commodities, food commodities. these things have not begun to really impact what could happen if we don't see real growth in 2022 and that's stagflation. she won't mention that. charles: a lot of people stop talking about stagflation, but you're always ahead of the curve , michelle so when you say it i do perk up. have a merry christmas, my friend, now i hand it over to liz claman. liz? not bad, the response the last 24 hours to what have been a route. liz: well there have been some key pieces of news, right? i mean this is really important. we are seeing markets getting a lift from a new weapon, to fight the coronavirus pandemic that's got to be the biggest headline. wall street cheering the food and drug administration's approval of pfizer's new covid treatment pill. early in the session, pandemic indecisiveness held investors kind of frozen in place but the news which came mid-day jolt ed the bulls awake and as we kickoff the final hour the dow is up 180 points the s&p up 33,

the nasdaq better by 124 points. president joe biden meeting with some of the nation's top ceo's on his administration's efforts to straighten out the nation's tangled supply chain. biden saying the store shelves are stocked. we are going to get a full report live from the white house , but one of the nation's top bicycle manufactures on the front lines of this situation disagrees with the president. the ceo of kent international is here in a fox business exclusive with details on why parents hoping to put a bike under the tree this christmas may suffer from sticker shock. and the jury is huddling in the criminal trials of jeffrey epstein associate and theranos founder elizabeth holmes the subject of one of the great recession headline- grabbing trials joins the "clayman countdown." once known as one of the new investment super stars gallion group founder spent seven years in prison after being convicted of insider

trading. he says he was a victim of blatant uneven justice, you've gotta hear his side of the story in just moments, but first a fox business alert and the breaking news is this. the fda has authorized that first-ever pill to combat covid-19. it's made by pfizer and the fda says the drug is called paxlovid be a key component in reducing hospitalizations and deaths for patients 12 and older. the fda is also considering a similar drug by merck. we've got pfizer up three- quarters of a percent, merck is moving up half a percent. this is on the news, obviously this is as the new omicron variant continues to spread like wildfire across the u.s. , but that has not shut the doors on c es in las vegas yet. this is a minute-by-minute story folks. even as tech industry giants amazon, meta and twitter say they will not present at the in- person event they weren't going to be actual exhibitors

but they were going to be there and they now say they will explore the situation virtually. ces conference sponsor t-mobile pulled out of the show entirely and ceo mike sebert canceled his keynote speech over growing concerns of omicron but we first told you on monday, ces is holding firm and we now confirm ed again that as of two hours ago, the world's largest consumer electronic show will go on at the las vegas convention center from january 5-8. ces happening, at least as of right now. as the covid pendulum continues to swing and the markets are flying higher right now where do the traders stand in this guessing game? let's get right to the floor show, we've got teddy weisberg and scott fullman. teddy? again, we used to say the fed controlled all and on the days that the fed meets maybe so, but it's really the covid headlines that are controlling each and every session lately, so how do you trade that? >> well, i mean, yes, for the

moment i think you're right but at the end of the day, liz, it's the fed is always going to be the 800-pound for ill la in the room but you know, when you look at these stocks like pfizer, which we happen to own, or merck, which we own or even bristol myers which is really not quite involved in the covid stuff, you know, a lot of these big pharmaceutical stocks have done nothing for 10 and 15 years. i mean it's amazing, and even pfizer today, which is a great way to play what's going on with the medicines that are helping covid, you know, the stock, yes, made a new high a week or so ago but it still struggles. one wonders why these stocks actually don't do better and then you look at the airlines, for example, which are a proxy for travel, obviously and they act pretty good, so clearly, what these big pharmaceutical companies are doing is quite positive for our health and the world's health but somehow, it's not getting reflected in

those particular names. maybe one day they will but for the moment they seem to continue to struggle even though they're up a little bit today. liz: yeah, pfizer is a head scratcher. i'm looking at a five-year chart and it kind of bounces around, it has some great moments and then kind of nothing scott. scott, talk to me about what you're seeing right now. we've got final third quarter gdp which was a beat. it wasn't that great of a number , 2.3% but the expectation was for a gain of about 2.1% so that's a beat. we've got a better-than-expected consumer confidence number, data looked good, right? >> it looks good and the big question though is how is the fourth quarter? the fourth quarter is one of the most important numbers of the year and people are really scratching their heads over it because between problems with the supply chain and with now with the new variant coming up, the fact is that economic activity is actually ticking down a little bit from where it had been expected. let's face it. if you're in new york just as an example, "the rock" ettes

show was canceled a back of the envelope scratch just says $21 million in revenues are out the door just from them canceling their show for the remainder of the year. you add that up to the fact that hotels in the area, restaurants also benefit from that show. liz: you're saying that investors need to take into account the economic bruising that the economy is actually going to take because of these broadway show cancellations, and let's not forget the national hockey league taking its christmas break early. some of the games at the nfl have been moved around. who knows what's going to happen here, is that what you're saying >> yes all of this economic activity is being lost and that goes to contribute to that gdp number, so we have to think about that but we also gotta think about going forward, because the markets always forward-looking and the fact is is that god willing, you know , with these vaccinations, with the new drugs that are

coming out, pfizer's new drug, hopefully merck's gets passed as well, this will help to basically get our citizens and consumers around the world healthy again, and we will see economic activity pick-up in the first half of the year again that's what everybody needs to be looking forward to. liz: the pill could be a real game changer. go ahead, teddy. >> liz if i can it comes back to the airlines and scott is right. the markets are forward-looking indicator but if you look at how the airlines have been acting the last three or four trading days, i mean clearly, they are still under pressure, but they have all been basically on the plus side and i think what the airline which is is the best proxy for the economy going forward and for travel, so forth and so on, you know, if we were really in the soup, those stocks be tanking, and the fact is, they are kind of holding their gains over the last couple of days and they all seem to be ticking up, so i think the airlines are telling us as scoot has sort of indicated,

that the glass in fact is half full, not half empty going forward. liz: teddy put on a tie on a friday. i am psyched here. scott and teddy, great to have you. there's the friday smile from teddy good to see you both, thank you. we have this breaking news the white house covid-19 response team is expected to hold a news conference at any moment. we are expecting to hear more about the emergency use authorization of that pfizer covid treatment pill but earlier it was all about the supply chain. in a meeting with top ceo's president biden proclaimed that a christmas supply chain crisis has been averted. to edward lawrence live in washington with the latest. edward? reporter: yeah, liz the president in that meeting with ceo's from across the supply chain, the ceo of fedex specifically says in the weekend after thanksgiving, his company moved 100 million packages. he says there still are supply chain issues, but most of santa 's gifts will be delivered before christmas. now president biden is trying to

boost his approval rating saying that after he announced the release from the strategic oil reserves, gas fell $0.10 not mentioning the fact though that oil prices fell on the fear of more lockdowns, now he thinks that inflation will settle back down once the supply chain works itself out. >> addressing these costs has been and will continue to be my top priority the entire administration, and the way to do this is not to slow down our economic turnaround, not to step back from this progress, but to build on it. we can and we will address prices by expanding productivity capacity and our economy so we move more goods to market. reporter: but the solutions take time and some cases years. $17 billion has been allocated to upgrade ports and waterways across the u.s. and the bipartisan infrastructure bill, 8 million will go to the port of savannah to open off site storage container areas in the next 90 days but that's well

into 2022. it will be longer for those projects at the two busiest ports in the u.s.. now the ceo of harbor trucking association adds that empty containers, now empty, are posing a new problem. >> the challenge becomes is that there's not enough space on the marine terminals and so when they have both loaded and empty boxes, these containers sitting in the harbor, they can't work the ships that come in because they just are out of room. reporter: and he says the companies that chartered their own ships added to the problem because the charter was for drop-off, not also pick-up. liz? liz: well, what are they supposed to do? they were trying to just get the stuff moving. now we're talking a lot more about this. reporter: yeah that's exactly what he said. the focus was on getting the stuff off the truck, not what happens once it's out of the containers, when those containers come back. liz: uh-huh sounds like me unloading the groceries and then the kids just exit the car and don't move the groceries, okay,

edward thank you very much, edward lawrence. it is a classic christmas gift and a true pandemic winner, but if you're hoping to put a bike under the tree this year, it is going to cost you much more. in fact the prices are almost rising as we speak. the ceo of walmart's largest bike manufacturer is here live to tell us how high prices are two days before santa's annual sleigh ride, kent international up next in a fox business exclusive with the closing bell ringing in 49 minutes the dow is up about 194 points right now, russel small cap seeing a half a percent gain, the nasdaq biggest percentage winner right now, don't go away.

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liz: forget the sleigh, santa want wants a bike this year. more than a year and a half into the pandemic and bicycles are such a hot commodity as people look to spend more time outdoors but with rising inflation, the industry is seeing historic price increases. the second largest supplier of bicycles in the u.s. and key supplier to walmart, kent

international, saw prices sky rocket more than 40% since 2019 and with the average price of a bicycle in the u.s. up 54% since 2019, is demand really the only thing behind the bigger price tags? look at raw material pricing: aluminum up 39% this year, hot rolled steel so expensive the price is up 102%, rubber for the tires, up 87% year-to-date, and while president biden today praised his administration's progress in alleviating the supply chain crisis, those in the bike industry say you might want to talk to us. kent international ceo arnold ca ndler is one of those people joining us in a fox business exclusive. arnold great to have you two days before christmas and you've got last minute shoppers watching right now. how much more is an adult bicycle going to run me? >> well i mean a bicycle that we sold only two and a half years ago for about $130 is now

almost $200, and so when we're seeing, i mean, it's really difficult. we're seeing really good dollar sales, but with the unit sales are down because there's just a lot of people that can't afford to buy a bicycle right now that really want one. liz: okay, so we're looking at this adult mountain bike was 129 and it's now 200. kid's bikes, 68 and now 98, so you're seeing a little bit of a sort of a lesser frantic pace at this point. do you attribute that to the price or simply that enough people got the bikes that they had wanted because it was such a huge rush last year. >> yeah, i would think it's a combination particularly in the kid's bikes with the kids home from school and school being canceled and parents not wanting the kids to play with their friends, the bikes, the kid's bike sales, not this past year but the year before, went absolutely nuts, and so we think that it's a small part of the demand but it's now almost a year and a

half later, and so we were expecting, we heard about the shortage of toys and we were all expecting a lot of sales and so once again, the dollar sales are great but unit sales are down, because i mean, i think it's a combination of the supply being a little bit fulfilled but also, the sticker shock right now for a lot of parents that are suffering with all these inflationary pressures. liz: well again, there was the supply demand imbalance last year. this year, materials pricing but also the supply chain situation, edward lawrence was just live from the white house and we heard from the ceo of the harbor trucking association. he talks about the empty container issue. you, as i understand, shipped 8,000 containers this year alone tell me about the pricing that you've seen. we're hearing mixed reports. some say they are going down in price. >> yeah, they definitely aren't going down. we did okay because we've been dealing with large companies for many years and we signed

long term contracts. a lot of companies got a little bit clever and they didn't sign contracts they want to do the spot rates and they went from paying like $3,000 in container to $20,000 a container so those prices have dipped to maybe 15,000. for us, we were paying about $3,000 average and now we're paying oh, 6,000 dollars a container, but we hear from the contracts and the people we're dealing with that the ocean freight will go up an additional 50% next year. liz: did you say 50 or 60, can i clarify that? >> 5-0. liz: okay, well now i'm relieved what about wage inflation? are you paying your workers more you've got a big plant in south carolina. tell me what you're doing there. >> yeah, we are paying more for a lot of reasons. number one, we see what's going on in the marketplace and we have really good staff down there, we want to keep them.

so we're paying about 15% more than we're paying a year ago. liz: yeah, i mean, it's really unbelievable. do you foresee demand still kicking up at multiple pace here into 2022. what are you anticipating, what are you modeling for? >> we're still looking for an increase again in terms of the adult bike market, which is the bigger dollar part of the combination of adult bikes and e-bikes, and we expect that market to remain very strong. i was talking to the largest supplier of the component parts and they said they've got orders going out for two years right now and no one is canceling. liz: no ones canceling. okay, hey arnold remember when your biggest problem a couple year ago were the tariffs on chinese goods? >> yes. liz: i mean look at what has come to pass. it's unbelievable. >> yeah, i mean, we're still

paying the tariffs. it's still a lot of money but between the cost of the goods, look also the parts components suppliers have so many more orders than they can handle, so they've got people, it's because the shortage of bicycles and the demand is not just the united states. you have 12, 15 countries, similar situation, so it's the parts makers are getting begged all around so they be kind of crazy not to pass on some of these increases, but so we're getting hit from every single angle and no choice but to pass on these increases. liz: well, have a happy holiday. as best you can arnold thank you very much. >> well thank you very much liz always a pleasure, thank you. liz: thanks. tesla shares going for a joyride after the world's richest man says he's done selling those shares but is elon musk's cynical comments about the metaverse that have some people raising their eyebrows and one key stock dropping. with the closing bell ringing in

about 40 minutes, let's call it you're about to hear elon musk, the key thing you can't enter that digital universe without. that when we come back.

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liz: fox business alert, you see the gains on the dow well it's caterpillar that's leading the charge. shares are moving higher after bernstein upgraded the heavy machinery company to outperform and raised its price target to $240. right now it's at $201.70. the firm said expectations for the industrial giant are really kind of low, despite plenty of upside heading into next year, including the big infrastructure spend here in the u.s.. other tailwinds bernstein says, include the potential for lower steel costs, even though they're still crazy high and easing monetary policy in china, which would stimulate building there.

tesla rallying after ceo elon musk said he has sold enough stock to reach his goal of off- loading 10% of his shares. as of tuesday, the ceo has sold 13.5 million tesla shares and will pay about 11 billion in taxes, and he's giving tesla drivers an early christmas gift he is gifting, starting tomorrow , free supercharging. the ev maker announcing that motorists can charge for free during off-peak hours specifically before 10 a.m., and after 7:00 p.m. at superchargers along select travel routes in the u.s. , starting december 23. musk making more headlines but this time, on the metaverse, during an interview yesterday, with conservative website "the babylon bee" the billionaire poo-pooed said the term is just another buzzword. >> you can put a tv on your

nose and i'm not sure that makes you in the metaverse. it's weird, when i grew up it's like don't sit too close to the tv it'll ruin your eyesight and now there's a tv literally like right there. like what? liz: elon is getting rid of the goggles he'd ad he thought playing video games with goggles sometimes can cause motion sickness. it's hurting meta, of course facebook down about 1%, tesla shares up more than 6%. he was once known as one of the new investment super stars, before an insider trading scandal knocked him from his perch, as head of multibillion dollar wall street hedge fund ga llion group. raj served his time in prison and is here next to point a very sharp finger at what he says we should all be concerned about. uneven justice. unfair prosecutorial behavior, closing bell ringing in 32 minutes, gains on the screen the

dow is now up more than 210 points. stay tuned, we are live after this short break. we've been waiting all year to come together. ♪♪ happy holidays from lexus. get $1500 lease cash toward a 2022 rx 350. ♪♪

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that, and in the meantime, we're keeping an eye on this , two high profile trials gripping the nation right now. we are awaiting the jury's decision on ghislain maxwell, charged with grooming several underage girls to be sexually abused by the late jeffrey epstein, the disgraced money manager, who socialize with very high profile names among them bill gates and former presidents clinton and trump, with christmas eve just over 48 hours away, trial watchers believe a verdict could come soon. in silicon valley the jurors in the trial of elizabeth holmes had the day off but will resume deliberations tomorrow, the founder of the defunked blood testing start up theranos is charged with fraud and conspiracy, lying to investors and patients about her technology which never in the end worked but if there's a conviction in one or both of these cases, we need to tell you that the verdict is not necessarily set in stone. just last week, a federal judge

in manhattan strongly rebuked the prosecutors in the case of convicted hedge fund executive of premium point investments and is ordering a new trial. she was convicted in 2019 of falsely inflating the fund's assets but the judge ruled prosecutors in the southern district of new york withheld information crucial to the defense. galleon group founder who was convicted of 14 counts of securities fraud and conspiracy ended up spending seven years in prison and paid more than 150 million in fines. in his new book "uneven justice" the plot to sink galleon he outlines what he says were outrageous underhanded tactics by the same prosecutor's office the southern district of new york. here to weigh in, former galleon group founder raj rajaratnam. thank you for joining us. >> thank you, liz, thank you for having me. liz: it looks like neil hooja is

going to get a new trial because that judge who oversaw the first trial bluntly said she's baffled and very unhappy the prosecutor made erroneous statement later disproved by government e-mails. does any of this surprise you? >> liz, no it doesn't. what surprises me is while the judge criticized the prosecutor, they didn't impose any sanctions. now my heart goes out, those people, the families that had to suffer this ordeal, because it's not a fair game. when people like i go to trial, we expect a fair game. the prosecutor should be held to the same standards as the defense and if the defense lawyers lied in court, or they lied to the jury, they be sanctioned. here, the prosecution, for some reason, are reluctant to sanction the prosecutors and

while they probe the judges to order a new trial, there will be no equality unless they sanction the prosecutors. liz: your case involved trades in eight stocks, where backed up by wire taps then u.s. attorney for the southern district argued that you traded on inside information, information that wasn't available to the public. our retail investor viewers. what in your mind is the most blatant prosecutorial misbehavior that you dealt with? >> well, there was a series of blatant productivities misconduct and let me name a few one is to try this in the media, even before i knew what the charges were. when i refused to cooperate and point fingers at other larger hedge funds, they stacked my case from eight securities to 34

to intimidate me. they named two of my siblings as co-conspirators. then the fbi lied on their wire taps to the court and the court recognized it calling it reckless disregard for the truth , and the prosecutors in their summation to the jury, once again, mislead the jury. all of these are in court records and it's outlined in my book "uneven justice." liz: well, you know, you really describe the rest of the team as overzealous and media hogs. they wanted to get attention but i do have to point out one thing and i respect you because you said on the phone before this interview, liz, nothings off the table you can ask me anything. i remember this trial and one of the things i looked at and thought well the jury will look at that and say game, set, match , was that during the

financial crisis, one or your friends, a mckenzie executive who sat on the board of goldman sachs, rajaratnam gup ta hads had gone into a goldman sachs board meeting and it was an important one where it was revealed private privately that warren buffett was going to give a big investment to goldman sachs, and that could very much move the stocks and gupta walked out of that meeting and called you 23 seconds later. you have said that always, 100% of your trades were based on the written analysis of 35 analysts. raj, how is somebody getting out of a board meeting and calling you written analysis with investors? that one wasn't wiretapped so we don't know what happened in the call but it really didn't pass the smell test with the jury. >> liz, if you were, as i say, look at it very narrowly you missed the whole context, let me make a few minutes points.

i had no idea that mr. gupta was in a goldman board meeting, i don't have access to this calendar. number two, we were buying goldman every day for the past six or seven days because we thought the asset repurchase program was going to be passed and that would help all financials. in fact we had morgan stanley, goldman sachs and the financial eft called the xlf. that afternoon at 3:25 our consultants who were in congress sent me an e-mail saying it looks very likely that would pass. if top passed, then the solvency of these investment banks be greatly enhanced. now remember, during that time, things had gone under, lehman had gone under and we were scared so that day, i bought goldman sachs in the morning and i was buying it throughout the

day. mr. gupta called me it was a 16 second call and he says he doesn't remember the call. i do, and he asked me about an investment he made in the front called the voyager and i said i'm in the middle of a big trade, my consultants said that it would pass and i'll call you after the market closes. mr. buffett never entered the picture. i completed the trade and if you look at the records i called him for about half an hour, at about 5:30 to talk about this investment. liz: you know, you argue in your book and i find it a fascinating story but i think everybody should read that the american justice system, you say, relies on plea bargaining, meaning admit to a lesser charge and you get a shorter sentence, especially if you agree to cough up the goods on somebody higher. you with r that somebody higher,

although as i understand it, you were offered a plea deal as well to give up the goods on mr. gupta. you did not. you ended up spending nearly eight years in prison, that's eight years lost with your family, your friends, why? why didn't you take the plea deal and do you regret that now? >> because i couldn't live with myself if i falsely implicated somebody else. i know it's the american system and the way is to plead guilty and not cooperate, but i wanted to go to trial, because i was not going to be going to plead guilty for something i didn't do , and at this point, i want to give a shout out to my lawyer, john dowd who stood with me strong and said let's, this is just not correct, because we had all the documents -- liz: it's your right. >> it's my right and unfortunately, only about 2% of

the people actually exercised their right because one, it's very costly and number two, you need to have the mental fortitude, the emotional damage that it does to your family and yourself and your friends is tremendous, and this is why i feel for the defendants that recently, i think one you talked about, criticized the prosecutor s but didn't sanction them, and this system will not change until the prosecutors are sanctioned. all we ask is tell us what the rules are in terms of insider trading or whatever it is, and then let's have a fair discussion. one other point, in most white collar situations, the prosecution asks you to come in with your lawyer. in my case, the fbi came with

their guns drawn early in the morning. yanked me, told my children, take a good look at your dad you're not going to see him for 25 years and told me -- liz: they deny that. they deny saying that. as they are arresting you they said take a good look at your family, according to your book, that's the last time you'll see them for the next 20 years. they deny that but a lot of people that rings as if they could possibly say that. we have to run, raj, but i do want to ask you insider trading is a very squishy law. do you think that members of congress should be banned from trading? these are big issues right now. >> i think so, and i think recently, the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, said she would not support a bill that bans members of congress or senate from trading. let me give you a quick example. in the crisis in 2008, 34

senators and congressmen traded their own account when they heard from the treasury secretary, the federal reserve chairman that we had problems in the banking system. once again, -- liz: we're going to get cutoff. >> all i ask is for a level playing field. liz: the book is called "uneven justice" the plot to sink galleo n. it's a very interesting story, please come back. thank you very much. >> thank you. liz: we're coming right back, dow is up 215 now.

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liz: we've gotta show you payche x is hitting a record after beating earnings expectations for the second quarter and raising its outlook

for annual revenue and profit. the stock charging higher by 5%, the payroll management company attributes the growth to an increase in demand for human resource advice and benefits packages. paychex by the way is up 42% this year it stands at $132.87 right now. despite omicron woes, americans are really determined to get home for the holidays this year. i know a lot of you are thinking about that, right? with more than 109 million people expected to hit the road or take to the skies between tomorrow and new years, let's take a look at the airlines. all at least are trying or staying in the green, mostly, with the broader market and they are in for a lot of business in the next few weeks let's get to hillary vaughn who is live at reagan international airport in the nation's capitol. tell us what it feels like, what it looks like. reporter: liz, there's been a steady flow of people, it's very clear that this new variant is not scaring away any travelers

trying to hop on planes to head home for the holidays. in fact we're on pace to increase the number of travelers by about twice as much this year compared to last year. the tsa says last friday and saturday, 4.3 million people traveled through tsa checkpoints at airports around the country. compare that to last year when just 2.1 million people traveled through airports on those same days last year, but with this new covid variant on the rise nationwide, travelers this year may not need to pack as much patience, but carry on some courage to travel. we've been talking to people all day today and they tell us, they really aren't phased by the new variant and they feel safe. >> it doesn't scare me at all. it's not stopping me from traveling, i travel quite a lot. >> i think i'm pretty comfortable. >> would you do anything differently to prepare in light of omicron spreading? >> not really. i just follow the rules whenever they release it. >> i got a fancy mask so i'm not as concerned.

>> hopefully next christmas we can be free again and just travel without so much restrictions but so far it has not hindered me at all. i'm happy. >> even though omicron is not scaring away any travelers, delta airlines ceo ed bastian is worried that breakthrough cases from the variant and fully vaccinated employees could cause a shortage of workers who have to call out sick and quarantine. he's asking the cdc to cut its quarantine period from 10 days to five days, so he can get people who aren't sick, aren't showing symptoms, back on-the-job. liz? liz: hillary, i'm one of those people who is doing what you're not supposed to do. flying out of a new york area airport. they say that's the worst thing, i'm doing it but i'll be here tomorrow on the show. hillary vaughn live from reagan, thank you so much. as the federal reserve plans to raise interest rates in the new year, our countdown closer has a

play to hike your portfolio to the green, and it specifically w eaves into the fed 's narrative. closing bell ringing in eight minutes, we do have the dow adding on to the gains. we're up 248 right now so stay with us. ho ho ho! not again. oh no. for the gifts you won't forget. the mercedes-benz winter event. get a credit toward your first month's payment on select models.

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as i observe investors balance risk and reward, vanguard. i see one element securing portfolios, time after time. gold. your strategic advantage. liz: closing bell ringing in four minutes. this is stunning. we need to look at elon musk right now. he is tweeting, regarding his tesla stock sales, quote, there are still a few tranches left to sell but he is quote, almost done. the stock has moved up an additional 1%. it was up 6.3%, i don't know the last we checked.

it is up 7 1/2%. this stems from musk having put out on twitter, a sort of a survey. i believe the end of november where he asked his twitter followers, hey, do you think i should sell stock to pay more in taxes, 10% of the stock came through. yeah you should. he is listening. he says he is almost done with all of that selling. the federal reserve has heavily hinted that interest rates are going to be begin to rise possibly as early as march. our "countdown" closer, the pick she is about to reveal will help your portfolio outrun the rate hikes. we are, keith? sorry. should i go with this? i'm so sorry, dory. >> i'm sorry. liz: he is the president and ceo of commerce street capital. dory, seems obvious if rates are going higher we should definitely be buying financials but you've got some specific

ones, two big ones, then some regionals. tell why you think in the aggregate they are all going to do better? >> well first as you pointed out there was a day when the federal reserve was very cryptic about what they said. they have been very clear about what they're doing and the great thing is we have time to enact a plan. if you wanted to sell those losers in your portfolio for tax reasons and roll them over in january a good place to be is in consumer staples, energy and definitely banking, a good fundamental way to -- the banks are trading about 65% of the s&p 500. these banks are larger, look like a buy like goldman sachs trading at a single-digit p-e, 2% yield. bank of america at a 2% yield. some other banks, smaller banks like bcbp in new jersey is trading at over a 4% yield and a low pe as well.

pac west in california which is a great regional bank in l.a. and southern california. that has been a perennial winner for the last 25 years and that bank is trading at a low pe and a nice 2% plus yield as well but there are also some plays technologywise that the market really hasn't noticed a lot, at least not a fanfare. signature bank in new york, customers bank, philadelphia, both of those banks are up 250% over the last 15 months while the index is up 53%. they will be climbing higher because of the advantage they have in blockchain. they are the first banks to get blockchain into the banking system. you would think that would be a big deal. they're using it to go get customers and corporate customers from accounts for non-interest bearing accounts. think about being able to borrow money without paying an interest rate. those are the first two banks to do that. there are numerous banks look at

this. it gives the regional banks and smaller banks extreme competitive advantage when they're going head-to-head against say fintech trying to get into banking or money centers which are trying to dominate. [closing bell rings] liz: we got to run. please come back. dory wiley, always good to have you. that will do it for "the claman countdown." we're closing at session highs. "kudlow" is next. note ♪. larry: hello, everyone, welcome "kudlow," i'm larry kudlow. save america, and kill the bill and tonight i'm launching a slightly new mantra, kill any new bills that may come next year. our supporters want unconditional surrender. no new bills that raise taxes spending overregulate, destroy fossil fuels and so forth, so on. we're girding up for a new year's battle. just as our forces of good and america first whooped the