like okay, get off social media, just a little bit of a break, let's take a moment and it was actually worth it. but you know, 25 grand is 25 grand, you guys. [laughter] >> it's impossible, cheryl. you can't do anything without the internet. cheryl: i know. and i'm addicted, i admit it totally. thank you so much to both off. had that is it for me and "mornings with maria." i'll be back for all you guys tomorrow. "varney & co." is up next. it's ashley webster in for stuart van pie. ashley: thank you very much. good morning, i am ashley webster, in today for stu. let's get into the stories. vice president harris defending herself in you new interview with cbs. she claims she's not being set up to fail but she did admit a failure. we'll tell you what that's about. guess which topic didn't even come up? you got it right, the border. over 2,000 flights canceled for a fourth straight day as omicron

causing staffing shortages across the country, what a mess. we will have a live report. speaking of planes, you might be wearing a mask forever inside the cabin if dr. anthony fauci gets his way. we're going to ask our doctors about that issue. but there is some good news. novavax says a two dose treatment of its covid vaccine shows a strong immune response against the omicron variant. that is good news. the ceo stanley irk is here to talk about it. take a look at the markets for you as we get into the last week of trading of 2021. taking a look at the dow, s&p and nasdaq, all showing modest gains. not bad, ahead of the opening bell in just under half an hour. take a look at the 10-year yield, that was ticking down a little bit earlier, continues to, down 8 basis points or 0.8 of a basis point, 1.48% on the treasury and guess what, bitcoin back above $51,000 to be exact,

51,405. we have a big show for you today. deroy murdoch, congressman michael waltz, steve forbes and california congressman mike garcia are all here. lots to talk about. it is monday, december 27th, 2021. the last week of 2021 is already here. can you believe it? "varney & co." about to begin. ♪ ♪ here we go. ♪ here we go. ♪ one more time. ♪ everybody's feeling fine. ♪ here we go now. ashley: what a great beat to get us going on a monday morning, the great insync. here we go. take a look at the futures and bring in jason katz. good morning to you. well, kind of looks like the santa claus rally has arrived, if you look at the futures, all very modest but what do you think the beginning of the new year looks like, jason?

>> i would argue, a that he arrived last week. we had our 68th record high for the s&p. up 4% from monday's low. so what does the new year portend? let's be honest about this. we've had a 25 plus average annual return over the last three years. so the big pull forward has probably occurred. but that doesn't mean you head for the hills. there's a growing acceptance that covid's here to stay, it's no longer a scarlet letter. you have sports leagues, you have businesses, you have consumers finding ways to adapt. so of next year brings positive, albeit muted returns for the market. .ashley: that's interesting. you're basically saying you think the market as well as everyone else is starting to learn to live with covid. >> without a doubt. i mean, look, the market is this great discounting mechanism and it also recognizes the amount of

liquidity out there and the fact that rates are still low. the fed's going to be thoughtful in its approach but think about the inflows. if you're a retail investor and you have to plan for retirement, you're not going to get your returns from traditional fixed income. a $1 trillion -- $1 trillion last year came into etfs, exchange traded funds. that was twice the previous year. so i think you're going to continue to see liquidity in this market keep prices propped up and not sustaining last year's or this year's returns. ashley: what sectors do you like in particular or a particular sector, jason? >> you know, so what took us to the party in the last few years, large cap tech, i don't think is necessarily going to crumble but you're going to see more economically sensitive areas of the market take the lead. small cap, mid-cap, international, emerging markets and if you want to be sector

specific, ash, look at healthcare. it has the beta of less than 0.8% and it's trading at a 14% discount to the overall market and it has not only defensive aspects to it but has attributes that are growth oriented so there are pockets where you can continue to make money. ashley: talking of the fed, you mentioned it. do you think they're going to be thoughtful and not going to rush anything? but they are going to tighten, are they not? >> without equivocation. the taper is upon us. tapering isn't necessarily tightening. and income the springtime you're going to get our first rate hike, maybe a little before that. we may get as many as three. in the context of historical rates, it's still extraordinarily accomodative. i don't expect high rates to really compress multiples for the market. i do expect them to compress multiples in the meme stocks and in the momentum high flying growth stocks but there are still very cheap aspects and

areas of this market to invest in. ashley: very good. jason katz, great stuff. thank you for joining us this morning. really appreciate it. >> you bet. thanks, ash. ashley: thank you. now this. former treasury secretary larry sommers is warning about the looming dangers of a recession. listen to this. >> if i thought we could sustainably run the economy in a red hot way, that would be a wonderful thing. but the consequence of an over-heating economy is not merely elevated inflation. but constantly rising inflation. and that's why my fear is that we are already reaching a point where it will be challenging to reduce inflation without giving rise to a recession. ashley: yep, you heard it, the

dreaded "r" word. let's bring in stephen moore, good morning to you. do you agree with larry sommers about the threat of a recession as we try to tackle inflation? >> yeah, i mostly do and i don't always agree with larry sommers but i think he's pretty spot-on here, ashley. one thing i would add to what he said is what is causing this over-heating. it's clear that it's the massive injection of government spending and government debt into this economy that has caused -- it's like when you go on a drinking binge. i know you never do that, ashley, but sometimes i drink too much and i can't get up in the morning. and so there will be a fries be paid from -- price to be paid from all of this debt and a obviously the worst possible thing we could do right now for the economy, which would be catastrophic, would be to -- in my opinion would be passing the $4 trillion bill.

ashley: how do we get relief from inflation/over-drinking, how soon will we see inflation numbers come down? >> well, it depends on what happens with policy. there's a lot of thought that this week there will be negotiations between joe biden and joe manchin on reviving built back better. i hope that doesn't happen. there's talk about a slimmed down version. there's not a single item in the build back better bill that is sal advantageable. it's -- salvageable. it's a terrible bill from page one to page 2,156. the other thing is, i kind of you a agree with what your previous analyst was talking about, except for the fact that if we have this kind of hangover effect from the debt, i think you're going to see a slowdown in the economy. one other quick thing. i believe, ashley, the fed is way behind the curve. why didn't they raise rates this year? they kept saying that inflation is transitory. now everyone agrees it's not. i do worry as a larry sommers

does that they're just too late to the party to stop this inflation ball from rolling down the hill. ashley: i hope you're wrong and i hope you don't have a headache this morning, stephen moore. thank you so much. thanks for joining us. >> okay, ashley. thanks. ashley: thank you. over the weekend, covid causing absolute havoc at the airports, leading to thousands of flights being canceled. good morning, lauren. i guess the question today, any signs of things getting better? >> no. so it's, what, 9:00, 2200 plus flights canceled already today. that's globally, 780 of them into or out of the united states. almost 1,000 delayed already, according to flight aware which measured 3,000 flights canceled over the christmas weekend which meant people spending christmas in their hotel rooms, struggling to get a door dash dinner to them. and the family dinner tables all set and a short of guests.

the airlines asking the cdc to cut the time it takes to get vaccinated staff who test positive back to work. they want to cut it in half to five days, provided they have a negative test result, ashley. ashley: what a mess. it's not all bad news, is it, lauren? did we get good news in the form of strong holiday sales, right? >> mastercard spending plus says holiday sales rose 8 and-a-half percent from last year. 10.7% from pre-pandemic. so this range covers all of november and december. clothing led the way. we thought we had places to go, clothing sales rose 47%. i got new outfits for everybody for the holidays. and nobody wore them, ashley. for year number two. okay. but that's the least of our worries. online sales rose 11% from last year. what he remains to be seen now, you were talking about inflation. did we buy more or did things just cost more? and going forward, i mean, how resilient can our wallets really

be? ashley: that's a very good question. i'm sure some of those gifts you bought are being worn right now, you just don't know it. lauren, thank you so much. taking a look at the futures as we head to the break, pointing higher start for the day, modest but the nasdaq up nearly half a percent, the s&p up a third of a percent. now this. vice president kamala harris says her biggest failure since taking office is not getting out more. roll it. >> what do you think your biggest failure has been at this point? >> to not get out of d.c. more. [laughter] ashley: you know what's not funny? the crisis at our southern border which she has visited, get this, only once and very briefly. as the omicron variant surge, novavax says its two dose vaccine can take it on and produce a strong immune response. the president and ceo of novavax is here to break it down for us,

after this. ♪

♪ oh, baby do you know what that's worth? ♪ heaven is a place on earth. ♪ they say in heaven love comes first. ♪ we'll make heaven a our place on earth. ashley: heaven is a place on earth. december 27th, monday day. pretty empty in midtown on sixth avenue. there you have it. all right. dr. anthony fauci issuing fresh warnings about the omicron

variant. lauren, what's he saying now? >> he's talking about the volume, the volume of caseses might overwhelm the fact that omicron may be more mild. .>> every day it goes up and u. the last weekly average was about 150,000 and it likely will go much higher. if you have many, many, many more people with a less level of severity, that might kind of neutralize the positive effect of having less severity when you have so many more people. >> jail yeah, i mean, in this case, ashley, dr. fauci is right. he adds it's crucial to keep your guard up especially for the unvaccinated because there's still delta here and now overwhelmingly it's omicron. ashley: novavax says its two shot covid vaccine triggers a strong immune response to the omicron variant and stanley erck

the president and ceo of novavax joins me now. good morning to you, stanley. big win for your company. tell me about it. >> we've got to a tipping point for the company. we've filed in multiple regulatory agencies for approvals. we started with indonesia and the philippines. we recently got approval in europe for the vaccine and w.h.o., the world health organization, so we're in the process of manufacturing quite a bit of doses and getting them out. we shipped 10 million doses to indonesia last week. and so we're getting our vaccine out. it's really positive moment for the company. ashley: certainly is. and again, re-emphasize, it is really effective is it against on of chron? >> we think -- omicron? >> we think so.

what we have is efficacy data from phase 3 clinical trials which shows that our vaccine works between 90 and 100% against both the wuhan, the original strain but also gives data on the delta variant and we have data that we have recently put out in a paper that shows with omicron we get a very potent response after two doses and then when you boost after six months, you get multiple fold increase on antibodies for omicron. we think it's going to be very effective against omicron. ashley: excellent. when do you hope to have fda approval? >> well, we're filing this week. depends on how quickly the fda can move. but it's the same filing package that we've been filing with the -- in europe and w.h.o. and we're hopeful that it will be

approved as quickly. ashley: stanley, it's always a challenge, is it not? omicron is now the new variant that obviously is spreading very easily, apparently. but what's to say there's not another one that comes out of this one. it's a constant battle, is it not? >> it is. it's something that we've been working on for some time. for instance, with flu, we've been working -- we've conducted a phase 3 flu trial and specifically to show that the flu variants that occur annually, the flu vaccine changes every year because of variants and what we've shown is that our vaccine platform, which is this recombinant nano part well can an adjuvant is able to protect against variants. we've done it with flu. we expect to do it with covid as well. in fact, we're in the middle of a trial to put the vaccines

october so you can have annual -- together so you can have annual boosters if that's needed. ashley: that's good news. stanley, congratulations to you and your company. we look forward to the fda approval and thanks for joining us this morning. >> thanks for having me. ashley: all right. stanley erck. now this. new york city's vaccine mandate will go into effect today. david lee miller is in new york. david, i guess a question is how many businesses does this affect? >> reporter: the city says that it's going to affect about 184,000 businesses and when we say private sector businesses, we mean everything from arguably a law firm to a mom and pop stationery store. so the impact of this is going to be very broad. the bottom line here is that if you are a worker in new york city today, you have to have at least one dose of the vaccine or you will be turned away from the office or wherever it is you

earn your paycheck. it's important to note that testing is not an option. those seeking a medical or he matter is pending. workers have 45 days to get the second shot. some businesses say the mandate is too burdensome. it's requires employers keep records. fines start at $1,000. 91% of all adults in the city have had at least one shot. as more americans roll up their sleeves, an expert says a fourth shot or booster is probably not going to be necessary. >> are we trying to block every single infection? maybe that's our goal. if that's our goal, then yes, maybe we need a fourth shot or are we just trying to prevent serious illness or death which i think should be the primary goal. >> reporter: other cities are looking to beef up mandates or implement new one, including

chicago, boston, washington, d.c., new orleans and newark. according to johns hopkins, 62% of all americans are fully vaccinated. ing nevertheless, yesterday alone, 76 people in the u.s. died from the virus. ashley. ashley: all right. david lee, thank you so much for that. let's get back to the futures if we can, the opening bell is coming next and it suggests a positive start to the final trading day of the week. we'll be right back with the opening bell. ♪ we hit the bike trails every weekend shinges doesn't care. i grow all my own vegetables

shingles doesn't care. we've still got the best moves you've ever seen good for you, but shingles doesn't care. because 1 in 3 people will get shingles, you need protection. but, no matter how healthy you feel, your immune system declines as you age increasing your risk for getting shingles. so, what can protect you? shingrix protects. you can protect yourself from shingles with a vaccine proven to be over 90% effective. shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. ask your pharmacist or doctor about shingrix. shingles doesn't care. but you should. your shipping manager left to “find themself.” leaving you lost. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do.

indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire

it's a thirteen-hour flight, that's not a weekend trip. matching your job description. fifteen minutes until we board. oh yeah, we gotta take off. you downloaded the td ameritrade mobile app so you can quickly check the markets?

yeah, actually i'm taking one last look at my dashboard before we board. excellent. and you have thinkorswim mobile- -so i can finish analyzing the risk on this position. you two are all set. have a great flight. thanks. we'll see ya. ah, they're getting so smart. choose the app that fits your investing style. ♪♪ ashley: all right. let's take a look at the futures which are pointing modestly higher for the beginning of the week. let's bring in keith fitzgerald. keith, great to see you. a lot of factors out there that could slow down the market can, we know that. we've got, you know, omicron, the fed, inflation. do you think these fears are a little overblown? >> i do. and here's the thing. you know, it's always tough to face up to these fears. they're real. they're scary. they hurt. they potentially impact your life. but the market's just notched

their 68th record close of the year last friday, ash. so all the things we've been talking about, the resilience, the hope, the getting out t learning how to deal with omicron with all the variants, there's a lot of greek letters in the alphabet. we're pushing forward anyway. if we can get good numbers on consumer spending, people getting out, i think the markets will hold up and actually press sharply higher in 2022. ashley: now, if i'm correct, your s&p target for next year, 5376. you look at where it's at now. my very poor math says that's about a 12% gain next year for the s&p. what are you basing that on? >> well, we do a lot of calculations, most of which are nonlinear complexity, stuff that makes people's eye balls roll back in the back of their heads. i was king of the nerd herd growing up. it's price prediction theory and it's not going to be a smooth ride getting there but what we believe is 5376.23 if we want to

be technical. i think we'll hit that somewhere in the mid second quarter range and then probably bounce around through the tail end of the year. we're still working on that part. ashley: what do you like? do you like energy? big tech? financials? what are you into? >> this is very much stick with the winner scenario. so big tech like apple makes sense, companies like cigna which is in the health insurance just reaffirmed guidance, novavax, working on covid, getting more information about learning to deal with the virus, big tech continues to change our world. financials are another key play and here a company like jp morgan is a no-brainer in my opinion, particularly if the fed steps into it. stick with winners, if you've got a winning horse, no sense getting off of it in the middle of the race. ashley: you're in seattle, aren't you? how are the roads this morning? >> we are 8 degrees and falling. it is icy, snowy, scary stuff out there right now. ashley: 75 and sunny in

florida, that's all i'm going to say. keith fitzgerald, great stuff. stay safe out there. don't forget to put on your mittens and long johns. thank you so much, keith. appreciate it. the opening bell ringing now, in about 12 seconds from now. they've started the clap. we're expecting a positive open, the dow futures you can see showing a gain of about 63 points at the open, as keith said, and jason katz earl injury, the s&p record close last week. the 68th this year and here we go. that is the dow 30 and, boom, just like that we see a whole lot more green than we do red, up around 60 points which is what the futures were pointing to. boeing and walt disney at the bottom there, nike and apple towards the top. the dow up as you can see two-tenths of a percent, a modest gain as they like to say. take a look at the s&p, finished at a record close last thursday. there was no trading last friday. again, up another third percent

on the s&p, up 15 points at 47, 41 and let's take a look at the nasdaq, big tech if you like, up another close to four-tenths of a percent on the nasdaq, good for a 60 point gain. we should take a look at the airlines. we talked about the holiday travel mess, all of those canceled flights. good morning, susan, how are the airlines -- well, there you go. that's how the airlines are doing, in the red. >> reporter: some significant declines there. 3500 flights were canceled over the christmas weekend. you heard these horror stories of stranded passengers that couldn't get to see their families over the christmas holiday. 2100 global flights so far have been canceled already this morning. that includes 700 right here in the u.s. omicron obviously forcing crews to stay home so they don't have the pilots, don't have the crew, bad weather some places, maintenance issues. u.s. airlines, 12% of jetblue seems to be the most affected,

5% of united, american airlines reporting 2% of their flights canceled over the weekend so far. so if there's one airline to fly, maybe it's american in these times. ashley: how miserable to be stuck at the airport for christmas. >> reporter: exactly. ashley: let's look at the cruise lines. they did all right there. >> reporter: you're in miami, you're in florida. you see the big ships passing by all the time but it seems that there were some huge outbreaks, three covid outbreaks in the past week on these ships operated by carnival, royal caribbean which are the two biggest cruise operators out there. royal caribbean had to divert a ship with planned stops in aruba after dozens of cases of covid were identified on board. carnival had a big outbreak with health ministries and aruba denying the ship entry to their port as a result. passengers will only get $100

back on refunds. imagine if you paid -- how much are these cruise, aren't they around $3,000? probably more than that during the busy holiday period and you're only getting 100 bucks back because of i guess the inconveniences. ashley: yeah, i'm sure that went down well. let's take a look at apple, susan. did they break some laws in the netherlands? >> the dutch government said they broke competition laws with their app store and they ordered apple to change their payment policies in their app store. apple of course will appeal this ruling so nothing happens for them in the meantime. you have to remember that apple won a ruling here in the u.s., until that appeal case is heard here. apple's been really facing these type of calls around the world to offer alternatives, payment systems in the app store including in korea and india but so far this has had no impact on the stock. we're still five bucks away from a $3 trillion market cap.

you have to remember, services make up 20% of apple's revenue and it continues to add to the bottom line in a big way. ashley: keeps going on up. take a look at go daddy. >> they print money. ashley: what's activist investor starboard have to do with this. >> when activist investors get on board, they're pushing for changes, they want an improvement in the business which they hope will be stock positive. in this case, starboard, they've taken a 6.5% stake in go daddy. go daddy hasn't gone anywhere in three years, really disappointing investors. they wept public at -- went public at 76 bucks. they have those infamous super bowl commercials. the stock is down 8% this year, underperforming the broader markets with the s&p up almost 20%. ashley: okay. let's take a look a didi global,

that's just fun to sarks didi global -- say, didi global, are they trying to block workers from selling their shares, is that right? >> they went public at 14 bucks over the summer. now you're only getting $5 on the stock. in didi's case it's going from bad to worse. and didi has reportedly according to the ft reporting blocked employees from selling shares indefinitely. they're extending that lock-up period which is usually six months after an ipo, didi went public over the summer and. didithe uber of china has gotten crushed by beijing over censorship and now they're delisting in the u.s. and looking to sell shares in hong kong as well. imagine you bought in at 14 bucks in the ipo and you're getting five bucks right now for your money. that's a big loss to stomach. ashley: it is indeed. all right, let's take a look at

aavies, the -- avis, the car rental people. finding a rental car is pretty tough, right? >> we know that rental prices have really shot up during covid and a it's proven over the holiday weekend when you have -- you need to find a car because your flight is canceled, you have the average daily rental rates at $81 a day. that's according to the travel firm kayak so that's up a third from a year ago. and have you to remember, remember when avis became a meme stock and almost tripled in its debut? again, at $222, there's still some pretty lofty levels there so it shows that car rental prices are still pretty steep. ashley: yes, they are. great stuff, susan. lots of information. let's take a look at the dow winner as we're just about six and-a-half minutes into the session. let's take a look at the dow, microsoft, united health group, apple is in there, procter & gamble, johnson & johnson, all good winners today. united health up about 1%.

all right, let's take a look at the s&p 500 winners. see who is leading the charge today. fortinet, west pharmaceutical, tesla up nearly 3% at 1,097, meta platforms and arista networks. take a look at the naysing nasdr as well, tesla, adobe, amd, all doing well. meta platforms again at 342, up over 2%. let's take a look at the big board overall if we can and there you go, all right, modest, up a tenth of a percent on the dow, up 35 points at 35986 on the dow. take a look at the 10-year was moving slightly lower, down 1 basis point to 1.48%. take a look at gold, we haven't looked at gold, down nearly 3 bucks at $1,808 per troy ounce. taking a look at bitcoin,

bitcoin is over 51,000, up another 430 bucks, 51,490. take a look at oil if we can. down about 40-cents, crude at $73.39 a barrel. and natural gas, take a look at nat gas as well, we're in the busy winter heating season. gas at $3.91, up nearly 5% or 18-cents. by the way, the average price of a gallon of regular gas, across the country, $3.29. but if you live in california, you're paying $4.66. that is taxes. wild crime continues in california where one woman was caught on camera shoplifting with a pick axe in broad daylight. my goodness, look at that, california congressman mike garcia will be here to sound off later in the show. could there soon be vaccine

mandates for domestic flights? the white house's top doctor is signaling his support for that. take a listen. >> a vaccine requirement for a person getting on a plane is just another level of getting people to have a mechanism that would spur them to get vaccinated. ashley: well, we'll tell you what else dr. fauci is saying about that, plus the surge in omicron cases wreaking havoc on christmas air travel, thousands of cancellations in the last few days. how are things looking this morning? we'll take you to laguardia airport to check it out, after this. ♪ you're a mean one, mr. grinch. ♪ you really are a heel. ♪ you're as cuddly as a cactus. ♪ you're as charming as an eel. ♪ mr. grinch.

♪♪ care. it has the power to change the way we see things. ♪♪ it inspires us to go further. ♪♪ it has our back. and goes out of its way to help. ♪♪ when you start with care, you get a different kind of bank. truist. born to care.

♪ it's the most wonderful time

of the year. ♪ ashley: not so wonderful if your flight has been canceled and you're wondering where to go next. you're looking at philadelphia international airport. partly cloudy with a chance of snow today in philly. well, guess what? thousands of people were left stranded after having their flights canceled over the holiday weekend, an absolute nightmare. madison alworth is at laguardia airport this morning. has it been better today for travelers. >> reporter: i wish i had better news. things are not looking good today either. over 800 flights canceled so far at laguardia, 28 canceled up to this point. it's not even 10:00 a.m., it's the beginning of the travel day. this is coming after a weekend full of cancellations, thousands of flights, this is one of the busiest travel times of the year. those people left without options.

the airlines pointing to the spread of covid as reasons why they could not staff the planes and get them off the ground. let's take a look at where the cancellations sit currently. the most cancellations happened on sunday. we saw 1,500 flights canceled that day. two of the a airlines that saw some of the most cancellations, delta and united, they both pointed to omicron as part of the reason why they had to have cancellations. delta saying in part, as winter weather impacts the northwest and northeast u.s., the omicron variant continues to surge. delta team exhausted all options and resources before canceling around 158 flights in friday's nearly 3,100 flight schedule. the passenger -- hopeful passengers we spoke to had a lot to say. >> last night i tried to check in and i get an e-mail saying sorry, our apologies, your flight is canceled. >> i think everybody needs to be safe, you know. i think if it gets canceled

you've got to have a good attitude and have christmas in the airport. >> we drive, we got notice that we were delayed and then before we even got out to the gate we were delayed again and then we are finding out we're going to rebook. >> reporter: yes, so all of these people trying to get home or get to their destination. as we mentioned, the problems still persisting today. ashley. ashley: all right, madison, thank you very much. can you imagine christmas at the airport. what fun. let's bring in jeff hoffman, our travel guru. good morning to you. look, these delays and cancellations we're being told is because of the omicron variant keeping staff at home. i mean, that doesn't seem to be going anywhere. so do we think cancellations are just going to be a part of the schedule, at least in the near term? >> well, ashley, i'm surprised actually that they scheduled all these flights. we were already behind because the airlines laid off thousands

of employees during the pandemic and they had not brought those people back on so we started off short staffed. we were already short pilots because they haven't come back on. we're short about 1,000 pilots in the system that are not there so we already knew we had staff shortages. then you add vaccine mandates which cause a lot of airline employees to not come back to work and then you add the variant onto it and the new cases. so you had kind of three things working against us. yet i think the airlines scheduled to demand but they didn't schedule around staffing. i think they were hoping for the best which turned out not to be a very good plan. i don't see this getting better any time soon. ashley: well, thanks for that. [laughter] ashley: let's take a look at the cruise industry. we already have one of those big cruise ships being denied entry at ports because of a covid outbreak. i mean, the cruise lines unfairly or not were the poster child when covid first hit.

this must be bad news for the cruise lines overall. how do you see that playing out? >> yeah, it is, because what happens to all the travelers is they start to wonder even though my cruise line i booked says everything is fine and looks good now, what if i get stranded somewhere. so the what if when it happens once on one ship, everybody says that could be he me and you start seeing the ripple effect of cancellations or people just not booking because they just don't want to take a chance. so it only takes a poster child to really had hurt the cruise industry badly. this is also more bad news unfortunately. ashley: well, boy, this has been really fun. jeff, i'm sorry, we're going to have to leave it there. it is reality. it's tough to fly and cruise and all of the rest of it because of this omicron variant. jeff, thank you very much. appreciate your input. now this, dr. fauci is voicing his support for a new vaccine mandate. lauren, you've got the details. >> yeah, he hinted about a

vaccine passport to get on an airplane. >> a vaccine requirement for a person getting on the plane is just another level of getting people to have a mechanism that would spur them to get vaccinated. namely, you can't get on a plane unless you're vaccinated which is just another one of the ways of getting requirements, whatever that might be. so i mean, anything that could get people more vaccinated would be welcome. >> yeah, it's a stick approach of, ashley. the thinking is, it might actually work. the unfortunate thing is fully vaccinated people with booster shots are still getting omicron. then you had the airline executive i think last week saying, look, the air l quality is great. the filtration systems are so good on airplanes, you probably don't need to wear a mask. dr. fauci is saying you're going

to be wearing a mask like maybe forever. ashley: oh, boy. all right. lauren, thank you very much. miami herald op-ed says it's governor de santis' fault for the omicron outbreak. congressman michael waltz takes that on next hour. the man who tagged his phone call with the president by saying let's go brandon says he's getting death threats. >> i hope you have a wonderful christmas as well. merry christmas and let's go brandon. >> let's go brandon, i agree. ashley: but the woman who flipped off president trump was celebrated. she ran for office, can you believe it, and won and there she is. how proud she must be. we've got that story coming up. ♪ isn't is ironic. ♪ don't you think. ♪ it's like rain on your wedding

day. ♪ it's a free ride that you've already paid. ♪ nicorette knows, quitting smoking is freaking hard. you get advice like: try hypnosis... or... quit cold turkey. kidding me?! instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette

hey, angie! you forgot your phone! hey lou! angie forget her phone again? yep. lou! mom said she could save up to $400 on her wireless bill by switching to xfinity internet and mobile.

with nationwide 5g at no extra cost. and lou! on the most reliable network, lou! smart kid, bill. oh oh so true. and now, the moon christmas special. gotta go! take the savings challenge at xfinitymobile.com/mysavings or visit an xfinity store to learn how our switch squad makes switching fast and easy this holiday season.

first psoriasis, then psoriatic arthritis. even walking was tough. i had to do something. i started cosentyx®. cosentyx can help you move, look, and feel better... by treating the multiple symptoms of psoriatic arthritis. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting...get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections some serious... and the lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms... or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. tell your doctor if your crohn's disease symptoms... develop or worsen. serious allergic reactions may occur. watch me. ashley: california loves to tout its green policies but according to new analysis, the

liberal state is falling way behind on its emission goals. kelly o'grady is in west hollywood this morning. kelly, we know california has issued mandates requiring residents and businesses to switch to green energy, so what's the problem? >> well, simply put, ashley, there's not enough execution planning behind the mandates and so california isn't cutting greenhouse gas emissions fast enough. the goal is to cut the 1990 levels by 40% in 2030. question are decades behind the goal. from 2018 to 2019, california cut emissions by 1.6%. to catch up it will have to decrease by 4.3% each year, more than double the year over year reductions recorded in recent years. the biggest driver of emissions is transportation. the total number of zero

emissions vehicles is growing. even if california meets the required 18% yearly increase, charging evs will put more strain on struggling grid capacity, a grid which relies on fossil fuels. policy critics cite the lack of progress of proof the draconian measures aren't working because there isn't enough execution planning. with subsidies there's no economy ev option on the market and it's instituting the deadlines which causes unnecessary economic harm so this causes concern, what we're seeing in california for the green new deal, no one is arguing that we shouldn't be prioritizing earth's health but should it come at the expense of our financially most vulnerable. ashley: very good point. kelly, thank you very much for that report. still ahead on the show, steve forbes, dr. marc siegel, texas congressman pat farland and california congressman, mike

garcia. the 10:00 a.m. hour of "varney & co." is next. . .

♪. ashley: it's all right. what a great song, maxine nightingale. 10:00 eastern. i'm ashley in today for stuart varney. let's get straight to your money. the markets positive now. we gained, the dow actually

briefly went above 100 points but still up a quarter of a percent, s&p up half a percent. nasdaq up half a percent, a positive start to the trading week. let's take a look at bitcoin, up above 51,000. up 540 bucks at 51,400. the 10-year treasury-year-old is slightly lower. right around 1.48%. 1.4. so it is heading lower on the 10-year yield. now this, vice president harris reflecting on her first year in office. take a listen. >> what do you think your biggest failure has been at this point? >> to not get out of d.c. more [laughter] people have a right to know and believe that their government actually sees and hears them. i don't ever want to be in a bubble when it comes to being aware of and in touch with what

people need at any given moment. ashley: interesting. deroy murder dork is with us this morning. deroy, what is your response to those comments. >> hope you had a good christmas. she has air force two. she can fly anywhere she wants. one of the places she ought to spend more time is down at the border. that is her number one place. sheer is the border czarina. she was in el paso briefly. el paso is 11 hours away, 11 hour drive from places like la joya, texas, mcallen, texas, fording the rio grande. bill melugin is down there doing excellent work. she is 11 hours away by car, the one-time she was down there. the one-time between february and november under biden and kamala harris's watch, number of people apprehended 1.77 million.

oddly enough the 1776 is there. up 40% under donald trump and mike pence. she is is massive failure. she could go down to the border, seal that thing up and people will be very impressed. ongoing period of failures we've seen so far. ashley: we would all be impressed but it will never happen but i want to change subjects. deroy, you have a new op-ed, it is hearing is titled, why did joe manchin say know to build back better? question mark? it stinks. the democrats still trying to figure out how to get it passed. maybe in piecemeal fashion but they're not giving up. >> they're not. this is another area combined the previous topic. kamala harris was in the senate before she became vice president. she can sit down with members of the house and senate to get

joe biden's agenda through. she has not done that. been a big failure there. a lot of senators don't want to vote on a lot of nonsense in here like massive tax increases. $80 billion to hire 87,000 irs agents to audit americans making as much as $25,000. this is not going after billionaire and multimillionaires. people making average, some cases below average wages. subsidies for trial lawyers and subsidies for journalists this is complete pandora's box. maybe try to break the box up into little pieces to get the little pieces pass. the only thing biden got through is the so-called infrastructure bill. at this time during his presidency, donald j. trump signed the biggest america sure in acted. joe biden has not got to have it

on his desk. let's hope it does not. ashley: deroy, taking a look at the democratic party as a whole, i think obviously the progressives are not seeing it but those moderate democrats and certainly the joe manchins of this world they're not appealing to the voters out there who they think they will. it is too dramatic, it is too extreme. here we are, yet it doesn't feel like the democratic party doesn't understand being dragged so far left is a nonstarter. >> you're correct about that you would think after the big loss in virginia, and huge losses in even places like seattle, washington a republican got elected d.a. last november they would have looked at each other, maybe we pushed it too far, let's move more towards the center. instead they floored it. they are going even more to the left. if they continue that sort of thing they will get wiped out next november. they don't seem to learn. they have terrible ideas. they don't seem to observe what is happening around them and

correct their actions and behaviors. they do this at their peril. as far as i'm concerned that is a great thing. ashley: we'll have to leave it there. >> save america, kill the bill to quote larry kudlow. ashley: larry kudlow has been saying it it is the bumper sticker. thank you, deroy. let's bring in jeff sica this morning. jeff, good morning to you. you think retail investors had a big impact on the market this year. my question, does that continue into next year? >> yes, ashley. i think the retail investor, this was the year of the retail investor. when you had platforms like robinhood go from two million to 21 million, more money coming into the market than previous years combined, this was the year. also it was the year that you had the meme stocks. that was the craziest part story of the year with the meme stocks took over going back to january

of last year, we saw the big run-up in amc and the runup in gamestop so the retail investors were utilizing the internet social media. they have taken precedent. they took precedent in 2021 and the question i have for 2022 is not only did they discover social media, they discovered this drug that is called margin. there is a lot of them that have used margin, have taken small amounts of money, got margin loans, leveraged themselves up and continue to lever themselves up as markets go up. ashley: right. >> that's problematic because these people, the median age is around 31. so a lot of these people never saw a market decline. how are they going to react when we get a real one? ashley: quickly on bitcoin because i want to get to

"spider-man.." bitcoin you say 85,000 for next year. that is a nice big jump. what's the cause behind that? >> well, i mean bitcoin is so controversial and you know what? i take a lot of flak over it but i got to keep talking about it. i started talking about it back in 2019 when it was 4,000. so many people have been inundated with this. the reality is bitcoin is a protest against government incompetence and we are seeing so much government incompetence. we're seeing so much central bank confusion. bitcoin will have a good year, volatile, speculative, let me make that clear. you have got to really fasten your seatbelts if you will own this but i think it will have a good year. ashley: you made your point. now this, jeff, you're a movie guy, we know that. "spider-man," no way home, just

crossed the one billion dollar mark in just two weeks. what do you make of that? >> i thought it was fantastic. keep in mind we were talking about "west side story" and the colossal failure that was, onliest person on earth in a heat watching "west side story." now you have "spider-man." now i see "spider-man," superhero fanatic, comic book fanatic like myself, got off their couch, realistically who are not afraid of the virus, the young people got themselves out to see it and one of the things that's remarkable about this number is that i have to make clear is it is a billion dollars. they made a billion dollars without china. so it is not been distributed in china. we don't know if it is going to be distributed in china. so the free world embraced this and this film as spectacular and

only, i can only imagine what this film is going to make for sony and disney when it streams. this is a multibillion-dollar franchise, true masterpiece. ashley: it is nice to talk about the movies in a positive way and you know, despite omicron and everything else, that really is some impressive performance with regards to the box office. great stuff as always, jeff sica. thank you so much. we appreciate your time. thank you thank you. let's bring back in lauren. key wall street players giving their predictions for next year. what are they saying? lauren: so i'm breaking it down into three agreed-upon themes and the first one is a big one, that's inflation. it's a risk and the way central banks react to it, how fast they tighten, that's a risk too because that could dent the consumer. then you have covid. look, this is the unknown. even though many places are not shutting down workers are, right? look at the airlines.

look at other industries today. if the workers are not showing up even though you haven't shut down they have essentially shut you down, a soft lockdown if you will. you have corporate spending levels. most banks say to watch those. in short, ashley, it is pretty depressing that 2022 will be expensive and volatile because 2020 and 2021 were not enough. we have another year. ashley: another pepto bismol year. lauren, by the way you have got some movers. let's begin with the department stores. lauren: yeah. let's take a look at them because they are higher today. we got that spending report from mastercard and they say department store sales are up more than 21% from last year, ashley. i'm also looking at companies, microsoft is the latest to say, yep, we're not attending ces in person when it kicks off in vegas on january 5th. these names also not going in person. look sign of the times. another year down the drain, if you will. and that's bad for vegas and

their economy. and then the 3d printing company, xilo 3d, they have a powerful printer to help space, industrial companies. it can handle a lot more volume and pretty fast. ashley: it is up 5%. lauren, thank you very much. now this vice president harris blaming the botched afghanistan withdrawal, guess what, on the trump administration. what? roll it. >> i think it is really important to remember that the previous administration negotiated a deal with the taliban and promised as part of an agreement that we would pull out by the end of may. ashley: ah-ha. she says she has no regrets. we've got that story. if you have any old leg goes around your house, you may be sitting on a pile of cash. a new study found discontinued

sets could be worth more than gold. get hunting. job growth in florida expect to outpace the country next year. looks like governor desantis' pro-business policies are working. congressman michael waltz will be here to talk about that next. ♪ your record label is taking off. but so is your sound engineer. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire

first psoriasis, then psoriatic arthritis. even walking was tough. i had to do something. i started cosentyx®. cosentyx can help you move, look, and feel better... by treating the multiple symptoms of psoriatic arthritis. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting...get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections some serious... and the lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms... or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. tell your doctor if your crohn's disease symptoms... develop or worsen. serious allergic reactions may occur. watch me. ♪. ashley: that is a little bit of elvis. that is columbia, tennessee. beautiful murray county, about 45 miles south-southwest of

nashville. i lived close to there, beautiful place. let's check the markets. cloudy 68 degrees which is pretty good for december. up up a quarter of a percent on the dow, nasdaq up 116 points. the big tech names gaining some momentum. now this, florida a governor desantis sad job growth in his state was 6% faster than the rest of the country, pretty impressive. congressman michael waltz from florida joins me now. congressman, good morning to you. we should point out florida has been open for business pretty much throughout the pandemic. is that part of the reason? >> oh, it is absolutely is. it is part of balance, common sense, freedom first agenda. we have a great governor leading the way. we have republicans leading our state legislature and a republican majority in our state

delegation and congress. what you've seen is just this common sense balanced approach. our schools have been open five days a week in person since last august and what that means is, when kids are in school parents can be at work and with this focused approach of keeping the economy open plus focusing on the most vulnerable during the pandemic, our elderly and, and those with comorbidity, that is everything from ppe to nursing homes to who we prioritize in the vaccines, that combined i think it why you're seeing this fantastic job growth. ashley: ah, but congressman, wait a minute. california's governor newsom says his state tops florida in nearly every economic category. please set the record straight. >> yeah, well i think he has got some, governor newsom has some selective spin going on just

like he did when he selectively followed his own rules going to the french laundrie restaurant because if you look at the actual data yes, they are coming back in certain categories now that they lifted some of their mandates but on the other hand you have, their unemployment rate well exceeds the national average. you have major industries and companies like tesla leaving in droves. california is going to lose a representative after this census for the first time with restricting in its history because people are voting with their feet. and even industries like tech are leaving and coming to texas, tennessee and florida in droves. i have three new neighbors, just in my neighborhood from california. people are voting with their feet. they're tired of this high-taxed, high-taxed, high regulation kind of lockdown government knows all mentality and they want to come to a place where they can keep money in

their pocket, where they can make decisions for their family and government gets out of the way and gives them an opportunity to live their lives. that to me describes the great state of florida. ashley: that is exactly -- i hope those californians don't bring their politics with them. i need to move on. take a look at this op-ed. it was in the "miami herald," the headline read, last lesson of 2021, florida, omicron happens when we act selfishly like governor desantis. is the governor being sell selfish? >> like i said the governor is putting these decisions in the individuals and in the hands of local communities. that underscores the philosophical difference. we truth people to make the decisions for themselves and small businesses. no business owner wants their employees or customers to get sick.

they put common sense protections in place. but the last thing we need, sorry, "miami herald," people in tallahassee or washington, d.c. dictating every nook and cranny, every step that you make to get through a pandemic. give us the resources an supplies that we need and people can make those decisions. ashley: right. >> that's why florida is booming, ironically, "miami herald," miami is leading the charge in terms of that boom. ashley: i think you couldn't have put it better. i kind of joked earlier about not bringing their politics with them. i'm deadly serious about that. i think we're seeing a bit of that in texas which makes no sense. they left california because of those policies yet they still bring the politics with them. that makes no sense to me. >> we've reregistered conservatives moving in at rate of 1000 a day. florida for the first time in history by registration has more republicans than democrats. so i think --

ashley: we'll done. >> we'll have good things in store for us in 2022. ashley: very good. very positive. congressman, thank you so much. appreciate your time. >> okay. thanks so much and god bless. ashley: thank you, same to you. now this, vice president harris is passing the blame on the botched withdrawal from afghanistan, lauren, who is she blaming? lauren: the trump administration actually, the deal it brokered with the taliban. >> i strongly believe that had we broken that agreement we would be talking about the war in afghanistan. and american troops in afghanistan. and we're not talking about that. i don't regret that. lauren: she added that they were saddled with that responsibility from the trump administration. even though biden canceled much, almost everything, his predecessor did on day one in

office. ashley: right. lauren: and the issue for kamala is she championed her entire career, women and their rights. when you look at what is going on in afghanistan with all those woman who are starting to get educated to have careers, just set back and afraid to leave their homes, ashley. ashley: yeah. terrible. all right. want to get on to this story too. what is this about intel apologizing to china? lauren: so china is obviously a very slippery slope for companies that do business there, right, and after china got mad that intel discouraged its suppliers from doing business with xinjiang region, intel apologized for that. back at home they take strong positions on social justice an anti-racism but they tolerated it abroad in china. they caved to the pressure but

they don't do it here at home. ashley: yes they did. nobody likes that. lauren, thank you very much. by the way intel is up nearly 1%. now this, russia has withdrawn more than 10,000 troops from the ukrainian border. this as the u.s. is set to hold talks with russia next month. national security expert jameell jaffer will deal with that in the 11:00 hour. covid therapeuticses are the key to ending the pandemic. we'll have that report next. ♪. i'm searching for info on options trading, and look, it feels like i'm just wasting time. that's why td ameritrade designed

a first-of-its-kind, personalized education center. oh. their award-winning content is tailored to fit your investing goals and interests. and it learns with you, so as you become smarter, so do its recommendations. so it's like my streaming service. well except now you're binge learning. see how you can become a smarter investor with a personalized education from td ameritrade. visit tdameritrade.com/learn ♪ - for veterans recovering from the wounds of war, supporting one another is a lifesaver. - i served in the united states army in vietnam, and that's when i stepped on a landmine, that resulted in the traumatic amputation of both of my legs and my left arm above the elbow. i was alive, but i didn't know what the rest of my life had in store for me. multiple deployments have caused a huge problem with those that served in iraq and afghanistan. and it's difficult for them to come back and adjust to civilian life. - there were moments of frustration. you can't do this anymore. you can't go here anymore.

i absolutely felt like i lost my purpose. - i was looking at a long period, of where i wasn't gonna to be able to do anything for myself. i just didn't wanna be here. - [jim] many veterans feel abandoned or alone, 'til dav steps into their life. (uplifting music) - for 100 years, dav, disabled american veterans, has been supporting veterans and their families in their time of need, by helping them receive the care and benefits they've earned. but your help is vital to keeping this promise alive. - the biggest struggle is spending the rest of your life in a wheelchair. dav showed me it was okay to be a disabled veteran. - disabled american veterans made me feel useful again. - dav came in when i was still flat on my back and got me through that rough state that i was in. - [narrator] when you call, or go online, with your pledge of just $19 a month, we'll send you this dav blanket as a way you can share your support. - if i can reach out and share with other veterans, what i've been through, that's a grand opportunity

and dav can really make a difference in the lives of many of these veterans. - [narrator] when you join other patriotic americans and call, or go online, with your support today, your gift will be matched. doubling the impact of your support for our veterans. there is no better time to call than now. thank you. you are making a difference.

♪. ashley: welcome back, everyone. let's take a look at these markets. we're about an hour into the trading session. as you can see the dow up now 160 points, gaining some momentum, up half a percent. the nasdaq also up 1% and the s&p up .8 of a percent of positive start for the week. susan, you have some movers. teslas moving higher susan.

susan: the tesla holiday update is available for wider range of customers. we had a call from wedbush, the analyst says electric cars are a five trillion dollar opportunity next year and tesla is big giant there, getting 50% of that. so that is pretty bullish for the stock. moderna fighting a shareholder proposal today that would force the vaccine maker to give up the secret covid vaccine formula so countries can develop their vaccines. the proposal asked moderna to explain why prices are so high despite the fact they got government subsidies, should they make it cheaper. bitcoin back above 51,000. you heard jeff sica telling you, calling for 85,000 for bitcoin by the end of this year. this is pretty much with the calls i've heard, 70 plus

thousand dollars for bitcoin before the end of 2021. coinbases, all the crypto plays up on that. ashley: i don't see stu jumping in anyway but pretty bullish. susan: might be a bullish signal by the way that might be a momentum play. ashley: that could be the final signal to buy. thank you, susan. now this, experts insist strong therapeutics are the key to ending the pandemic. this comes as the fda approves the merck and pfizer covid pills. gerri willis joins me now. good morning, gerri. what's the latest? reporter: ash, you've got it the approval of these pills, this new breakthrough in covid therapeutics, they come from merck and pfizer. each of them has one of these pills to be taken by high-risk adults, that is what the approval was for. as you say it could be the key to ending the pandemic. the pills can be taken at home by someone infected with covid-19. that's the first of its kind

this is opposed to get a drug intravenously at the hospital. that means the burden on hospitals will be less. now as of yesterday the rolling seven day average for hospitalizations just over 64,000 and the question will be though, who gets these pills? they're in short supply. the feds are distributing to states based on population. new york with 8 million population will get 3100 courses while wyoming with a population of just half a million will get 6100. i think i've got those flipped in there. obviously new york state will get twice as many as wyoming but it is individual physicians who will make that final call who gets the therapeutics. now the biden administration already has a commitment to purchase 10 million treatment courses for 5.3 billion but only 265,000 courses will be available by next month and that number won't reach 10 million until six months out.

dr. anthony fauci today saying that the federal government is working to ramp up supply. listen. >> we are going to do everything we can including the defense production act to try and see if we can actually get this at a higher level. we're not sure what we can do and how much time we can cut off on that but certainly it needs to be done because it is a highly, highly effective therapy. reporter: yeah, and as cases rise in even those fully vaccinated are contracting this version of the covid-19 virus, these therapeutics become even more important than ever in managing the outbreak and protecting those who are most vulnerable to the pandemic. ash, back to you. ashley: thank you very much, gerri. interesting points. dr. marc siegel joins me now, just the right person to talk about this, but you know what, doctor, some experts are warning that pfizer's antiviral pill,

paxlovid, could cause perhaps serious interactions with widely used prescriptions including blood thinners and antidepeasants. is that something we should be worried about? >> no. you came to the right place. you know why, ashley? because this is what i do every day. this is what i do every day. i look at a pill. i look at another pill. i figure out what the interactions are. i figure out if adjustments have to be made. in this case because the pfizer pill which looks tremendous, paxlovid actually includes two pills. one of the pills slows the metabolism of the protease inhibitor, the active pill doing all the great work. by slowing the metabolism, it may slow the metabolism of other drugs, seizure drugs, cholesterol drugs, things i want to monitor. ashley, it is only a five day course. so over that five days i might reduce the dose of something else. i might say hold off on the cholesterol drug for those five

days. it depends. this is what clinicians like me do. this is how we work and i'm very, very excited this pill is out. i'm not as excited by the delay here. again, it shouldn't have been a delay. this should have been prepurchased and pre-produced nothing we would need it for ohio-risk patients. ashley: let me ask you this, doctor, this is a question starting to become more common, should which be focusing less on vaccines and more on the therapeutics? is that the right way to go? >> i think we should be doing both. i think the booster shots actually work in decreasing severe cases. i think there has been too much emphasis on the use of the vaccine to decrease spread. that is what led to the argument for all the mandates we don't agree with but the boosters work. work for a shorter period of time we would like. in the middle of the outbreak of omicron you do want to be boosted. of course therapeutics come in. there is another thing that needs to be connected, you have to have the rapid test available to you in your home so that you

know if you got it. i can tell you if you're my patient if you're high-risk and then bang, i might want you to take the pfizer or the merck drug, more likely the pfizer drug, by the way, because it is more powerful. that's right, we need therapeutics in place to work hand in hand with the vaccines. ashley: very good. next one for you, new york's governor announcing that she is shortening the quarantine period for vaccinated critical staff members. workers will now have to quarantine for five days if they test positive instead of the previous 10 days. what do you think, doc? is that okay? do you agree with the governor? >> let me point out something, ashley that will make you laugh. how come health care workers on the front lines go back five days, put everyone else at risk, 10 days, that makes no sense whatsoever. omicron comes on you more

rapidly, it lasts less long. i'm okay provided with the rapid test at the end. let's let everybody return to the workforce afterfy days, not have a different analysis for different groups. those who were putting you at highest risk come back earlier. makes no sense. it's politics. ashley: you know, something that the airlines are now complaining about. they were short staffed they say because of the 10 day quarantine. that left all the airlines shorthanded which created travel chaos. you would think okay, five days, come back to work? >> with a rapid test. by the way i was just on a plane, ashley. i was frightened about who was flying it. the pilot did a great job it is not just short staffed. you know the plane flies with less people manning it, yikes! ashley: that's true. don't even think about it. at least you were on a flight that took off. that's a positive. doc siegel, thank you so much. as always, with great information thanks, so much. now this, while we just been

talking about it, christmas may be over but the flightmare continues. airlines cans tell thousands of flights as they deal with the covid surge. we'll have the latest from laguardia airport in the next hour. the biden administration admits it failed to distribute in-home covid tests as long lines for testing centers. the president is meeting with state health officials today to talk about testing strategy. we'll have a report for the white house next. ♪ we hit the bike trails every weekend

shinges doesn't care. i grow all my own vegetables shingles doesn't care. we've still got the best moves you've ever seen good for you, but shingles doesn't care. because 1 in 3 people will get shingles, you need protection. but, no matter how healthy you feel, your immune system declines as you age increasing your risk for getting shingles. so, what can protect you? shingrix protects. you can protect yourself from shingles with a vaccine proven to be over 90% effective. shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. ask your pharmacist or doctor about shingrix. shingles doesn't care. but you should.

♪. ashley: now this, today president biden will join the white house covid response team's call with the national

governor's association. rich edson is at the white house. rich, good morning to you. what can we expect from the call? reporter: good morning, ashley, and this call kicks off within the next hour this is mostly this white house focused on testing. you've really seen that focus from the administration over the last couple of weeks but there is some criticism as you look now with the white house trying to roll this at-home testing plan out where you log online, request a free test from the government, they send it to you. that will not expect to kick in next month well after the holiday season. ahead of the christmas holiday you had long lines of people trying to get a covid test. people unable to purchase the at home test because stores are out of them. president biden acknowledged last week that his administration should boosted testing availability two month ago. they have criticized health officials with when they say is a late push for sending free at home tests.

>> i think both on omicron and delta the administration has not done enough getting ready through testing and through communications. the two places where the administration needs to do a better job, communicating more effectively with the american people and certainly making testing much more widely available. reporter: two month ago the biden administration rejected a proposal from several public health experts for free rapid tests for the holidays based on what many other countries are already doing. the concept that the white house press secretary derided earlier this month. that is according to the "vanity fair." the white house argues there wasn't enough production capacity in the market in october. in march they signed american rescue plan $2 trillion, much of it to address the economy. some of the covid provisions, vaccine treatment and deployment at $6 billion, vaccine distribution at $9 billion, detection, tracing at nearly $48 billion, genome sequencing

and surveillance at 1.57 billion, and 10 billion for covid supplies. the president is scheduled to have the meeting with governors in about 50 minutes here at the white house. back to you, ashley. ashley: excellent stuff, rich, thank you very much. now this, dr. fauci has a warning for americans as omicron continues to surge. come back in, lauren, what's he saying? lauren: infections unfortunately are going to keep going up. >> well there's one thing that's for sure that we all agree upon, that it is extraordinarily contageous. it just outstripped even the most contagious of the previous ones including delta. there is no argument on anybody's part about that. lauren: so, it might be more mild but there is a lot of it and the last weekly average was 150,000 cases. so i think the question everybody wants to know is when does this peak? and if you look at data from the university of texas they're

saying mid-january. so january 18th through february 3rd and then hopefully smooth sailing because these numbers are so hard and so high that we can finally be done with covid-19 as best we can. ashley: yes. hopefully we never have to say covid again. all right, lauren, thank you very much. now this, one texas congressman says america's global reputation has been dragged through the mud this year so how do we turn it around? we will ask the congressman, pat fallon, coming up. 63% of the latino voters feel the country's con in is headed in the wrong direction. it appears the democrats won't be able to rely on the hispanic vote as heavy live as they did in the past. what could that mean for the the midterms? we'll break it down yet. ♪.

as a dj, i know all about customization. that's why i love liberty mutual. they customize my car insurance, so i only pay for what i need. how about a throwback? ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ a must in your medicine cabinet! less sick days! cold coming on? zicam is the #1 cold shortening brand! highly recommend it! zifans love zicam's unique zinc formula. it shortens colds! zicam. zinc that cold!

goldshore resources is an emerging gold developer it shortens colds! with an experienced and successful management team, that's well funded to double the 4 million ounce resource over the next 2 years at their ontario based project. goldshore resources. every day in business brings something new. so get the flexibility of the new mobile service designed for your small business. introducing comcast business mobile. you get the most reliable network with nationwide 5g included.

and you can get unlimited data for just $30 per line per month when you get four lines or mix and match data options. available now for comcast business internet customers with no line-activation fees or term contract required. see if you can save by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities. hey, angie! you forgot your phone! hey lou! angie forget her phone again? yep. lou! mom said she could save up to $400 on her wireless bill by switching to xfinity internet and mobile. with nationwide 5g at no extra cost. and lou! on the most reliable network, lou! smart kid, bill. oh oh so true. and now, the moon christmas special. gotta go! take the savings challenge at xfinitymobile.com/mysavings or visit an xfinity store to learn how our switch squad makes switching fast and easy this holiday season.

first psoriasis, then psoriatic arthritis. even walking was tough. i had to do something. i started cosentyx®. cosentyx can help you move, look, and feel better... by treating the multiple symptoms of psoriatic arthritis. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting...get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections some serious... and the lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms... or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. tell your doctor if your crohn's disease symptoms... develop or worsen. serious allergic reactions may occur. watch me. ♪. ashley: check the markets for you. is this beginning of the santa claus rally? it is usually the last five trading days of the year and the

first two of the new year and here we are on the first of the last five days. that makes sense. dow up half a percent. nasdaq up 1%. s&p up nearly 1%. the bulls believe in santa. that is what we're saying. let's check the airlines, they are all down as you can imagine following a slew of cancellations and delays over the holiday travel period. that is just an example, jetblue, united, southwest, down half to 1%. airlines are struggling of course with staffing shortages as covid cases surge but there you have it. southwest and spirit also moving lower, tough day for the airlines. now this, americans look to the 2022 midterms. some experts are warning that democrats are losing their grip with latino voters. lydia hu joins me now. and, lydia, what are the top issues for latino voters? reporter: good morning, ashley. polls are showing that latinos are really increasingly concerned about the economy and

concerns about job loss related to the pandemic. this is really helping republicans find support among the latino demographic because latinos believe that congressional republicans are better equipped to fight growing inflation and rein in the deficit. 63% of hispanics polled by "the wall street journal" showed a negative outlook on the economy saying it was headed in the wrong direction and another poll by a group called equis research that is a democratic research firm, shows more than 40% of latino voters are concerned democrats are embracing socialism and leftist policies. those were once issues largely resonating with a more conservative-leaning cuban-american population in florida but they're now a national issue for latinos and increased the likelihood of a vote for donald trump in 2020. now these changing tides could have a significant impact on next year's midterm elections

and beyond. when asked about the upcoming 2022 congressional elections latino voters were split evenly in this "wall street journal" poll. 37% say they would support the republican candidate, another 37% say they would support the democrat. 22% still undecided. but that is just a big change from last year when latino's supported democrat candidates more than 60% of their vote. >> the left is getting these voters wrong. nobody gets up in cuba, or mexico, says i'm going to the united states so the child that i have there is a victim. that is not how it happens. they come here with aspirations. they come here with high hopes. reporter: to cement these relationships ahead of the midterm elections we are seeing that the pub push national committee is opening up hispanic community centers in some states with larger latino populations

in areas like florida and in texas. we can see that taking shape now moving into next year. ashley? ashley: fascinating stuff. lydia, thank you very much. let's change gears. let's take a look at bitcoin. a mexican billionaire says people should simply buy it. 51,490. when you're a billionaire you can afford it. lauren, give me the details. lauren: yeah i think he bought it at 200 or $500, conflicting reports maybe both. ashley: wow. lauren: yeah. his name is ricardo salinas one of the richest men in mexico. he was before bitcoin. he is worth $12 billion. he says bitcoin is so powerful because it is traded freely saying fiat money like the dollar, the euro, the yen, they're made out of paper lies because central banks are producing more than ever. his goal, even though it has been shot down by mexico's central bank to make banco as ac

to do purchaseby bitcoin. he is a billionaire. ashley: south american countries have adopted bitcoin and other as official tender. i'm wondering would this statement from a billionaire whether this may spread? it is very interesting. lauren: yeah. just think about all the remittances that go to those countries, right? it makes it much easier to do so. ashley: right. lauren: it is borderless, right? it's simple. so we'll see. ashley: it's simple. lauren: whether we see such an institutional adoption of bitcoin and other cryptos this year, 2022 could bring even more. ashley: well, that is interesting because the feds still have a shady view of it because they have concerns about money laundering and the seacrest at this and so on. you know what? the more we talk about it, the

more it becomes part of our culture. jeff sica and others say this thing is continuing to climb but it is getting harder and harder to become affordable. i guess you can buy pieces of bitcoin, right? you don't have to shell out the whole 51,000 to buy one coin? lauren: correct. as it becomes institutionalized negative is it trades in tandem with other asset classes, right? ashley: right. lauren: so it is really not a place where you can make money because you're doing something different than other people. it is trading in the same direction as equities for instance on many days. ashley: that is exactly right but someone is doing right. lauren, thank you very much. very interesting stuff. still ahead we have matt schlapp, steve forbes, an california congressman mike garcia. "politico" meanwhile says kamala harris's low poll numbers are her fault. so the question is, who whose fault is it. matt schlapp takes that on the

third hour of "varney" you're a one-man stitchwork master. but your staffing plan needs to go up a size. ... matching your job descriptio. visit indeed.com/hire

>> there's not a single item in the build back better bill that is salvageable. it's a terrible bill from page one to page 2,456. if we have this kind of hangover effect from the debt, i think you're going to see a slow down in the economy. >> he is learning how to deal with omicron with all the variants there's a lot of greek letter in the alphabet and we're pushing forward anyway. if we can get a quarter or two of good numbers on more consumer spending, i think the markets are going to holdup and press

sharply higher in 2022. >> there's a growing acceptance that covid is here to stay. it's no lingerie scarlet letter, so next year brings positive, albeit muted returns for the market. >> i think the airlines scheduled to demand but they didn't schedule around staffing. i think they were hoping for the best which turned out not to be a very good plan. i don't see this getting better anytime soon. ♪ ashley: that's for you, stuary varney, "twist and shout" a classic from the beatles. it is 11 a.m. on the east coast on this monday, december 27, and as you look at the fox headquarters in midtown, manhattan i'm ashley webster in today for stuary varney. let's get a check on these markets, at the beginning of the santa claus rally, well, so far so good. the nasdaq up more than 1%, the s&p about the same, up 1%

the dow also up 204 points about a half a percent gain. let's take a look at the 10 year treasury as well, which has been dropping, it was down 1.4% a little earlier, and it's down 1.5 basis points down to 1.48% on the 10 year. all right, now this. politics. take a look at this piece in politico magazine highlighting vice president harris calling her "a one-time political rock star" as well as a pioneer, a political celebrity, and as a media savvy gen x star whose have having a brutal season in the polls. come in matt schlapp: politico says it's not harris' fault for her low poll numbers so i guess the question is, whose fault is it? >> well, you know, one former democratic vice president said that job isn't worth a bucket of warm spit. he actually might have said

something different, but it's a tough job and it's tough because you've gotta be your own person at the same time, you're really the number two obviously for the president, but in the case of the democrats this is why identity politics is so dangerous. i know it worked out great with obama and they took a chance on a young person who at least in polling did okay for his eight years but in the case of kamala harris, she wasn't really that well known to the country although she was a rock star like you said to the left, and in california, in her unfair despicable treatment against brett kavanaugh and other judicial picks to the court, she was really seen as an up and comer. she's just not passing the test and the american people think that they just can't get warm to her. ashley: it's interesting, because she blames, by the way, sexism and racism, which is just a deflection. she has been absent without leave on the border and she also has a problem of answering tough

questions. she seems to just always end that response with laughter, which really does not instill any confidence. >> yeah, you have to kind of, i guess the word is laugh at the idea that a woman who was picked because of her gender and because of her, you know, the fact that she's a woman of color, that was her overriding characteristics for her whole political careerment ashley: right. >> now she says the reason why she's not succeeding in politics is because of those characteristics. once again, when you don't pick people simply on how talented they are professionally, how good a communicator they are, but you have other kind of intangibles put in front of those virtues, it's a dangerous game, and identity politics, i think, is the number one issue the democrats are going to get trashed next year at the polls. i think the american people are good. we're tolerant, we know we're a

diverse country, but we are exhausted and spent from this idea that your race and the color of your skin is your most dominant characteristic as a human being. this is the christmas season. our most dominant characteristic as a human being is that god loves us and put us on this earth to accomplish something great, not to run around with a plaque and trying to create racial animosity and unfortunately for kamala harris, she's on the wrong side of this political fight. ashley: yeah. i'm going to move on to another subject which is interesting, matt. it's about the nascar driver who inspired the let's go brandon can't saying he's losing out on sponsorship deals. brandon brown telling the sports business journal, "its been tough to connect with partnerships just because it's kind of viewed as a ticking time bomb." what is he doing to choose or say and how would that affect our consumer base? it's too much of a risk.

he's losing out. he didn't do anything really. it was the people behind him, but matt, why is this driver being canceled, as i say, he didn't makeup the chant. >> you know, i saw that clip. he had nothing to do with the chant, and this is what's the problem with corporate america. this whole idea of a woke corporation or ceo or board of directors, they're picking sides with the progressives to destroy this american ideal once again that we come from many backgrounds but we stand together as a country for our principles and now they're made everything political, even nascar, which by the way, is skewed to a red, conservative, pro-america audience, even that, they're trying to make into some kind of woke sporting event. i know this personally, i've been canceled by a lot of corporations because i stepped up to criticize black lives matter's violence and their anti -christian bigotry and anti- americannism and anybody

who does that at this point in our country is going to be canceled by these corporations but i'm telling you what. the empire is going to strike back. the american people are going to send a message because they are the customers of these corporations and they are going to send a message that not everything needs to be political leave it alone. let us have our political views and then let us just go buy cereal or watch a movie or watch television without having left wing politics shoved down our throats. ashley: amen, we'll leave it on that note, matt schlapp great stuff thanks for joining us, really appreciate it. now this. a father says he is getting death threats after this , roll tape. >> you guys have a wonderful christmas as well and let's go brandon. >> let's go brandon, i agree. ashley: all right, lauren come back in. i guess first of all, why was that guy on a call with biden in the first place? lauren: so, every year, this guy , father of four, former

police officer in oregon, calls norad to track santa with his kids, he tagged the call with the president and the first lady as you heard "let's go brandon." we know what that means, but you also heard it's so odd, president biden agreed, let's go brandon, i agree, anyway, the re percussion of this is that he is getting a lot of heat and a lot of criticism, mainstream media is going as far as compar ing people who use that phrase to isis sim pastizers. contrast that to 2017 when this cyclist, julie briskman flipped off donald trump's motorcade. remember that? there it is. she got fired from her job as a government contractor because she posted it to social media. that picture, but then elected in a local election, in loudoun county and i'm remembering what gath it griffin did with the be headed donald trump. ashley: yes. lauren: right? eventually there was outrage about that, but not at first.

i think they're all wrong. we should not be this disrespectful to the president of the united states but it's interesting, or concerning is a better word, how it's giving a free pass on one side and not on the other, so this guy jarod, the father of four is getting threats and the flicker gets a promotion in terms of elected in loudoun county. ashley: it's classic double standard hypocrisy and it happens all the time, and it's not right. all right, lauren thank you very much. now this. democrats want to see build back better make a come back. roll tape. >> we want to see this as comprehensive as possible but we need to make sure we have the votes to pass it so that means it'll be different than some of us would like to see , but it's a strategy decision that's being negotiated. we are open to a way to reach the finish line. ashley: well, the question is, will it ever hit the finish line let's bring in our good friend

steve forbes, good morning, steve. democrats determined, apparently , to pass build back better piece-by-piece. i guess the question to you is, can they do it? >> they're going to certainly try to do it but the stumbling block is taxes, as senator sinema of arizona is against most of those tax increases and the bill being done piece by piece will highlight those tax increases so that's going to be difficult. what they will try to do is pick a few pieces like home leave and the like and hope they can pass that, but it's going to be in a much smaller scale and ultimately i don't think they are going to get very much at all. people are known to have these kind of experiments whether you bundle them in a big bill or chop it up into small pieces it's still a bad salad. ashley: i wanted to ask you very quickly, this one, steve. the world economy is forecasted to top $100 trillion for the very first time next

year. now that be the center for economics business and research, so the question is we're going to hit that milestone two years earlier than originally expected remarkably, in the middle of a pandemic, i should point out. does that surprise you? >> it does, but it also shows that there's a lot of pent-up economic activity in the world especially here in the united states and the biggest blockage in addition to central banks printing too much money, the biggest blockage are the barriers that are being put in the way by politicians, you had a feature earlier about how the airlines are mucked up because vaccine mandates are done in a blunder-bust style has led to labor shortages and we have labor shortages in the healthcare and other areas of the economy and those are self-inflicted wounds. the politicians just get out of the way and adopt a little bit of common sense we would see a real recovery, but the democrats have to get off this thing of spending, passing big bills that'll hurt the economy especially those devastating tax

increases. ashley: good place to leave it, it was short but sweet, steve, thank you so much for joining us this morning. really appreciate it. >> thank you. ashley: all right let's check the markets. thank you. we're on the upside today, no doubt about it. we talk about the santa claus rally the last five trading days of this year, the first two days of next year, and so far so good modest gains but up across-the-board on the dow, the nasdaq, and the s&p. now show me gamestop. down big today, brokerage firm capital markets just cutting their price target by a dollar to $23 it's at 147 and they say this rally will fade next year. interesting. down 3% today. now show me the cruise lines, no big surprise, all down today as covid cases continue to climb , carnival, royal caribbean , norwegian cruise lines all moving down, norwegian down 2.25%. all right now this. do you have legos laying around

your house? some of them could be worth more than gold. we've got the story look down the back of the sofa. take a look at this a woman with a pick axe robbing a rite aid in los angeles very disturbing video, crime is out of control in california and the question is, what's anyone doing about it meantime, russia withdrawing thousands of troops from the ukraine border. is the threat of an invasion over for now? we'll talk about that, next. ♪

new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. when you sponsor a job, you immediately get your shortlist of quality candidates, whose resumes on indeed match your job criteria. visit indeed.com/hire and get started today.

ashley: we are back with this. russia withdraws more than 10,000 troops from the ukrainian border. it comes as russia's top diplomat says talks between russia and the u.s. will start immediately after the new year holiday. jamil jafford national security institute executive director joins me now, jamil good morning to you, so what does this withdrawal mean is the threat of an invasion over, is putin playing head games? >> yeah, great question, ashley look, i think that the reality is that we're only talking about 10,000 troops when it comes to about 100,000 that russia has on the border there they have been withdrawn after an exercise, but the reality is that putin still looks like he's teeing up for potential invasion come early next year. now, things might change with these discussions going on in january with the u.s. in geneva but the fact of the matter is that vladimir putin is trying to put pressure on to get us to make concessions we don't need to make at this time.

ashley: well and to that point, how do we look on the world stage right now? do we appear weak or vulnerable , do you think? >> i think we look very weak and vulnerable. general jack keane was on over the weekend and said a lot of important things one of which he pointed out was that look, vladimir putin and the chinese president, president xi is looking at the u.s. and seeing what the we did in afghanistan with our withdrawal, seen how we're coming to iran and trying to give them concessions ahead of time, ahead of any nuclear keel. they see our posture in the world and say we can go into ukraine, we might be able to go after taiwan and all of the flights they have been conducting so there's a lot of concerns that the u.s. doesn't stand by its allies and doesn't couldn't front its adversaries, it's not new to this administration but it has gotten worse in recent months particularly post-afghanistan. ashley: i wanted to get into this issue as well, jamil. new u.s. intelligent assessment, intelligence assessments that is

and satellite images shows what appears to be saudi arabia building its own ballistic missiles with help from china. what does that mean for our national security? well ashley it's obviously a huge problem. saudi is a key allie for the united states and the middle east. they along with israel and the other arab nations help align against iran and the threats that iran is making in the region but of course we backed off with the saudis quite a bit in recent years and months in particular with respect to the conflict in yemen where we had the iranian-backed rebels, launching ball it's ic missiles in saudi arabia, so the problem is it's a real issue for us if they are looking to the chinese who are more than happy to spread around the globe to try and gain influence particularly in regions that matter to us. we need to back our allies like saudi arabia, giving them the capabilities they need for this stuff particularly as they look at the longer term competition with china on the world stage. ashley: you know you mentioned china and taiwan earlier and the

number of flights picking up china certainly becoming more aggressive. what should the u.s. , do we have the spine or the backbone i guess to confront china, if this continues and starts to ramp up because china, its goal is pretty clear. >> that's exactly right and i think the concern is that if you asked any american 10, 15 years ago, would the u.s. defend taiwan if they are invaded by china every american would have said obviously and it wouldn't have been a question, yet today i think we've seen post-obama administration even some post- president trump's administration and certainly the biden administration there's a concern we won't back taiwan. now the biden administration has said the right thing, they have put military advisors in taiwan but the question is does president xi believe it, does vladimir putin believe we'll back ukraine and the question is an issue today is we're not viewed with that much credibility on the world stage because we haven't shown the willingness to use the military power and part of that is to the american people and their weariness over afghanistan and iraq but the fact is if the american president were to lead

regardless of democrat or republican, the question is why are our presidents not willing to do that. ashley: very good question. we'll have to leave it there but jamil thank you so much, great information. really appreciate it. >> thank, ashley. appreciate you. ashley: thank you. now show me amazon, if you can. according to the new york post orders of the whole foods grocery store have plummeted since they introduced the new $ 9.95 delivery fee, an employee at the new york city flagship store says they have about 40 deliveries, a day, down from 185 orders back in october, when the fee was introduced, but a whole foods spokesman tells the post, those numbers are grossly inaccurate, not just in accurate, but grossly in accurate. stores show a surge in holiday sales despite the ongoing supply chain issues and rising omicron cases. mastercard says holiday sales were up 8.5% from last year and

10.7% from 2019. we spent 47% more on clothing this year, there was a 32% increase in spending on jewelry, and electronics saw the smallest increase surprisingly at 16%. we also saw an 11% jump in online sales from last year, and an 8% increase for in-store sales. now, let's take a look at the price of gold, if you're in the mood to shop for some gold, gold has been interesting. its been around that $1,800 mark , we aren't going to show it there it is $1,813 up $2 about a tenth of a percent but gold at 1,813. now this story researchers in moscow say some discontinued lego sets are more valuable. the toy bricks appreciate in value by 11% annually. that's better than some stocks and bonds. the legos get more expensive overtime because of diminishing supply and collectible value.

some of the best investments are themed sets like the star wars millennium falcon so as i say, get looking down the back of the sofa or whatever you can find. it could be worth money. take a look at tesla. it's moving higher today, and has been on a nice roll up 3.25% at $1,102 for tesla. also, by the way, we've gotta show you this video talking of tesla, a man blows up his tesla model s because he didn't want to pay to get it repaired. that's pretty extreme. the owner says mechanics in finland wanted more than $23,000 to replace the car's battery, so instead of paying, the owner strapped a bunch of dynamite to the car and blew it up. tesla was less than 10 years old and my oh, my look at those pieces in slow motion. wow. i guess he made his point an expensive one but he made his

point. now this. a delta airlines flight gets turned around in mid-aaron its way to china, and it all has to do with covid rules, we'll explain what happened. one company wants you to skip those long covid testing lines, they're now developing pcr tests to take at home but the question is how soon will they be ready? we'll ask the ceo of co- diagnostics, next. ♪ i will wait i will wait for you ♪

♪ ashley: it's december 27, oh, yes, miami sound machine there is miami, 77 degrees and sunny. how awful. all right let's check the markets we are moving higher on this last trading week of 2021. nicely up across-the-board, let's bring in susan li, you've got some of the movers? >> yes, we hear gloria estefan there explosive performance continuing, we have nvidia leading the santa claus rally today powering the s&p 500

up to a brand new record high this morning, not just nvidia, a md, micron, qualcomm, as well, the chip sector, and that's because bernstein's chip analyst says that yeah, okay maybe on a tries-to-earnings multiple chip stocks look expensive but he's still recommending chip stocks especially nvidia which should continue to dominate in gaming and get a lot of the sales in this metaverse transition that we're going to see over the next 10 years or so. also, i'll throw in some oil stocks today, and that value recovery trade of the year, oil is up $2 this morning, $2 a barrel hitting a session high just this hour, exxon-mobile also giving us an update on the baytown facility that caught fire last week, apparently still shutdown and as you know, when there's less supply out there, especially with supply interruptions owing to this fire that usually means a boost to oil prices and that's exactly what's happening today. ashley: all right very good, susan, thank you. now this. some experts say strong

therapeutics will be the key to ending the pandemic. gerri willis joins we now, what kind of therapeutics are we talking about? gerri: well, ash, we're talking about pills. amazingly so, omicron cases are speaking for those vaccinated and unvaccinated and demand for testing is reaching critical mass. new covid-19 therapeutics pills are taking center stage, as a way to protect the most vulnerable from hospitalization and even death. the fda granting emergency use authorization to pfizer and merck's covid-19 oral treatment. pfizer's antiviral regimen called paxlovid was nearly 90% effective in preventing hospitalizations and deaths in patients at high risk of severe illness. that according to data from the company's clinical trial, recent lab data suggests the drug retains its effectiveness against omicron. that's the good news. experts are calling these drugs

a game changer and our biggest advancements in treating those already infected with the covid-19 virus but the biden administration will only have 26 5,000 courses of the treatment available by next month, and they hope to reach their 10 million goal in as much as six months. bottom line, these new therapeutics have the potential for ending the pandemic if they can be produced quickly enough and in great enough volume. back to you. ashley: very good, gerri, thank you and encouraging. let's now get to this. co-diagnostics is teaming up with idaho molecular and advanced conceptions to develop at-home pcr tests. dwight egan is co-diagnostics ceo and he joins me now, dwight, good morning to you. how soon, i guess the big question is, will these tests be ready? >> good to be with you, ashley. we've been working on this device very small device that can be on your bathroom

county, working on this for over a year, and it is a pcr device that provides testing that's cheap and fast and mostly accurate, which is of course critical even when you're going to talk about a new therapeutic you're going to have to have a reliable test in order to get that therapeutic and so we've already concluded some user factor studies we're quickly heading into our clinical trials, which we're on track to complete during the first quarter and then shortly thereafter hads we'll do our submission with the fda. this is currently not cleared with the fda and not available for sale but we're on a fast-track to make it available. ashley: how does that little box work there, and how quickly do the results come through? >> you use a little tiny device like this to spit in, with a little oral swish, or a nasal swab, you can take your pick and

put it into the device, then use your smartphone to activate the device and the test and the test is computed actually in the cloud and in less than 30 minutes you have an actual realtime pcr result and this differs radically from what you see in the less robust and less accurate antigen test, for example, which are also in-home and point-of-care sort of environment. this availability of at-home testing is probably the biggest paradigm shift in medical issues with respect to the pandemic that has been brought by the pandemic. dr. scott gottlieb opines that home testing is going to become ubiquitouses and this is going to open up a whole new field of pathogen testing in the at-home environment. this test is a long-ball for co- diagnostics. it's not just for covid. it has special optics in it that

will allow us to test several different diseases with one sample such as flu or rsv and covid all at the same time. it's a remarkable device, with remarkable science and technology behind it, dr. kirk r irey, dr. carl whitwer , who let the development of the device are part of the team at co- diagnostics virtue of the acquisition just announced. ashley: so i'm sorry to interrupt you but two quick questions how many tests can each box handle and any idea on the cost? >> well, this is meant to be a personal device, so that you can actually have on your desk, on your bathroom county, the device is inexpensive and it costs, it's anticipated to cost about $300, it will last for years, and the individual test cartridges that i showed with say in the 15 to $20 range and they will be delivering a lab quality pcr test so it's a revolutionary product.

ashley: and how far off do you think approval could be? >> well, we hope that this will receive the kind of attention that we believe it deserves from the fda. the fda has shown a great deal of capacity to pivot and adapt, or it meets the critical need and we think this definitely meets a critical need and we're excited to be able to bring it to market as soon as we have that approval. we'll do the same kind of approvals of course in the european union with the ce mark and in india. ashley: well it looks mighty impressive. we wish you the best of luck. dwight thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us about it today. thank you. all right fascinating stuff, right now this. california is known for its ambitious green goals but a new study shows it will likely miss its deadlines for cutting gas emissions by several decades. oops we've got the report. the holiday travel nightmare isn't over yet. nearly 900 flights have already been canceled today.

more than 1,000 are delayed, madison alworth has the report from laguardia airport, next. ♪ who says you can't go home, there's only one place that call me one of their own ♪

♪ wait, oh, yes ♪ wait a minute, mr. postman ♪ yeah, yeah, mr. postman - "dear michael, i appreciate your help, patience, and support through the reverse mortgage loan process. you are an asset to aag." this is from helen, a happy customer, who got a reverse mortgage loan from aag. you see, a lot of people aren't sure if a reverse mortgage is really right for them. so michael and all the experts at aag work hard to make sure you understand exactly what you're getting. they want to make sure you're happy. - [announcer] call aag today and find out how a reverse mortgage can help you eliminate monthly mortgage payments, pay for living expenses, and even high interest credit card bills. call now at the number shown on your screen.

- a reverse mortgage with aag can be easier than you might think. or as ann says, "working with folks at aag was like dealing with a friend who had our interests at heart". whether that's for paying off medical costs, or as dennis says, "finally getting that new truck i needed". reverse mortgage loans have helped over a million families get tax-free cash for a better retirement. - [announcer] if you're 62 and own your home, aag could help you get the right loan for extra retirement money. call today for your free no hassle reverse mortgage guide. call the number on your screen. - these letters show why aag has such a high customer satisfaction rating. "i feel so much better." "it's like a savior to me." so you wrote this. - yes. - thank you, edna. - [announcer] don't wait. see if a reverse mortgage is right for you.

call now, the number is on your screen. ♪ i just wanna fly ♪ ashley: i just wanna fly, but maybe you can't we'll find out you're taking a look at philadelphia international airport it's 38 degrees and cloudy pretty typical for december 27. by the way sunday's tsa numbers just out more than 2 million people passed through security checkpoints. that is a lot of folks, hopefully they all made their flight. well, despite thousands of flight cancellations and delays this weekend, let's go to madison alworth at laguardia

airport in new york city. madison, please tell me things are getting a little better. reporter: oh, ashley, i wish that i could, but we are still not doing super well when it comes to flight cancellations. hundreds today, here at laguardia the number is up from last time i spoke to you now over 30 cancellations here at this airport this all coming on the heels of this weekend where we saw thousands of flights delayed so let's take a look at where those cancellations stand currently. sunday saw the most cancellation s with 1,500 flights canceled. airlines like united say the spread of omicron has led to these staffing issues preventing planes from being able to get off the ground. united telling fox business that 115 flights have been canceled today, out of their 4,000 flight s. united also says that 50% of their passengers have arrived at their destination within four hours of their originally- scheduled flight. now, the travel industry is just fighting to come back during what should be the busiest time

of the travel year, struggling to make those flights happen. meanwhile, dr. fauci has said that we should not be ruling out a vaccine mandate for flying. take a listen. >> but if you're talking about requiring vaccination to get on a plane domestically, that is just another one of the requirements that i think is reasonable to consider if you want to do that with domestic flights i think that's something that seriously should be considered. reporter: but of course ashley, what we've been talking about is that these planes are just struggle together get off of the ground with all these delays and all these issues with staffing because of covid. all of this has actually led to some pressuring the cdc to shorten the amount of quarantine times that people can get back to work quicker, that's something we've seen in the healthcare industry, now airlines also looking for something like that. ashley? ashley: yeah, whatever it takes, madison thank you very much. interesting story here, a delta airlines flight from seattle turned around after flying more than half way to china.

delta claims they had to go back to the u.s. because they could not comply with new pandemic- related cleaning requirements at the airport in shanghai. in a statement, delta says the mandates require significantly extended ground time and are not operationally viable for delta. according to chinese media, the people on board the flight were left with expired covid test results and visas. and now this two cruise ships docked in florida with two covid positive patients, royal caribbean returned to fort lauderdale, the carnival freedom docked in miami on sunday after having to cancel several stops for positive cases on board. according to a passenger on twitter, carnival apologized and offered $100 credit to every room on board. all right, now this. let's take a look at the dow 30 stocks if we can very quickly

it's an update on this monday morning, and as you can see , 27 of the 30 stocks are in the green. walt disney, verizon and boeing the only laggards on the dow 30. a woman, by the way, is caught on camera robbing a rite aid store with a pick axe in los angeles, and there, she is. very threatening. the california congressman mike garcia will get into that and more, next. ♪ your shipping manager left to “find themself.” leaving you lost. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire

what if you could see the details of your great-grandparents wedding day... ...or the record that welcomed your great-grandmother to the world. your family story is waiting to be discovered, and now you can search for those fascinating details for free—at ancestry.

ashley: well, we know that california loves to to the its green policies, but according to new analysis the liberal state is falling way behind on its emission goals. kelly o'grady in la this morning , kelly? we know california's issued mandates requiring residents and businesses to switch to green energy, so what's the problem? reporter: well california isn't cutting its greenhouse gas emissions fast enough to meet

their own deadlines, and a lot of this is because of a lack of planning and execution and by the way if they keep going at this current rate they won't meet their goals, some of their goals until next century. so from 2018-2019 california cut their emissions by just 1.6%. to catch up it will instead have to decrease by 4.3% each year until 2020 that's more than double the year-over-year reductions recorded in recent years. now big surprise the biggest driver of emissions is transportation at 40.7%, and while the total number of zero emission vehicles registered in california is growing the adoption rate is not on pace for what's needed to meet the states 2025 target with the lack of an economy option and range anxiety plaguing drivers, and this speaks to a larger issue, i mean, there are plenty of mandates that force folks to switch to green energy, but there's a lack of energy, pun intended, focused on how to actually make that realistically , happen and i'll give you an example. california just banned the sale of small gas engines like lawn mowers by 2024. that switch is going to directly

impact the 55,000 landscaping small businesses in the state. 70% of which are minority owned by the way and there's a fund to help with this change but it works out to just $15 of support for piece of equipment when the expense to switch to those will cost these businesses in the $10,000 range, so instituting these deadlines with little plan for execution causes unnecessary economic harm, and policy critics are saying this is proof these draconian measures don't work, ashley. ashley: that's a very good place to leave it, kelly thank you so much. appreciate it. now, let's take a look at this , new video catches a woman wielding a pick axe as she steal s merchandise from a rite aid in los angeles. just walks right in with the axe this , of course, as crime continues to run rampant in california. congressman mike garcia republican from california joins us now. congressman, good morning. look this is your state. what are your constituents

saying about this crime wave? >> good morning, ashley. look this is yet another policy that is frankly in california and it's a continuation of us as a state falling behind on our criminal justice system. this is the product of very liberal policies over the course of the last decade or so, and i'll outline the five critical ones. we have a policy called ab-109 which forces local county jails to take prisoners who would otherwise go to a state prison, we have prop 47 which allows felonies to be charged as misdemeanors, prop 57 which allows for early release, and now we have a zero bail policy. this is all combined with open borders, defunding the police, a blm movement compromised the integrity of our law enforcement officers, and frankly, a dea in los angeles county that isn't filing charges against people when he should be this is leading to a wild west scenario and we're seeing it manifest right before our eyes. ashley: yeah, i hate watching this video. the way she just walks around,

fills up her basket and walks out. all right, so as the crime continues to grow and you've been calling on the dea in los angeles county george gascon to resign you're not the only one for sure but the question is how can you make that happen? >> yeah, i think the people need to make it happen. we have to first start by holding him accountable for his lack of accountability and charging these criminals he's effectively landing on the side of the criminals rather than the victims. we have folks who have committed murder against law enforcement officers now looking at an option of early parole because of gascon. we have minors who are being charged with sexual felonies who are looking at potentially not even going through the court system because of his new what he calls the ready program, which is a rehabilitating program for minors, so the people need to pay attention we need to hold him accountable, we need all elected officials to call for his resignation and ultimately push for a recall but he's certainly not helping our

county right now. the city of los angeles has effectively the penguin operating like in gotham city in the form of a da, and it's absolutely shameful. these are the policies we cannot allow to have uploaded to the federal government. this is the fight that we're fighting making sure that our nation doesn't become what california has become. ashley: and you have the mayor in san francisco saying, we need to get tough on crime. i mean, the horses bolted. it's so behind what's happening in front of them and so annoying and makes me absolutely awe struck about this whole thing, just confused is that why don't the people who live in california understand these policies don't work, and go out and vote these politicians out? >> yeah, it's a loyalty to the democratic party rather than their own security. i think that's changing and people are waking up seeing light and the other thing that is shocking is to hear nancy

pelosi act surprised and look surprised last week and pretend like she doesn't know where this is coming from is absolutely a bold face lie it comes from california and we need to make it stop. ashley: yes, absolutely. we'll have to leave it there but congressman, thank you so much for your time today. happy new year, take care. ashley: same to you, staying in california the los angeles lakers played their first game inside the newly-branded crypto .com arena to commemorate the opening night, the arena even created a limited time nft. the new name believed to be the richest naming rights agreement in sports history right about $0 million. that's a lot of money. all right now it's time for the monday trivia question. how large is the times square new years eve ball in diameter? you've got four options. the answer, when we come back.

. . .

ashley: all right. before the break we asked this question, how large is the times square new year's eve ball in die amter? i went for 15 feet. guess what? i was wrong. the answer by the way is 12 feet. we should also say new york is scaling back the times square ball drop this year. only 15,000 people watch it live in person. everyone who is there must be vaccinated and they need to wear masks. happy new year. let's take a look at the markets

as we head towards the end of this show. the dow as you can see up some 212 points. we have gained momentum all through the morning. that is good for a .6 of a percent gain. nasdaq come poise up 169 point and the s&p 500 which closed at a record last thursday, up again today nearly 1%. all right. david asman in for neil cavuto. david, take it away. david: ashley, good to see you, welcome to "cavuto: coast to coast." i'm david asman in for neil cavuto. happening this hour president biden speaking with a group of governors right now as omicron surges all over the country. he admits he has regrets how it has been handled. we have the latest on that. the administration trying to build back up from the build back better bust. will the president try to push this megaspending plan through by executive order? a mass migration is