on but it doesn't. people are, i had one more friend move to florida am i right? they are all going to florida.

neil: everyone is going to florida you're right but it's not a shocker, when the governor was talking about this taxation fixation if that's your big issue, maybe you shouldn't be in new jersey, as if, right? >> that was unbelievable that he said that but when, again, i do respect phil murphy a very decent by but he's also worth $550 million, and my argument is always how do you identify with regular folks, you know? that when you make that much money -- neil: i've often thought about you, how do you relate to that and you're doing that on your show. i did want to ask you while you're here, buddy. lauren michaels now is talking about retiring on the 50th season which i guess be after next year. what do you think of that? >> i don't think he goes. i really don't think he goes and it's funny, you're very talented producers called to say hey, joe , do you got a picture of you

and lauren michaels and i said lauren michaels doesn't even know i exist. remember? neil: oh, i find that hard to believe. i find that hard to believe. listen, so eddie and i were hired by a gal who came in right after lauren and but lauren, i was afraid of lauren, i was always like this. i was like i would melt into jerry lewis, you're a nice man, mr. michaels. neil: [laughter] so you have your doubts, you don't think he's going to leave, right? i was surprised it was the mid 70's when it all started and now here we are in the 2020s but you don't see him actually going? >> no, inside line, neil, if i may because i hate when those books are written and i don't think i'm breaking confidences but when lauren left , somehow that nbc in their wisdom let lauren michaels leave

, mr. ebersol brought in and dick brought lauren in close , as a consultant. so, lauren was always there, and i don't think, i can't imagine him going anywhere else, or with great respect to him by the way. he's built a complete dynasty over there, so why would he want to leave, you know? all he has to do is call the shots and you've got it made , man. neil: you know, it goes through these spurts though where it's very like when you were there, you know, maybe not so much, but it rides these waves and its an iconic institution but lately now, because of the latest omicron scare and the rest is a scaled down, almost like a pandemic-like show and i'm wondering how long that goes on. you didn't have to worry about that sort of stuff when you were on it but viewers i'm sure don't flip over that. no, i don't know but it's great to see tom hanks show up the way

the great tom hanks stepped up and paul rudd is just great and i know you're right, people go with the cast, you know me and eddie and everything else but you got i'm a pete davidson fan and michael shay is very funny but this kid is hysterical so they got enough talent to maintain it. you got 30 seconds for a funny story? neil: please. >> you got 30 seconds? so i'm doing frank sinatra on saturday night live, you know, i'm heard mr. sinatra, i heard this just last week, was watching it, and they called lauren michaels, they called lauren to go in because mr. sinatra wanted to surprise me on the set and somehow it got quashed by someone.

i wouldn't be talking to you right now, i'd have a coronary. can you imagine that? neil: i could, didn't they do that one-time years later? with barbara streisand, she appeared on the show so crazier things have happened. what would you have done if he just showed up? >> yeah, i would have died but joe pesci came in and jim brewer was there at the time i believe but i just heard that and thought oh, my god i'll just drop right on the floor you know neil: that would have been cool. you sang better than he did by the way. joe i hope you have a merry christmas, my friend. you brought a lot of people to listen to you and you do so much charitable work. it's just amazing. i can't keep up with it, but you know, what is that paying it forward you've done that and then some. so keep inspiring. >> thank you. neil: keep inspireing. back to your batman, bruce wayne office and it's just lovely. it looks so stunning. it's a prop isn't it, but it

looks great. joe, you're the best, my friend. he is a garden state gem. i hope he doesn't move. he's gotta stay there. he can afford the taxes, right? all right, you know the whole elf on the shelf phenomenon? it's an even bigger one now, but santa's having a problem, not with the whole phenomenon, but the elves, after this. ♪ last christmas, i gave you my heart, but the very next day, you gave it away ♪ i've spent centuries evolving with the world.

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neil: all right, it's not the shelf that's the problem or the elf, it's the elf and whether he'll even get to the shelf. back with drama that's building this holiday season, for elf on the shelf fans right now. it's an iconic tradition this time of the year, where,

well, you get a little visitor to your home, and kids lop it up , parents lop it up, santa, everyone is into it and then along comes the supply chain and calls into question whether it can continue, because there, well, aren't enough elves. the company founder and co- founder of what has now become an institution in homes really across the world, christa pitz with us right now, thank you for coming. your story is remarkable to me and it's a testament to the fortitude to follow this through from a book to what's now become like a growing industry but this supply chain could be disrupting things, what's happening? >> yeah, you know, just like everyone, we've been affected by the global supply chain crisis. it began quite sometime ago. fortunately, we thought ahead. we planned ahead. we saw some of the writing on the wall early and then

obviously, santa claus knows, you know, deliveries, can't change. christmas day is christmas day and it's coming, you can't exactly back order it, so we had to make a few adjustments and had to do some things we typically wouldn't do in your traditional year, but fortunately, we were able to navigate it well and many many many millions of elves have found their homes once again, so its been an interesting year but definitely one we've been able to navigate and we're excited that christmas is almost here. neil: well they're in demand everywhere. i'm just wondering, even with the millions of elves, is there an issue for santa, just making good on that and making sure there's, forget about a shelf for every elf, how about an elf for every shelf? >> [laughter] yeah, you know, really for us, the biggest issue has been the last mile. as you know, without trucks and chassises and drivers, goods

aren't making their final destinations, and so that's really been one of the most difficult things about navigating this year. on top of that, not only is it getting it from our distribution facilities or santa's i should say, into other dc's and hubs, you also then to get it on a store shelf have to get it on to that shelf by getting it out of additional dc's so its really been that last mile that's been the disruption this year. neil: all right, but is that part addressed now, or how would you describe supply now, days ahead of christmas? >> it's strong, obviously, our sell-through has been really really good this year. we've heard from all of our retail partners that once again its been an incredible year for us, and for our company and our products. one of the things i will say has added quite a bit of complication though is, as you're aware, many of the carriers aren't even

guaranteeing their deliveries,, so what would traditionally be looked at as oh, i'm going to choose one night overnight delivery, it can take five, six days for you to actually get it so those are really the biggest hiccups for santa this year is just trying to get the goods not just out of our facilities and out of our hands and into homes, but to get it to your doorsteps another matter altogether. neil: i just believe it's going to all work out. your success proves that it can work out because you encountered some big resistance yourself, santa has, so i have a feeling this will all work out. christa have a merry christmas, i know you've made it marry for a lot of people all around the world who are very very much and for good reason, very magical. >> thank you. neil: christa pits the brains behind elf on the shelf, and a little bit of magic at the corner of wall and broad, more buying in a festive green at that and a lot of the economic ally-sensitive stock s so the so-called coming

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neil: you know you keep talking about a lot of anxieties out there. you wouldn't know it with consumer confidence now reported at its highest level in almost a year. you have to go back to february to see numbers like this and that is helping the market. certainly consumer discretionary stocks, well, consumers like to use them and buy them and i'm not just talking about the goods. today the stocks. let's go to charles payne to take you through the next hour. hey, charles. charles: neil, thank you so much my friend and good afternoon, everyone, i'm charles payne. this is "making money." breaking right now it has been a rocky december but things are starting to turn around just in time for the santa claus rally. how late developments in 2021 should inform your investment decisions for 2022. as we deal with lingering issues and increased backdrop of increased volatility don't let that be your nemesis and not making money. i have some the best guests to line you up for greater prosperity. plus the roaring 2020 road map is still in place but it has to be or again