but you know it, the halls of mon at that zuma. that is what he is listening to there. perhaps a future marine. my grandson elliot. that is my family, folks. i hope to spend christmas with them, tee pending what happens with omicron. i hope you have a have a wonderful christmas with your family as well. speaking of wonderful, mr. wonderful, neil cavuto joining us. neil, take it away. neil: that is beautiful stuff. stepson falling asleep with your dad that is everyone of my viewers. brought it all home. so good, david. have a wonderful holiday. thanks for all your hard work. always being there. always smiling. what a great human being you are. thank you, david. david: you too. neil: we've been following the same thing you've been following, david, third day up in a row after three down days

in a row. is this the pace and tenor of the markets, unless something calamitous happens in the next week. we'll close out another strong year for all the market averages. strong double-digit advances, dow, s&p, nasdaq. maintaining that are to next week. remember markets are closed tomorrow for christmas holiday. you have to begin to wonder, what happens after all of that. meantime, more people are focused on getting out of town than anything else. we'll show you what is going around the country right now, as seattle tacoma. sky harbor international airport, phoenix, arizona. philadelphia, international airport. people are rushing out of town, omicron notwithstanding. they're eager to get on the move. this we're told the busiest travel day of the year. now there are some people argue with that right before thanksgiving is technically busier. this is certainly busier than we've seen it for a while. in the post-pandemic phase, a lot of people are wondering how far we'll go on this.

travel stocks have been whipsawed by this omicron thing. as david was pointing out the very fact right now that contageous as it is, it doesn't appear to be too, too dangerous. that is giving holiday travelers not only an excuse to get going to grandmas's after all, and giving buyers a excuse maybe we reoverreacted to all that selling three prior days to the latest three up days. we'll explore that in a little more detail. let's go to david lee miller in la guard -- laguardia in new york where people are bracing traveling. david lee. reporter: indeed her, neil. as you point out if this isn't the busiest travel day of the year it is certainly one of the busiest. in total aaa says 6 1/2 million people are expected to take to the airways this holiday season and that's about three times what it was last year.

a number of the major hubs are experiencing very long lines. that is not the case so far here in laguardia airport here in queens, new york. so far things here are actually pretty mellow. the wait to get through security is only, only about 15 minutes as of right now. and with only a small number of exceptions, i would say everyone in the terminal is wearing a mask as required by the federal government. there are a number of police officers handing out masks who anyone who want ad spare or for whatever reason didn't have one. there is some concern from the airlines that they could face staffing shortages resulting from cdc guidance calling for a 10-day isolation period for people testing positive even if vaccinated but overall, seems the passengers who had second thoughts about traveling, feel the risk is minimal and took precautions. >> yeah. had second thoughts. i've been up all night bit,

thinking should i go, should i not, if i should see my family. covid is really rising a lot. so it is like 50-50 with me. >> i got boosted back actually right before i traveled for thanksgiving going home back to burlington. i'm double masked. i did receive a pcr test before coming. got a negative result yesterday. reporter: aaa sass the vast majority of travelers are driving a third more traveling by car compared to last year. they pay 3 1/2 dollars for gas. that is a dollar more per gallon than compared to a year ago. you can pay more for a rental car if you can find one. automobile club says if there is a shortage of rental cars if you don't have one by now, you are out of luck. travel woes, weather, eastern 2/3 of country is good. rain and mountain snow is likely out west.

delays at san francisco, l.a., salt lake city. but the bottom line here, despite all of the obstacles, it is estimated about 110 million americans are going to be going somewhere this holiday season. neil? neil: david lee, thank you for wrapping that up for us. david lee, following the developments at laguardia international airport. david was touching on how many people attempt to continue with their journeys even in the face of omicron. the fact of the matter is omicron is a very, very contagious virus. the fact it is in all 50 states now. it is in 96 countries but the good news, at least for the time-being seems to be it is a strain that isn't nearly as dangerous, for example, as the delta variant before it. jonathan serrie has been picking through this and where we stand with omicron for the time-being. i stress, i guess for the time-being, sir. reporter: hi, there, neil. it is the kind of thing where

for the individual you may face a lower risk of getting seriously ill. because it is so contagious you're looking at sheer numbers of people getting infected. that is concerning officials in greece. that country is now tightening some of its covid restrictions starting tomorrow morning. they will require people to wear masks, not only in public indoor spaces but also public outdoor spaces. also public celebrations are being canceled in cities across the country to discourage crowds from gathering. here in this country though, some big news out of the fda. it is authorized a second antiviral pill to treat covid-19. in this case it is merck ace that received a emergency use authorization to treated a adults with early to mild to moderate cases of covid-19 who are risk of developing severe disease and are unable to receive other approved treatments. this comes one day after the fda granted emergency use

authorization to pfizer's antiviral pill, paxlovid. it performed better in clinical trials reducing hospitalizations in high-risk patients by nearly 90%. the federal government agreed to purchase enough paxlovid to treat 10 million people, but a complicated six to eight week manufacturing process means supplies will be limited starting out. >> we will have 265,000 treatment courses of pfizer available in january. with monthly totals of pills ramping up across the year. reporter: the highly infectious omicron variant has now been detected in all 50 u.s. states. studies out of the uk and south africa show patients infected with omicron are much less likely to require hospitalization than those with the delta variant but again, neil, because it is so contagious, and you're looking at such high numbers of infections u.s. hospitals are still bracing themselves for a lot of activity this season.

back to you. neil: yeah, there is that. jonathan serrie, thank you very much, my friend. jonathan in atlanta following all of that. back to one of my favorite guests through the entire pandemic, just sort of step back, not play politics, not follow whatever the whim is at the moment, just looking at it from a medical perspective, science perspective, there is a concept, dr. bob lahita, st. joseph institute autoimmune diseases director. doctor, bob, thank you for coming back in. where are we on omicron? i don't want to jump that nothing to worry about, but contagious nature that is undeniably a problem, an issue, a worry, as far as how dangerous it is when you get it, that does not appear as of yet. where are we on this? >> where we're with this, neil, anybody immunosuppressed who has not been vaccinated, i can't imagine anybody who is immunosuppressed hasn't been

vaccinated, people above the age of 65, everyone should have the booster shot. the omicron variant is highly contagious, the good news as you said we're not seeing a lot of people going into the hospital, into the icu, being intubated namely because this variant does not affect the lungs like the delta variant. mind you delta variant is still out there, neil. i still worry about that. we're still packing them in. it is not as crazy as it was last year. and people, as you know, are testing everything. i mean, there are lines around the block. the cars are all backed up, traffic jams, just to get tested which is good news. neil: do you know, doctor, when you are tested, they will be able to discern with a test whether you have the omicron variant or just have covid? what does the test come back whether you're positive or negative? >> the home tests are just for covid but you get a pcr, which

is the preliminary chain reaction there is a specific signature goes with delta, goes with alpha, goes with all the other variants including omicron. that is how it was detected on black friday, if you remember, the day after thanksgiving. this unusual variant popped up. i predicted it would be march 1st before the whole country was infected. i was wrong. it has infected the total country right now. it is a quickie. it is easily transmissible f a new signature pops up over the next several weeks that would be another variant and we don't know how that would go. as i told you neil, things up regulate and down regulate with the virus. down regulators go away. the up regulators can be quite dangerous to all of us. neil: let me give your sense of the fda approving over 24 hour period two difference different pills to treat covid, pfizer's yesterday, merck's today. how does that change things in your eyes? >> well that is a big

game-changer, it really is. there are two different kind of pills. paxlovid is very effective, 90% effective. neil: that is the pfizer pill? >> that is the pfizer pill, right. that is pretty tee ace inhibitor, that is technical terminology. everybody is familiar with that in medicine, other areas like heptitis c treatment. it is like the hiv treatment. it is very, very effective, by prescription only. can't get it in the drugstore by yourself. the second drug, is very effective also. operates differently. what we call a nuke klee tied analog, it will stop the virus in its track as the pfizer product. both merck and pfizer product are not readily available right now. they just got emergency use authorization i'm looking forward to seeing it in 2022. early on i hope to prevent hospitalization and death. neil: you speak about deaths,

doctor. you follow these numbers more closely than i but i do find it alarming after all this time more than 1000 people a day die from covid. it is one of those sort of barriers that we really can't appreciate. better than 807,000 in this country, you know, almost five 1/2 million across the globe but 1000 plus a day, still dying. it's remarkable. >> yeah. especially in this holiday season. it is a tough one to handle because for everyone of those thousand people that die there are many, many, family members who are affected forever. we see it in the hospital. it is very sad. it takes a mental toll on the nurses and the doctors that treat these patients and that is why anything we see that's good news is great for all of us. neil: you're absolutely right about that, doctor, i hope, you don't squeeze out much time for yourself. i know that but i hope you can.

have a merry christmas. thank you for all your guidance and help throughout this year, the year before, man, oh, man, we appreciate it. >> thank you, neil. happy holidays. neil: to you as well, bob lahita. remember i was talking about the up markets, up days wiped out declines of prior three days. we have our resident stocks editor, charlie, genius, brady given me the statses that i was right, at least hinting that. the dow over the past three days, including today, roughly up 3%, versus declining 2% in the prior selloff days amidst the new omicron fierce around spreading. the s&p up 3.6% over these last three trading days versus a drop of about 3% in the prior. so more than making up that. finally the nasdaq up 4 1/2%. remember when all the technology stocks were getting clubbed in that period versus the 3.8%

decline, so it is, mr. brady is right. i have no reason to doubt him. we have more than made up our losses in those original days here. again where the concern was to sell first, sort of digest the data later. i guess we digested data. we concluded, maybe, maybe, early reaction was an overreaction. we shall see. stay with us. ♪

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♪. neil: all right. well you still owe money on your college loans but the president pushing back when you have to start paying back those college loans right now until at least may, extending this moratorium on student loan payments until at least then. get the read on hillary vaughn how all of that is going down. hillary. reporter: neil, progressives in congress pressured president biden to flex his executive power and it worked. the student loan payment pause has been extended into may but there is already a push to make it permanent.

congressional progressive caucus pair pramila jayapal saying this, the work cannot stop here. the administration must now deliver on the president's promise to cancel student debt. the paws means 41 million borrowers will save 5 billion in payments a month but republicans are pointing out what the pause will cost everyone else with the growing debt and rising inflation. >> cut this deal with the far left and that is all he cares about. if "the squad" and big government socialists say jump five feet, he will try to jump five fight. he will not work with us that want to solve these big, big crises hurting hard-working families. reporter: median student loan payment is around 200 bucks according to the federal reserve. the white house says they extended it because people can't afford to make those paints but "the wall street journal" editorial board says claims of financial hardship for people with a degree are doubtful. democrats don't want the pandemic emergency to end because it is too politically

useful. anecdotes abound of borrowers using savings to pay down higher interest debt, play the stock market and make down payments on homes. >> it is the kind of thing you do when the economy is in crisis and we're not. >> well look, nothing about our situation as a country is simple and the same is true when it comes to the economy. we have record low levels of claims for unemployment. we have record economic growth under this president. reporter: neil, the white house issued a year one memo of their accomplishments over the past year, in it, they touted historic economic growth but it might be too soon for a victory lap if they think that underpresident biden, people with degrees cannot afford to make a payment to their loans of about 200 bucks a month. neil? neil: thank you very much for that, hillary vaughn at the white house. want to got the read on all of this from scott bolden back with us, former washington d.c. democratic party chairman. scott, very good to have you.

thank you for taking the time. >> thank you for having me, neil. neil: you know with the president's you know, getting sort of shoved to the side right now with build back better when joe manchin said he couldn't vote for it he is sort of regrouping or hinting that he will next year around maybe prioritizing working with manchin on the things that should stick and things that should go, assuming that happens and he starts essentially from scratch, scott, what do you think ultimately goes? >> well, that is complicated because nobody knows really what's pushing joe manchin. remember the coal miners association is in support of the bbb legislation and, they are in support of it because it gives the organization and its members time to get into some of these new green jobs if you will. i think the conversation has to continue or you have got to find a couple of republicans you will never find in order to get bbb

back, there is a lot of good stuff in the bbb plan. folks live in west virginia, there is lot of good stuff there for them including the child tax credit. joe manchin has to explain that notwithstanding his concerns about climate change and miners, and coal. coal is going away. fossil is going away. that is reality check for him. we'll see what the next move is. more importantly we'll see if biden has up it his sleeve to bring manchin back in the fold. criticizing has to be short term. long term they need him. neil: there was the knee-jerk reaction certainly from progressives, white house officially was to pile on manchin. >> yeah. neil: now of course the strategy, that is a little risky, we can't react that way. but this thing just looks dicey to me next year. you're closer to this and the players than i am. how do you think it will go next year? do you think this will ever see the light of even a vote? >> it could but i got to tell you, the democrats, need to be

focusing on criminal justice reform and voting rights acting passed. the latter more so even so if i may say, the former because that is what will get them with democratic voters come out to vote. right now democrats are mad at democrats. democrats are mad at the white house. the only way you're going to hold on to that house and senate and perhaps in 2024 the white house is to give your constituents something that they put you in the office to do and something that's helpful to all americans. democrats or republicans is voting rights. and so less time and less effort has been put on that. i got to tell you the biggest voting bloc in the democratic party, voters of color are not pleased f they're not motivated to come out in georgia and elsewhere, i got to tell you the democrats have a broader problem of keeping control of all three houses. neil: yeah, to your credit you have always reminded me over the years here, it is one thing to assume that you know, or fear that a key voting constituency

dumps to the other side. far more dangerous if they just don't come out to vote. so you have to re-energize. >> exactly. neil: having said that, scott, the president in his abc interview talked about definitely planning to run barring any changes in his health in 2024. do you believe that? >> well, he has got to say that right now. i don't know whether now it's a question of credibility. he become as lame duck if he doesn't run in 2024. that opens up the floodgates whether the vice president or mayor pete. he has got to say that. he will continue -- so right now i think we've got to accept, we have to accept him for his word. neil: yeah. all right. we'll see what happens here, but again that is his plan to run. scott bolden, we -- >> how old will he be? how old will he be in 2024? i don't recall but. neil: he is 79 now. he would be 81 or 82, right? you know. >> god bless him.

neil: scott, the older i get the less i look you know, askance at people who might be a tad older. so i much more lighter flexibility on that you know. >> right. i have got more conservative? i got more conservative as i gotten older according to my daughters. neil: wow, that could be a fox alert there. scott, have a great one. good to see you. >> happy holidays. neil: scott bolden, former d.c. democratic party chairman. following other developments. i don't want to ignore the ongoing tension in ukraine. i don't know if you've been following this. remember we talked about the 100,000 russian troops ominously purchased on the border of ukraine? it is up to 120,000 now. 20,000 more over the last couple weeks. what's going on? after this. ♪. ♪♪ care.

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neil: all right, think 100,000 soldiers is worrisome, what if i told you russia has 120,000 soldiers along, near the ukrainian border. what to make of that? trey yingst following this from jerusalem. hey, trey. reporter: neil, good afternoon. there is a lot of uncertainty around the issue of ukraine. some reports say they are close to an invasion but there are ongoing diplomatic efforts. vladmir putin spoke at his annual press conference saying it is impossible to have good relations with the current ukranian government. he says russia doesn't want war with ukraine but tensions with the ukrainian officials. >> they say war, war, that the impression ukraine government is preparing a military operation warning us beforehand, do not get involved. do not defend those people. if you get involved and defend, then the new sanctions will

follow. reporter: the realalty is putin has more than 100,000 troops near ukraine's border around u.s. intelligence officials believe he could at least order a partial invasion by early next year. it is important to understand the context here what russia wants. putin is looking for assurances from nato countries that ukraine won't be given mihm and offensive weapons are moved closer to russia. all the reason we saw president biden speak with his are russian counterpart with a video call to start conversations that will reportedly continue next month. this is leverage against nato. russia wants security guaranties pro-the united states and willing to take the region close to the brink of war to get them. neil? >> trey, thank you very much for that, trey yingst. what does claudia rosette think, independent women's foreign policy fellow, joining us right now? claudia, to your point you had said the russians would not be

shy about showing and flexing their muscles here. 20,000 more sets of muscles, 20 more thousand soldiers along the border. what do you think they're planning? >> this is a game of chicken, neil. this is rehearsal for putin who would like to reassemble the old soviet empire but his own communist dictatorship. ukraine was the second most important part of the soviet empire after russia itself. he has no right to any of this. neil, what he is doing is he keeps pushing and nato keeps talking about how he can control and give them off-ramps, give confidence building measures. putin is not worried about russia's security. he is worried about his predatory dreams of empire and if we let them push us, he will keep going. then he is going to in the end invade ukraine anyway. so where do you draw the line? draw it now or you will draw

later, it will be more expensive. also, remember, and there has been remarkably little talk about this, this christmas day, this weaken, marks the 30th anniversary of the collapse of the soviet union, which vladmir putin has called the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the past century. no. it was the actually a deliverance. they did incredible damage and the thing that we, our leaders should be standing up and saying right now, president biden, nato, everybody in the west, is putin is simply lying his head off at the press conference. this is old style kgb thug propaganda. actually when the soviet union collapsed, let's all remember we didn't roll in there to crush anybody. nato didn't go swarming in to subjugate the russians. we went in with aid and help. we welcomed russia, unqualified though it was to the g-7. we did everything we could to

help. we didn't actually ask for apology for soviet communism responsible in the end, scores of millions, probably hundreds of millions of debts. for giving it legacy of communist china which bedevils us today, cuba, north korea. we went by all of that. i think it is time to quite strongly remind the world as putin already knows he is not under any security threat. certainly note from ukraine and it is time that we said to him enough, we're not interested in your warmed over propaganda. we'll take the risk in the game of chicken if we stand up to you will blink. neil: well he doesn't appear to blink. that could change, maybe this is too clever for words here. assuming the worst-case scenario, claudia, he does go into ukraine again as he did in

2015, i'm beginning to then wonder what's next or what he will take from that? >> well he and china will take from that is it is open season. i mean what's next? the baltics? he already has got western europe basically attaching itself to the nord stream gas pipeline which gives him a great controlling hand. the problem here, neil, none of these alternatives are pleasant but we are heading, we're heading for a major conflagration if we don't draw a line now, say it goes no further. whatever risk it entails or whatever risk it takes to enforce it. versus do we let this roll ahead to where we are in a much worse position to defend ourselves, the free world at some later date? because if he goes, if we simply keep backing down, keep backing down, let him have the practice, give him the concessions, the

so-called confidence-building measures saying we can provide, we don't need to be building his confidence. it is that it will encourage china as well as russia to continue on this course. these are predatory dictatorships, neil. as i again i keep saying. remember the 1930s. think of the 1930s. that that is the template here. sooner you draw the line sooner is better whatever it takes. neil: we never learn, claudia. we need to be reminded about that and history. i'm glad you do. claudia rosette independent women's for rum foreign policy fellow. we're up the at corner of wall and broad despite people not returning to their offices now. companies saying you can work from home. now this indication, this order,

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neil: comeback continues right now. this is the last trading day of the week. we are making up in the last three trading days what we lost in the remember, three prior trading days when the spread of omicron was already leading to restrictions and closures. some outright lockdowns had people wondering whether we would go into a pandemic funk again. given today's gains, we've seen for the dow and s&p, and finally for the nasdaq it has recouped all those prior losses on those three selling days. then some. the major market averages continue what has been, likely

will be just a debacle next week, another strong year, the third strong double-digit advance. all the major averages, for the year. three years in a row with that. that is pretty impressive when you look at it. let peace get the read right now speaking of financial firms and all of the stuff that is going on that is making them money, hopefully you money, a lot of them are right now looking at pushing back their return to work or telling people who are at work, you can go ahead and go back home to file remotely but, it is an open-ended question when we will ever get back to normal. lydia moynihan following all of that in new york. reporter: neil, thanks so much, that is a great point. i want to touch on the fact a lot of businesses are very worried about what the omicron means for them to continue to operate. we recognize unvaxed and vaxed, we'll all probably get the variant. the good news it is mild.

the problem a lot of businesses are facing it is so contagious. 70 more times contagious than the delta variant, a lot of people are getting it at all once. one executive told me at his company, 50% of his employees tested positive at one time. it was so desire, created a spreadsheet with people who had it, didn't have it, when they could get back to the office, right? one of the issues the businesses are facing the cdc guidance is very draconian, people are quarantined 10 days. anecdotally, people are getting it, 3, four, five days are testing negative. but they can't go back to the office for 10 days. major airlines wrote the cdc to revise the guidelines, to make the policy shorter. they can't operate with such a short staff. until we get common sense guidelines from washington, we'll continue to see businesses struggle. i think omicron will really force the hands of the cdc and the biden administration to really look at covid in a new

way. neil, my new year's prediction a month from now the government will be treating this as fundamentally different disease than it is now. looking at sitting inevitable an unpleasant but very mild. neil: we can only hope. lydia, thank you very much. lydia moynihan following all of this in new york city. we'll continue to look at major market averages. telling about stocks, bonds, they have been stablizing as well. interest rates very low. what is going on with the cryptocurrency that is whipsawing feature, nothing surprising about that. you will be surprised how we started the year, where we are now. i will explain after this. ♪

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neil: you know, i guess mariah carey is the number one song at christmastime year in, year out, but for my money, burl ives, burl ives. that is a classic. when i talk to younger people they go burl who? all right. we'll still use it as a music backdrop what is happening at the port of los angeles in california. i think if burl ives were alive he would try to sing us out of this but that is a lot easier said than done. there are still bottlenecks an congestion getting some things to you on time but not as many things as we were led to believe early on in this crisis and supply chain crisis. kelly o'grady is at the port of los angeles with more. hey, kelly. reporter: hi, neil. it is finally here. we've been talking about this

for months now. it is christmas crunch time and time is ticking for everyone waiting at home for the last minute packages. today marks the u.s. postal service shipping deadline for priority mail. i hate to be the grinch here, if you waited until this point it is likely too late. the president is saying thinks administration is solving the problem. they say 90% of shelves are stocked though he admitted no idea if popular gifts will meek the mark, coming infrastructure investments, the overall christmas outlook is positive according to the president. >> much predicted crisis didn't occur. packages are moving. gifts are being delivered. shelves are not empty. >> christmas gifts are arriving on time this year. good news, we've save christmas. reporter: that feel as bit rosy, okay? it is not looking good here at the port of l.a., i will tell you. we're seeing record level of congestion this week. the shipping company, merskr, 130 vessels are heading to the l.a. and long beach ports and

they could have delays up to 41 days. jen psaki containers on the days have fallen 60%. that is cherry-picking, with shipping costs 70% higher than next year. experts are sounding the alarm with omicron spreading there is further shutdowns, fears of more stimulus which could lead to more spending on foods, not services that will be a problem with inflation rising. i wish i had better music. i like your choice of music over mariah carey. neil: great job, kelly. have a merry christmas. great having you on board here, my friend. kelly o'grady in the middle of all of that in the port of los angeles. we're following other developments too, not just what is happening at various ports and all, this whole supply chain issue. stocks as well, they're putting in a good day after those three horrible days but the fact of the matter is so are

cryptocurrencies if you go way back and go just year-to-date. the volatile investment, this sort of puts it in perspective. that the major cryptocurrencies have been doing just well with bitcoin up in excess 70%. ethereum up in ex-hess of 400%. stepping back, volatile as it is, depending when you got in of course. go to hal lambert, point bridge capital founder and ceo. hal, what do you think of this whole sector? it is not for the faint of heart i discussed, depending how you got in, you're still doing okay, if it was about a year ago, what do you think? >> in fact it is very volatile as you said. on a one year basis it is up over 100%. just between the end of december last year and this year is that difference of 70 versus over100. bitcoin has done very well. look i think people should bitcoin.

i owned bitcoin. i owned it for our five years. invested in a bitcoin miner as well that is supposed to spac out here at some point so. neil: if you owned it for four or five years, just work has been reduced to a hobby for you, so touche there. let me get your take on what happens next year. pile-on continues if you think of governments, our own included, want to regulate it. maybe that is a good thing. you give it some street credit, with rules for it. others say you know, they're trying to kill it in the crib, it is long past the crib of course but what do you make of how this sorts out next year? >> i do think we see some regulatory moves in next year by the government and i think it will be a positive. i don't think they will try to kill bitcoin but will definitely step up and regulate here. there is a lot of interest from that with congress. i do see that happening. i think it will be a positive. i think we'll get a spot etf

bitcoin. right now there is a futures etf. it is pretty expensive. it costs a lot of mon to roll. i think we'll see more of bitcoin and more of ethereum will be two big ones people talk about next year. neil: do you buy the argument, hal, that these things can only go, talking about cryptocurrency investments in the aggregate when things are sort of falling apart? they're a hedge against crazy markets but we learned this past year sometimes they can do well in just standard run of the mill markets whatever that means today. so what's the best environment for bitcoin e, ethereum, all these other players to succeed? >> well i think we're in one of those environments where you have lots of liquidity, lots of easy money, you have low interest rates. i think that is why you've seen the digital currencies do well this past year. i think we're not going to have, you know we'll have some higher

interest rates but it will not be anywhere close to anything that affects bitcoin from the standpoint of opportunity cost holding cash or holding bitcoin. i think we're in that environment, neil. i think bitcoin as more regulation comes on, more products come out which enable investors to invest in it, you will see more and more interest. i think 2021 was a pretty big breakout year for it. i think 2022 will continue with that. neil: quickly on the inflation front, that is north argument, the worse, the more it looks like things get worse with prices, the better for cryptocurrencies. it doesn't always pan out but what are you looking at in terms of inflation? remember next year the year we're told the fed will start raising interest rates. tell us what you see? >> well, i think inflation is here for a i will whoo. i think it is going to be pretty bad for 2022, probably north of 5%. which by the way that number you know, a lot of people don't

believe that number. they think it is much higher than that. certainly the case in many commodities much higher than. that is bitcoin a hedge for inflation? you hear that. you hear that with gold as well. but you know, we have a lot of inflation in the 80s and gold went down, all through the '80s with high inflation. gold was more of a product of interest rates, real interest rates versus inflation. bitcoin could fall into that same category. it will be hard hard to know if higher inflation and interest rates affect it. neil: hal, thank you very much. we'll see how this all pans out. stay with us. you're watching fox business flexshares are carefully constructed. to go beyond ordinary etfs. and strengthen client confidence in you. before investing consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses.

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neil: all right, well, it seems that the stock market is over its original omicron scare. the dow, all the major averages advancing for the third day in a row and reversing the three prior days of decline, as cases were reported spreading worldwide and restrictions and lockdowns were coming into effect and everyone is panicking, so investors sort of came back, right? we're also seeing signs of resilience out of fliers, many of whom might have been thinking about canceling holiday travel

plans in light of the spread of this variant, but are doing anything but, because if you look at all the nation's major airports they're looking at record activity today. this depending on what and who you believe is either the busiest travel day of the year or certainly among the busiest. let's go to jonathan serri right now the back drop for all of that, including the latest on cancellations, delays, and you name it. jonathan? reporter: hi there, neil. the highly-infectious omicron variant is really disrupting life across much of the world. here in the u.s. , it has been detected in all 50 u.s. states. the new surge in cases prompting the national hockey league to announce that its athletes will not be competing in the 2022 winter olympics in beijing, china. commissioner gary betman explained unfortunately, given the profound disruption to the nhl's regular season schedule caused by recent covid- related events 50 games already have been postponed

through december 23, olympic participation is no longer feasible. bill gates tweeted that he's canceling most of his holiday plans after close friends tested positive for covid. federal health officials say they still want families to get together for the holidays and that fully-vaccinated and boosted individuals can do so reasonably safely. they say the danger is not so much from the airplane or car ride but what you do once you get there. they are urging americans to avoid large gatherings with un vaccinated people and they're also discouraging schools from closing because of the social and educational disruptions to children. instead, advocating a policy of masking and frequent testing to allow students who have been exposed to remain in class as long as they continue to test negative for covid. the fda has authorized a second anti-viral pill to treat covid-19. merck received an emergency use authorize to treat adults with early, mild-to-moderate,

cases of covid-19 who are at risk of developing severe disease and are unable to receive other approved treatments. this comes one day after the fda granted an emergency use authorization to pfizer's anti- viral pill paxlovid. it performed even better in clinical trials reducing hospitalizations in high risk patients by nearly 90%. the federal government has agreed to purchase enough paxlovid to treat 10 million people but a complicated six to eight week manufacturing process means supplies will be limited starting out just over a quarter million doses for pfizer's drug anticipated in january, and neil , as far as merck's drug, company officials believe that several hundred thousand doses will be available in the coming days. back to you, neil. neil: jonathan serri, in atlanta , thank you, jonathan. let's go to mark murphy the travel expert. i always rely on mark, you don't know whether you're going to take off on your flight or frantically canceling flights

because you're scared, what are your money options, he's the man to talk to. mark always good seeing you. first off, how does the travel season look these next couple of days? these all-important days to you? >> incredibly busy, and that's actually great for the folks who have been hit the hardest which are people that work in the travel industry. that industry has been decimated and continues to be decimated based on knee jerk reactions by politicians around the world, that doesn't really correlate with the danger a traveler would face should they go out and i've already seen that with the dramatic drop in cases in south africa where that omicron was originally discovered. so i think you're going to see more and more travelers, covid exhaustion, people realize that this is going to be with us forever, there's scientific data that says it's going to be with us forever and it's really just about protecting the vulnerable so if you're healthy and you want to get out and explore the

world, in my opinion vaccinated or not, because many of you have natural immunity out there that nobody is talking about, i say get on the road and enjoy your life. neil: you know, there were a lot of people though in the throws of all of this , mark, last week at this time we were saying you know what? i'm just canceling my flight. i don't want to take any chances and now they're kind of stuck and they did so at the last second. will any of them get their money back, and how do they deal with that? >> sure, so virtually every airline will have policies that will allow you to rebook your flight without any cancellation fee. now, what might happen is if you got a $99 round-trip fare to florida let's say from new york city, then you maybe seeing a three or $400 fare because you'll typically have to pay the fare difference at the time of rebooking, so it's really going to be coming down to finding those gaps, you know, post-holidays, prices typically drop, if you travel depending on where you're going on different times and dates, i think a great tool is google flights because

you can literally put in cities and look out over a long period of time, based on non-stop travel, what dates you want to travel and you can literally see across months where the best fares are, so if you want to take advantage of opportunistic pricing, that's what i would suggest you think about when you go to rebook. also, the other thing is the travel agents out there. they're getting inundated because they're the ones that have been on the front lines of this battle battling for consumers and i would suggest that going forward, if you haven't used one, use a travel agent, because these folks will be your advocate should things go awry. neil: just very quickly, mark. i mean, when it comes to dealing with disruptions, we see a lot happens on airplanes, you see a lot at airports when things get a little antsy. i know those are probably more the exception than the rule but people are anxious about that as well. what do you tell them to avoid this sort of thing or at least

better deal with it? >> well i think what people must realize is there are certain rules. if you want to fly you have to wear a mask and if the airline insists you keep the mask on and you put it on between bites so you're chewing with a mask on then unfortunately you have to do that whether it makes scientific sense or not. you heard kelly say that about two weeks ago in the senate hear ing about mask and how the airplanes are setup so you don't really need the masks and today goes on to get covid so people are putting those two but again completely separate situations but i'd say keep calm and travel forward that's what i would tell anybody and don't let the hiccups bother you. just be prepared and you won't be stressed when it comes down. get to the airport early, use the my tsa app, it'll tell you what the security lines at every terminal here in for lauderdale or laguardia, it'll tell you what the security lines are and then you'll know like hey i've gotta get there really early or it's 15-20 minutes to get through security i'm good, or get pre-checked can which is

even better. neil: interesting mark i always learn something thank you very much, mark murphy the travel expert extraordinaire. he can find his way around anything here just using common common sense and a lot of knowledge, he has the background so does dan geltrude, these travel industry woes are a moot point to dan of course who travels private, but dan, just kidding there, but always good to see you. you know, if you look at it from an economic perspective, these crowded lines at all the major airports say what you will, but that's an encouraging sign for the economy, don't you think >> it really is, neil, because what it shows is that people are not so afraid that they're just going to stay home and not live their lives. now of course there are people who are being cautious and that's fine, but the fact that people want to get out and proceed in their life as normal, excellent sign, especially on

today, neil, festivus, my favorite holiday, i'm hoping you'll be celebrating as well. neil: [laughter] so, what do you think about how things are coming together? we're told and we won't have final numbers from the retail industry until just after christmas, but the telecheck and other services are indicating dramatic growth, certainly over last year. that doesn't shock me, but it could be among the best christmas buying seasons like ever. what do you think of that? >> well that's also a great sign, neil, but let's look at it this way. people did have money to spend. we saw that there were going to be issues related to the supply chain and of course those are there, but the fact that people had money to spend i'm sure a lot of the sales that have been going on in this holiday season have related to online spending and again, that's a good thing. i am encouraged by what we're seeing, if we can just get over the hump of these covid variants

, i really think we can get back to normal quickly. neil: you know, we're wrapping up another year, we have another week to go, markets will be closed tomorrow, double-digit advances, so far year-to-date the dow up about 17%, the s&p 50025%, nasdaq 21%, kind of mirroring what it did the year before and the year before that, so what do you see happening next year? do we return to more statistical norms here or does the party keep going? >> you know, neil, what the last three years have really showed us is that those investors that were willing to stay the course really were rewarded. now the market certainly has been volatile and that, of course is based a lot upon what's happening with covid and then of course, the policies, the reaction airy policies that are put in place related to that , so given the fact that we've done this well to this

point, and the market is frothy, there's no doubt about it, and we are talking about the potential for interest rates going up, but even with all of that, i anticipate next year, we're going to have the same overall consistency in the markets performance so again , stay the course and what else are your options, neil? where are you going to go? neil: well you said it's going to do what it did. does that mean another double-digit advance? >> yeah, i do believe that we're going to see that type of consistency, because really, the only place we can go from here is up, putting a black swan event aside, neil, we've already been dealing with these covid headaches for two years, so i don't particularly know if it's going to get worse but we have gone through some pretty bad times and the market continues to perform so well. again, we have a lot of nervous people out there that will pull

out at points of time but overall people really are stick ing with the fundamentals and riding this out. neil: yeah, they are. real, real quickly because i did want to get your thoughts on elon musk indicating that he's just about wrapped up his selling. i tnk it's about $15 billion worth of tesla stock. the irony of it, of course being exercising his options as he now ends the year with more stock than he began the year, he still made a lot of money on this , paid a lot of taxes, still worth about $261 billion, no one comes close. how do you think tesla's fortune s, his fortunes look for the new year? >> well you know what it shows me, neil? that similar to how the market reacted to apple related to steve jobs that they consider them kind of one of the same. we know what's happened with apple look at what tim cook has done, but people are equating tesla personally to elon musk, and whatever he does, the

markets going to react accordingly to the stock, so the question becomes, can people separate those two, now he's really an odd character. a genius and certainly very successful, but i do believe, as you said, with him holding basically the same stock position, that tesla will continue on its path. neil: all right, we shall see , my friend. dan, thank you very very much, good chatting with you on all of this. dan geltrude following these developments as are we. a couple of things we are following as well is the battle right now to build back, build back better. not everyone is on the same page we'll give you the latest, after this. ♪ we can work it out, we can work it out ♪

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>> how were you not able to close the deal? >> look, let's talk about what we have done. we have passed more major legislation than anybody in their first year ever ever ever

ever. i haven't given up on this. i haven't given up on it. neil: all right, the president not giving up on build back better but even though now it seems more like build back later , chad pergram following all of that and what is likely to happen next. chad? reporter: good afternoon, neil. democratic senator joe manchin is representing space in the collective heads of progressives. they've accused manchin of being untrustworthy, a liar, a racist and even a republican. one of the most vocal democratic critics of manchin is representative jamal bowman of new york who accused manchin of not caring about persons of color. >> it's important to ask the question, does him being a white male have anything to do with how he approaches policies like this , and how he approaches governing overall. reporter: the left ignored the concerns of manchin about big spending and inflation, other democrats failed to heed his pleas. the gop relishes the democratic

in-fighting which is stalling the bill. >> yeah, so it could, i think there's still, they've been stuck on sort of the seven stages of grief. they've been stuck on anger and denial for an awfully long. the truth of the matter is this bill is as alive or as dead as senator manchin makes it. reporter: the gop continues to gently stock the embers of manchin possibly leaving the democratic party. >> he's trying to exist in today's democratic party which is very hard. the democratic party today is the party of bernie sanders. they want to turn america into a socialist country. he'd be a lot more comfortable on our side. reporter: so far, manchin hasn't indicated he would leave the party. bowman said he believes there's room for manchin among fellow democrats. senate majority leader chuck schumer insists the senate will try to move the bill in january but it's unclear what has changed. neil? neil: chad pergram, thank you

for that, chad. to republican new york congresswoman nicole nicole malliotakis who joins us right now. first off congresswoman always good to have you but i know you had tested positive for covid. how are you doing now? >> i'm doing well. i had a couple of days of mild symptoms but i feel good today, and all is good. thank you, neil. neil: that's good to hear. amazing how far that's spread in all of that. first off, on covid if i could still relate to that. there are a number of cities and states, businesses, that are taking precautionary restrictive efforts. some more sweeping than others and nothing like we're seeing in places like thailand and japan where they're all but locking down again. what do you think of some of these reactions to a virus that is certainly contagious but does not appear to be overly dangerous? >> well look. it certainly seems that those who have vaccinated like myself are experiencing just mild symptoms.

i think it's really important that we focus on treatments and therapeutics. i've been opposed to mandates and lockdowns and i think that we should be moving more and more in that direction, i'm pleased to see that the fda started to approve some of the medication. my doctor had put me on just a couple of series of things that are used for other treatments like aunt antibiotics, and certain vitamins that made me feel better within just a couple of days and i don't want to have an overreaction. i think instead, it's time for us to start moving forward in the directions of treatment and get the monoclonal antibod ies and other drips that are available to help people feel better in the very first day, early stages. neil: let me ask you a little bit about what the president was saying on abc news about revisit ing build back better, maybe working with joe manchin to come up with sort of a priority list of the things that are important and maybe needed

to get done even though progressives might not flip over it. where do you think this thing is going? >> look, i think it's clear that build back better is dead and when i came on your show last month, i said that once we pass infrastructure, that it was going to go on the bbb, and it would die because it's a bad bill we can't afford all of the new en titlement programs, work requirements at a time when we need people to be producing and reporting to work, the expansion of the irs, things that are very unpopular with the american people so it will be interesting to see what parts they try to continue to push but i think joe manchin is right in standing up against them and saying at this time of inflation , it is not the right time or it shouldn't be the right time, period, to be introducing socialism in the united states of america and i'm also deeply concerned about those in congress who are saying that the president should act unilaterally. we are an elected body. this is a representative democracy. we should not be talking like that here in the united states of america.

that talk is for something you'd hear in my mother's homeland of cuba so what i would say is let's move forward and let's talk about the real issues that people are hurting right now over the economy, over energy prices, we need to become more energy-independent in this country, bring our supply chain home that is clear, covid taught us one thing, it's that, and we also need to secure our border, restore public safety. people are concerned about crime across america's cities as well. neil: real quickly, do you suspect any of your republican colleagues now think there's a possibility that the size of this thing could be sharply reduced or certainly some of the more objectionable features they didn't like might not be included that one or two could be peeled off to support this in the house. >> it's hard to say what may happen if the bill is totally different bill, but we do know that build back better is dead and that's a tremendous feet for the republicans who

unanimously voted against it in the house but neil also other victories. we stopped the anti-police measures this year. we stopped the radical election law changes, using taxpayer money to fund campaigns, to take qualified immunity from our police officers and let's not forget, jerry nadler's packing the court bill. those were the priorities of the democratic party at the beginning of the year. we've been able to stop that when we work together, so i think we've done a good job and we need to continue that next year going into re-election and making sure we take back the house so that way we have a balance. that's what we need. you know as a new yorker we need balance in government, not one party rule. neil: we'll watch it closely, congresswoman great seeing you hope you have a merry christmas, glad you're on the mend, nicole malliotakis, the new york congresswoman giving us a good read about where things might stand on build back better especially among republicans, who knows where this goes even among democrats next year. meanwhile, what will housing look like next year? especially coming off such a boom this year.

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neil: all right, you just heard from republican new york congresswoman nicole malliotakis who isn't optimistic that progressives will succeed any more next year than they did this year in getting build back better through, that if any republican support for it at a time when polls look pretty good for republicans going into the mid-term elections next year , things stand now, expectation is the back drop means that they could take the house in a rampage and maybe even the senate. let's get the read on all of that because it is certainly helping republican fundraising,

connell mcshane following that part of the story. connell: that's one of the reasons, neil, they feel pretty good about it. we always say money talks, and even though it's not going to tell us necessarily everything, especially this early on, we've been talking to some political experts such as they are and they will tell you that utility might be the best indicator we have, this early on. both the rnc and dnc raised a lot of money let's put that out there, $140 million plus the first 11 months of the year but as you see on the screen the republicans have that slight edge and party officials when you speak to them are encouraged by the way things have been going lately. the party raised 1.6 million more than the democrats last month. >> the republican base of donor s and supporters grassroots all the way up to major donors are enthusiastic about our prospect and want to give even with this economy being as it is , they want to donate and give into the rnc because they want to win. connell: when republicans talk about winning not just the house

, to your earlier point it's taking these key senate races, we're watching pennsylvania, watching georgia, arizona, nevada, some of these other states on the map. we're picking the right candidate. that might make all the difference. >> i think recruitment is important, you don't have to have the greatest candidates in the world but good enough candidates who aren't going to lose your races. you don't need to have all the money in the world but you need a sufficient war chest to be on tv. it's diminishing returns at a certain point but the third thing i think this is most important thing and also the thing we're least able to predict this far out is the environment, and if you have sufficiently good candidates and sufficient financial backing, that's when you can ride the wave. connell: ride the wave and that's where the popularity of president biden might be the determining factor. other democrats have been hit by that so-called wave. you look back at history think bill clinton in 1994 or barack obama in 2010 and republicans they don't need much in the house just five seats at the moment to take control the senate as you know already

50/50 and as much as money matters as much as we're talking about today the experts seem to agree that environment, you heard that comment there at the end. environment might be the most important factor, neil. where are we in terms of the virus? where are we in terms of inflation? where are we in terms of the supply chain and we don't know now how those things will look but if the election were now, republicans feel pretty good about themselves because they have advantages in all of those areas they think. neil: yeah, for now, they indeed do. connell thank you very much, have a merry christmas, my friend. thank you very very much on that connell mcshane. well the president when he sat down to do an interview on abc news yesterday skipped past the mid-terms, when asked about 2024 and an interesting comment. listen to this. >> plan to run for re-election? >> yes, but look. i'm a great respector of fate. fate has intervened in my life many many times. if i'm in the health i'm in now,

if i'm in good health, then in fact i would run again. >> if that means a rematch against donald trump? >> you're trying to tempt me now. [laughter] sure. why would i not run against donald trump? that would increase the prospect of running. neil: that would increase the prospect of running, if donald trump is the republican nominee, to phil wegman, real clear politics, white house reporter. he says he's in, now of course he can't say he's not in, he be instantly a lame duck, having said that, his own health and good health now, he says hopes that continues. what do you think of all of this , phil? reporter: well you're absolutely right, neil because the moment he gives an answer where he says that he's up in the air about running for re-election, he undermines his own authority. that makes it more difficult to wrangel the house, it makes it more difficult to keep the cabinet all on on the same page so this is the answer that we would expect and that he's been giving from his very first press conference, but yeah, i

think that joe biden is aware of his own health. he's aware of his own mortality and knows every day he walks into the oval office he's the oldest president ever to do so and i think that that caveat there that he gave is just a reflection of the reality but for now, yeah, he seems to be all-in for 2024. neil: you know, i know everyone's focused on the mid-terms next year, phil, and we've learned that the party in power often does take a hit certainly in the mid-terms, certainly the house, often the senate, but it oftentimes has not lasted to the next presidential election, when things turn around. i'm thinking certainly about bill clinton, about barack obama , you know. it's not a guarantee that it carries over and whatever anger is there carries over for another two years, so what do you make of the environment?

>> it's a real interesting question because obviously when bill clinton lost his majority in congress, what he did is he moderated and he tried to come closer towards the center and work with republicans. we saw a very different approach from barack obama, famously, he said after he lost his majority, well i've got a pen and a phone and i can use them. we'll see what joe biden does when he does the house like it seems like he might and perhaps even the senate. perhaps he'll be more open to working with republicans and being a deal maker. i'm not sure though because after what we saw in virginia, and after all of the back and forth on build back better it seems that this president has a sort of put pedal to the medal and pushed farther on his priorities rather than coming back to the center but it's going to be really interesting to see. how does joe biden, this veteran of the senate, how does he deal with an entrenched republican majority if he ever gets one?

neil: yeah, i'm just wondering your thoughts on he might say he's planning to run again, the party might tell him otherwise. the party might just say well, that's all well and good but we don't think that's a good idea. how do you think that is? >> it's interesting because there were two basic premises to the biden campaign. the first was he was going to defeat donald trump and the second was that he was going to return to normal it and end the pandemic. beating donald trump, because he was able to frame the former president and threats to democracy that sort of smoothed things over with progressives, with other folks who said all right, biden might not be my ideal pick but at least he can be that guy and then the other thought was well we can get back to normal. biden can be a responsible hand at the wheel. well, the pandemic seems to have returned, they haven't been able to get a handle on it just yet. part of that just biology, not politics so omicron might make this more difficult for him to

make that argument and then what i think is interesting is biden might be able to use as his saving grace with the party the possibility of trump coming back in 2024. i think some people are looking around saying, you know, biden did win in 2020 but he hasn't gotten us to where we want to be just yet. maybe there's idle talk about that right now, but i think that he is the leader of the party and it would take a lot to nudge him out of the way, without as he said, fate stepping into intervene. neil: well it certainly ended the drama. didn't hurt muhammad ali last time i checked but who knows who no, phil always good catching up with you hope you have a wonderful christmas, will be fast moving developments real clear politics. you've been noticing the green not just a holiday-related theme but a market theme the last three days more than making up the ground lost in the prior three days. what's behind that is really

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neil: all right, housing could be ending the year of the way it began it with overall strong home sales, the expectations were about 770,000 units be sold , of course ended up with 744,000, be that as it may, it's the trend that has been the industry's friend. let's see how long that goes with tim rudy, the managing director over at the former fannie mae executive, tim great seeing you. how do you think housing looks right now, you hear about young new buyers getting sort of priced out because the inventory is so low, so many are paying

cash for homes these days, but that's a sign of very strong demand period, so the wind is at the industry's back. where are you on this? >> yeah, for sure and neil, it feels like a pandemic or two since we chatted so nice to see you again. neil: that's right. exactly. >> the housing market is firing on all cylinders. you just saw the numbers come out today for existing home sales it's going to hit a record probably the first record it hit since 2006, while that sounds impressive by itself, is doing it with record low inventory, which, you know, is kind of counterintuitive new home sales same thing on a pace to beat last record can which was 2007 and now you're seeing unthinkable and seeing construction and seeing construction i guess multi- family and single-family residential at a pace you haven't seen since 1973 but to your point, yeah, that all sounds great just at a high level abstract sort of thing unless you're one of these poor guys, gals, who are trying to

actually get into the market for the last two years and you're probably priced out, you're a little freaked out about buying at the top of the market and certainly stress ed out. neil: are you buying at the top of the market, if you go in right now, tim? >> look, i still think you've got plenty of way to go. look, you can't get around the supply and demand, it's sort of dynamic, that's just not going to change anytime soon. you've got the two largest cohorts for millennials really coming of age right now, 31, 32 years old so that's the age right now where they're looking to start households and buy a home. the inventory problem is hard to remedy even on if you think about it this way, let's just say the interest rates went up a half a percent, clutch your pearls because that be like 3.5% , historically, when that happens, you actually don't see sellers put their homes on the market. they actually take them off the market, so because there's

no opportunity for them to move down, really, there's no economic incentive for them to do it. it's too expensive to move up and contrary to that, when rates go up you've got all these people on the fence saying oh, my god. i'm going to lose this last opportunity to buy, so now you have more supply chasing lessor more demand chasing less supply, so no, i don't think that's going to change in the foresee able future, not at least until you have like gen z' which is is a much smaller generation than millennials, forming fewer households and then you've got baby boomers will be downsizing so it's probably five or 10 years off. neil: yeah, i don't see , it could be just, i don't see the froth of the giddiness that highlighted the last housing bubble when people were buying properties site unseen, flipping that and you've seen pockets in hot markets but nothing like we experienced so i guess i don't see a repeat of that. do you? >> no, i mean look, the last market was based on largely on

fraud speculation, financial engineering. you don't have any of those things right now. i think the less explored topic, neil, is really kind of like what's the federal government's role in all of this? i get the supply side, i get the demand side and all of those things, but i don't think people fully appreciate what's going on sort of here in d.c. where the federal government is essentially nationalized mortgage finance after the great financial crisis. they're backing 95% of all new originations and that, of course subsidizes the interest rate so you lower the interest rates which is wonderful especially for low to moderate income americans, but it also includes second homes, investment properties, million dollar mortgages, which is a little bit harder to argue why the government needs to be subsidizing those loans. especially when government really kind of took over the industry, one of the other things is look, government intervention, as you know,

government takeovers, is like a vaccine against efficiencies. so now the industry is terribly inefficient with higher cost, lower productivity and all those things slow down to borrowers in terms of higher costs, worse service and really less options. neil: but it is what it is to your point. well tim we have to do this more often not just after a pandemic but tim rood, expert read on all things real estate, long before this housing boom that a boom was coming. all right, we have a lot more coming up including a look at stocks, racing ahead today. closing out this week, remember no trading tomorrow, for the christmas holiday here, on an upbeat note. more after this. flexshares etfs are built with advanced modeling. to fill portfolio gaps and target specific goals. strengthening client confidence in you. before investing consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. go to flexshares.com

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>> welcome back to cavuto "coast to coast", i'm madison alworth in tampa, florida, americans are fueling up getting ready for that holiday season. it's not just the presents that are going to cost americans more this year, the price of gas is up and it's near record highs, so right now the average cost of gasoline across the u.s. that sits at $3.29. according to gas buddy, the national average could get down to $3.25 by christmas.

3.25 on the 25th, while those numbers fit really well together they aren't fitting well with americans budgets. i spoke to people here at this gas station and they said the price of gas is not only affecting their travel, it's also affecting what they can spend on outside of travel. >> it has gone up everywhere, throughout the whole state, south georgia, wherever i travel , even my own personal vehicle. it's doubled, sometimes tripled the price of what it was, not too terribly long ago. reporter: this could be the most or close to the most that americans spend on gas on christmas day in history, so the last time we hit a high was back in 2013, according to gas buddy at that time, americans were paying on average $3.26 per gallon. just one penny more than what we are expecting to pay this year. a lot of americans are going to be paying those prices over 100 million will be driving this holiday.

that number could change with the resurgence of omicron, maybe more americans will choose to drive instead of fly, or scrap the plans altogether, although at this point, it's looking like christmas is still on. we are also watching the aftermath of the exxon-mobile plant accident near houston this morning. the baytown refinery caught fire early this morning injuring four employees. all other staff have been accounted for , according to the company, but three of the four were seriously injured. the white house has told fox business they are keeping an eye on the situation and of course as we get updates we will bring them to you, but neil, when things like this happen, it also could impact the cost of fuel and gas so we'll have to see how prices change over the course of the week as those americans hit the road. neil? neil: and they are hitting the road indeed. madison alworth, thank you very much madison appreciate that and they are hitting the skies, record numbers planning to play out today one of the busiest travel days of the year, sarah nelson is joining us on what they might be in for , you know the flight attendant's

association president, i saw her testify on capitol hill, very impressive the other week. sarah, what are fliers in for? if you had advice them on how to brace them for those packed planes they have gotten used to that, what would you tell them? >> well, neil first of all, it is so good to talk to you and merry christmas, to all of your viewers but especially your most faithful viewer, uncle delwin in utah, and i just love, welcoming , i'm imagining standing at the airplane door and welcoming people on board as you're asking that question. we are going to see record numbers and it is going to be very strange. now, you saw some of the disruptions in the late summer and early fall and that was because people are not picking up overtime hours at as high a rate. we negotiated some incentives for people and so that worked very well over thanksgiving. we were hoping that would carry through christmas and new years. we do see though that there is some stress and strain because

of omicron and people getting sick, and so that is leading to some staffing troubles too so there maybe some pulling back of the schedule, so keep an eye on that, but also we would tell fliers that they have to plan to wear a mask when they come to the airport and keep that on until you're exiting the airport on the other side. you might want to bring another one because typically there's condensation and it'll get wet and it'll be much more comfortable if you have one to trade out and go to tsa.gov to look at the prohibited items for carryon luggage, understand exactly what you need to bring so you aren't frustrated in that security line give yourself plenty of time so you aren't feeling the anxiety because we do expect long lines and another tip. pack a protein bar or something that is nonperishable in your bag because there are long lines at concessions and on the same note have an empty water bottle you can fill up on the other side just in case you can't get something to carry on board and it also know that when you come on to that plane, take a look up from your phone, say hello, have a human interaction,

and bring your spirit of being a helper too. neil: all right, now you can do something with that dude in front of me who always puts his seat back we're off to the races sarah nelson, great seeing you again. my best to your family and especially your uncle, very happy he's watching sarah nelson flight attendant's association president up to 39 at the corner of wall and broad for the dow, we'll have more after this. when it comes to autism, finding the right words can be tough. finding understanding doesn't have to be. together, we can create a kinder, more inclusive world for the millions of people on the autism spectrum. go to autismspeaks.org.

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neil: closing out this trading day today, another two hours to go, off tomorrow. the markets take a break the final week next week. but interesting look at the 10-year treasury yield at 1.49%. we started the year below 1%. remember that? we were a little .90, around there. got as high as almost 1.8%. amazing step back to look at so-called inflationary threat that didn't materialize so far. now to charles payne. hey, charles. charles: a lot of false alarms. neil. merry christmas my friend, you too. charles: all right. i'm charles payne. this is "making money." two wall street axioms come together at the right moment as wall street climbs off the canvas. tell you what they are at the moment. this is the season of giving. do yourself a favor, watch the show. every day in the future will be christmas. that is what we're trying to do. while never too late we like to be early when it comes