thank you very much. markets up stronger. i am handing that to ashley. giving youths and strong green numbers, take it away. ashley: thank you. i have slippers on this morning. i put the painted shoes away for now but thank you for peeping. good morning, everybody. i'm ashley webster in for stuart varney. president biden says there is no federal solution to the surge in covid. he says it is up to the state. let me ask you this was why doesn't he rescind the osha mandate. when we were in the middle of the most contagious covid strain we've seen to date why is he on vacation in delaware. we will get into that. the cdc has shortened the quarantine time for people who tested positive. isolation time dropped to 5 days, they are not showing symptoms. they should then wear a mask

around others for five more days. will there be a vaccine mandate to travel within the country? doctor anthony fauci says it has been considered but is it necessary? we will sort it out. a travel nightmare i am sorry to say continues. 2500 flights canceled yesterday, 750 canceled already this morning. what a mess, reports from airports across the country. let's look at the markets after yesterday's huge numbers on monday, the santa claus rally certainly up and running, the dow, the s&p and the nasdaq again all modestly higher in the premarket. a 10 year yield at 148 yesterday, now around 146. continues to drop down one.7 basis points.

bitcoin up 50,000, now 49,000, down $2,265. as always we have a big show. jason chaffetz, mick mulvaney, michael goodwin and rob smith are among the guests. it is tuesday december 20 eighth 2021. "varney and company" about to begin. ♪♪ ashley: what a beautiful picture. the empire state building, the spire pointing into a partly cloudy sky, we are jumping into another day. let's get right to it. the cdc has changed its recommended quarantine time for people who tested positive for covid. we know it is down to five days. come on in, lauren. what else is the cdc saying about this?

>> regardless of vaccination status, if you are positive but a systematic, 5-day isolation which cuts it in half, 5 days of wearing a mask. if you are boosted and exposed, wear a mask for 10 days. if you are not boosted and you are exposed, 5-day isolation followed by 5 days of masking. i know it is confusing but it is easier. the first one is i think businesses are breathing a sigh of release, their workers can't come back to work a lot faster and this is a change, a a marked change in the way we define the virus and the way we let it in fact how we live. we ultimately remove the fear i think, the cdc new recommendations. ashley: the airlines among many are begging for workers to come back and that is why there have been so many canceled flights. maybe that will eventually

help. the president met with governors yesterday to talk about solutions to the surging covid cases. take a listen. >> one word of concern or encouragement for your team is as you look towards federal solutions that will help alleviate the challenge, make sure that we do not let federal solutions stand in the way of state solutions. >> president biden: there is no federal solution. this gets solve that state level. i'm looking at governor sununu on the board. he talked about a lot. he gets down to where the rubber meets the road. ashley: let's bring in our good friend jason chaffetz. the president finally agreeing i guess you could say with republicans, let the states make the decisions. what do you make of all this? >> i'm glad to hear the president say it.

i wish we were on the same playbook and read the same memo, they aren't doing that. the wall street journal in their editorial pointed out recently the osha mandate they are trying to pursue would be a first step in making that a reality. look back on it, objectively, what did biden and his team do over the last year to make the situation better, i can't think of a single thing. i don't think they have a plan at this point. it is not good enough for the president to throw up his arms and say i forgot to order the testing kits and i really should have done that. i also think one of the things we should be looking at is where is the health and human services secretary xavier becerra? he has been absent in this whole thing. it is a real mystery. he is nowhere on this. ashley: it is interesting

because when he came in he was going to be the post trump savior on everything and part of his big campaign was i'm going to beat this virus, the national crisis is not being handled properly and here we are. it is somewhat embarrassing. >> testing was one of the things biden and his team were most critical of. at the very beginning of the pandemic everybody did want to test the testing is one of the things you need to look at and in the next couple weeks we need to look at the metrics. the metrics of change. what are the most important metrics along the way. looking at people who have had covid and understanding natural immunity is far more superior than getting some sort of vaccination. we need to look at that. the masking requirement for

4-year-olds on airplanes and things like that are not necessary. what they are doing in schools is absolutely wrong. the administration is tone deaf, if they really want to change they got to get rid of fauci. america needs a second opinion. they need a new fresh face. ashley: it seems to me the general public is confused. >> i think they are confused. i don't think the president is a natural leader. i don't think the administration has a solid plan and i think they are hoping it goes away but when you have a staff say it is going to be the winter of death, and the president saying don't panic, those are conflicting messages the same day. ashley: on that happy note we leave it there but great stuff. thanks so much as always. thank you. at home, covid tests have been impossible to find. president biden said more tests are coming but also tried to

pass the blame again. who is he pointing the finger at? >> donald trump, it was a major campaign talking point for president biden, he said in march of 2020, quote, the administration's failure and testing is colossal, to echo what you were just talking about. but then this, in a stunning admission yesterday. >> president biden: seeing how tough it was for some folks to get test this weekend shows that we have more work to do. we are doing it. nicole: 9 months ago, biden said we are working on making at home tests available. where are they? it makes it hard to accept this argument that omicron took them off guard and also past their credibility and question. ashley: interesting. thank you very much. let's get to the markets was the day yesterday. nice gains. 60 ninth record close for the s&p.

in the premarket as you can see the dow, s&p and nasdaq just above the waterline, modest gains with let's bring in david nicholas. good morning to you. jpmorgan says investors are too bearish and there is no selloff insight which is an interesting statement. what say you? >> i agree with that. if you look at the s&p, 30% are trading below their 200 day moving average. we've seen the selloff in the larger index. when the news of the new variants came out, they are very emotional. we were seeing some of that so there were a lot of names beaten up recently but investors look at it. ashley: let's get to some of those. some of your stock picks, a surprise for me, southwest

airlines going through a tough time like all the airlines. >> 21% below the moving average, but a domestic model, less impacted by travel restrictions with doctor fauci, a vaccine to board a plane, i think that is crazy. devastating for the market, but as it opens up, a name like southwest, their balance sheet, sitting on almost $4 billion in cash. when the pandemic started they had $1.5 billion. they had strong financials and will do well as travel opens up. ashley: the next one on the list, best buy, electronics sales were not particularly robust this holiday season. why do you like best buy? >> the narrative that consumers aren't going to buy electronics. what they did earlier in the

pandemic, that is overblown. i think as the supply chain issues of 8, it will do great for name like best buy. we are looking for a dishwasher, the dishwasher broke. do you know how miserable it is to wash dishes by hand? we couldn't find it. i went online, they've got them in stock. it is a positive sign they are getting more inventory. ashley: thank you very much. we will talk about boeing but your pic is noted. thank you for joining us this morning, we appreciate it and good luck with the dishwashing. now this. breaking numbers on case shiller home prices. are they going up or down? lauren: they are up 18.4% year-over-year in october. that the latest data we have but still the fifth-largest gain we have ever seen. where our prices soaring if 18% wasn't enough?

the answer is where americans are moving, phoenix, prices of 32% on the year, 32%. if you look at florida, i know you know this, tap and naomi, prices of 25% annually. these red states are getting the big city, populations, some of the problems with affordability that come with it. ashley: 20 of sunshine too which helps. thank you very much. check futures as we have been saying ever so slightly on the upside before the bell rings at the bottom of the hour. meantime the founder of the 1619 projects as parents shouldn't be in charge of what their kids learn in school. role that tape. >> i don't understand the idea that parents should decide what is being taught. we should leave that to the educators. ashley: interesting, educators like her. she claims she's not a professional teacher by the way

despite being a college faculty member. should we start rolling out our sleeves for a fourth jab. what about here? i will ask doctor bob after this. ♪♪ 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

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beautiful clear skies. sunny, 62 degrees is your weather report. israel is conducting studies on the impact of a fourth covid shot. steve harrigan is in atlanta. have any of our health officials weighed in on the study. >> doctor fauci has weighed in and said it is too soon to tell. the first station to go ahead with a fourth vaccine against covid. it is still in the testing phase. they are working with 150 medical personnel all of them volunteers. >> i'm excited to be the first person in the world to get a fourth booster of the covid vaccine. to paraphrase an old saying, an old jab in the shoulder, a giant step for mankind. >> reporter: this comes as the omicron very into spreading around the world and the cdc has made a decision to reduce

the amount of isolation time for people who have covid are a synthetic for 10 days down to 5 days. it is a good thing as far as science goes the most of the setting of the virus occurs in those first 5 days. they also say it is important so that omicron won't disrupt the workforce anymore than it has to. ashley: thank you very much. now this. some experts in the uk weighing in on the need of a fourth dose of the covid vaccine. they say it might be necessary to safely protected. interesting stuff. what do you make of this? does this suggest the first booster shot, the third if you like, doesn't last very long and the fourth is needed fairly soon thereafter? >> we are not sure about that. i think the booster shot may be a little bit premature right now. the fourth shot.

the third shot we know does protect you from omicron infection to some degree but we know there are tremendous breakthrough infections with the omicron. it is a subject that is under study at the present time. ashley: interesting. another study says covid may spread to the heart and brain just days after infection. that is very frightening. what have you heard about that? is there a way to treat it? >> that is an amazing piece of research and it has to be further confirmed but basically it looks at the number of people who have been infected and died in 2020. the pathologists have taken sections of the heart and brain tissue and found are in a from the virus in those organs. we always wondered about heart attacks right after people get

infected and it is not right after, after they recovered, several months down the line they had heart attacks and died. the question is what the reason for the long haul syndrome, brain fog, heart disease, myocarditis, this may be the answer. it may be the rna of the virus stays around your body in certain organs and is concentrated even after you have recovered. ashley: no matter what the impact, we have to look with covid, is that correct? we change the makeup of the booster based on the latest variant? >> the booster is being worked on to take the latest variant. once the pandemic goes away and things are more controlled this virus is going to be endemic, not pandemic but endemic meaning like the flu we will need an annual booster shot probably altered to fit the

variance of the day. ashley: we are going to have to get used to living with it. great stuff as always. appreciate your insight. thank you. now this. goldman sachs says its return to office policy is changing, break it down. >> goldman sachs workers looking to get back to their desks in the office need a booster shot and starting in january they will test everyone two times a week. you are talking about boosters, this is easier for them to stay open because the cdc just said if you are boosted and exposed to the virus you do not need to quarantine, just wear a mask. of all the workers are boosted they can keep going to the work. then we are talking jeffries also, they let the charge sending workers home this month because of a spike in omicron

cases. guess what they want to get them back to the office, january 17th and that coincides with when we think omicron is going to peek. ashley: these plans change weekly if not daily. let's get a check of the futures if we can, showing a slight upside to the dow, the s&p, the nasdaq, c if that holds true because "the opening bell" is up next. ♪♪

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ashley: let's look at the futures pointing modestly higher before "the opening bell" rings. let's bring in greg smith to talk about the markets with you are calling the some babe ruth market. what does that mean? is in a home run? >> i have been pontificating to viewers may that i believe you hold on to your equities, the markets, the major indices will trade higher and we set record

in year end and as up-to-date is official. we are in the babe ruth market, just like the home run king. i continue to be bullish, but there's an underbelly to this good news and i'm sounding a small -- would you be surprised if i told you two thirds of all ipos done in 2021 are trading below their issuance price. this is a small area because an ipo is the holy grail of the american dream and it is pretty sad for these great companies to do an ipo, to find out the emperor has no clothes on. we saw a record $626 billion in issuance. half of that was ipos so this

is an issue for the fundamentals of the markets to continue to be strong, needs to be fixed. i would like to see better performance and one area looking at the lockups for insiders, i will probably have a lot of enemies the don't like what i have to say but you have 6-month markups on ipos and that is something that needs to be looked at and addressed and something to be put in place, time-based and performance-based lockups that helped the market performance of these ipos. ashley: all hate mail goes to greg smith on regulating lockups. any price targets for next year? what about the s&p? i had pretty bullish predictions. >> i shared with your colleagues a couple weeks ago that a 5400 price target that i think we will see the s&p trade

in the next year but i continue to be bullish and hold onto equities, trees don't go straight to the moon. is not a lineup but there will be bumps in the road but the outlook is positive. ashley: i love your optimism and yield. thank you very much. they are smiling on wall street, the nasdaq, a second trading day on the last week of the year on the way. a nice gain, record on the s&p 500. a record close with as we get the trading underway we should note the trading is pretty thin, traders enjoying the holidays but that can make a more volatile market but yesterday we saw the games, the s&p up again slightly as we saw in the premarket, out of the gate up four points, 4795, the nasdaq up another 25 points and as you see the dow up 28

points. modest gains, let's look at big tech, apple, back in on that $3 trillion mark. that is the good news, down a 12:45% but also alphabet moving higher, amazon moving higher but there's apple down a quarter of a%. let's move the prompter up. as for apple they are closing their stores. come on in. why are they doing that? >> the famous cube on fifth avenue which gets more visitors each year than the statue of liberty, close across the country in la county as well but no impact on apple stock. the apple store is more of an add-on service. most people by their apple phones and devices online. the stock is within striking

distance after the rally of 182-86, to get to $3 trillion market cap, first company ever to cross the milestone. iphone 13 selling well. a quarter of their sales, remember virtually every apple business segment is 100 company on its own. services max, fortune 100 company and each of those categories and segments. the company makes a third of $1 trillion in sales each year. when people try to wrap their head around these numbers, we have a third of $1 trillion in sales issue, that is why. ashley: only $3 away from the milestone, coin base. >> the fed rally, the best start to the santa claus rally the last five days of the year,

in 20 years and i would say apple is helping drive the s&p rally as well. we see it in the last five years. ashley: it portends good things going into the new year. talking about coin base. what is going on? >> 50,000 on bitcoin which is surprising, bitcoin trades crypto pricing and this is an interesting break in trends for bitcoin that has traded in lockstep with the s&p 500. stocks go up, crypto and bitcoin pricing go up. december, bitcoin is down 5% whereas the s&p 500 is up 10% so you see the break in the first time since june that the performance on the broader index. you have spoken to them. a lot of people saying there's a lot of money chasing year end gains going to come into and that, their predictions bitcoin going to 60,000 plus.

ashley: let's take a look at the chipmakers too. they are getting a boost from that high demand short supply price rise. >> on demand we have supply easing next year, chipmakers saying micron, nvidia is the chip king making chips in all the right fast going categories and they on the future, metaphors, nvidia up four days in a row, semi-index at a record high yesterday, amd running up as well and chipmakers have pricing power in this environment with a lot of high demand and short supply which is why they are committing the stocks despite high valuations. nvidia has doubled 100% plus on your money back. ashley: let's talk about tesla, fourth-quarter deliveries may be out soon.

>> we will get that over the holidays, could get it on january 1st, most likely next week, analysts looking for 276,000 plus tesla deliveries, until your delivery number way past 800,000 and rbcs, 900,000, record blowout year for tesla and analyst dan ives with that note on tesla, $1,400 on tesla stock, china, berlin, keep tesla dominating the space worth $3 trillion already. ashley: let's talk about real estate. howard hughes said the real estate people completed a major deal. >> makes you think who got it right, the buyer or seller, howard hughes has agreed to

sell a controlling interest in bank of america tower in downtown chicago, the buyer is private equity firm worth $1 billion according to the wall street journal so when you have low interest rates set to go, who has it right, the seller by real estate when you have credit putting chic up there. ashley: through. let's look at moderna if we can. they are in the middle of a losing streak. >> that is reversed, that is how volatile things are as you mentioned. moderna was set for six losses so you are down five sessions in a row. vaccinemakers have underperformed despite a record global covid case thanks to the omicron spread but the first case i was reporting in the us people scramble to buy into vaccine makers with expectation many people will be rushing to get their booster shots. ashley: i think you are right

but no half fax up and one and 3 quarters of one%. lots of information. look at the dow winners if we haven't. boeing is up one% and walgreens, walt disney, dow, united health, all these stocks moving higher in the dow up 116 points was the s&p winners, apache energy play, the energy companies doing well, up 2%. take a look at the nasdaq, activevision up one%. comcast up nearly 1%, t-mobile up nearly 1%. some gains across the board, the dow itself up 131 points or their about picking up on yesterday's moment. take a look at the 10 year yield continuing to edge ever so slowly lower down two basis points at under 146, one.49.

gold is up slightly, $5, $1,814 if roy ounce. take a look at bitcoin, above 50,000 yesterday, down $2,435 a day, just over 48,800. taking a look at crude up one%, crude at 7618 and natural gas. we will see what gas is doing, down $0.10 under $4, the average price for a gallon of regular across the country, there is, $3.28 but we like to point out what is in california a whopping $4.66. no wonder people are losing out. the white house's top doctor says we should consider requiring vaccines for domestic flights. role tape. >> recommend to president biden there should be a requirement for vaccination, for domestic travel.

>> that is just another one of the requirements that is reasonable to consider. ashley: just hours later doctor fauci was forced to clarify that. we will tell you what he is saying now. bad news for olive garden fans. never-ending pasta ball may be coming to a end. we've got the details. remember the backlog of cargo ships in ports like la and long beach, they are finally set to dock in the coming weeks but my next guest says that doesn't mean president biden fix the supply chain mess. sounding off after this. ♪♪ come sale away with me ♪♪ come sale away ♪♪ come sale away ♪♪ come sale away with me ♪♪ come sale away ♪♪ come sale away ♪♪ come sale away with me

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ashley: have a nice day says bon jovi. 40 miles southwest of atlanta, 63 degrees and a little cloudy. democrats are quick to point out americans have more money in their pockets than before the pandemic. they ignore rising inflation. lydia, how could this serve democrats in the midterms? >> reporter: the economy is a point of particular vulnerability for the democrats and inflation is soaring and president biden's approval ratings are slumping with his bills back better plan cast into an uncertain future. president biden cs the opportunity to highlight retail sales saying when i took office our economy was on the brink of collapse.

now americans have more money in their pockets than before the pandemic and retail sales were up 8.5% compared to last holiday season but data comes as inflation is running at a near 40-year high outpacing increases for the average hourly wage. >> inflation spikes 6.8% in november. >> in his video the republican national committee targets president biden and nancy pelosi for rising prices for gas and holiday gifts forcing consumers to pay 13% more than a year ago and 58% more for gasoline. a recent foxbusiness poll shows inflation caused 2 thirds of voters to experience financial hardship and twice as many voters believe biden's policies

are hurting rather than helping inflation. >> the administration has been dismissive of inflation. that is the problem. unless they can figure out a way to turn that around that will drive the numbers in november and we could look at republicans picking up 40, 50 seats in the house, three, four, five senate seats if inflation does not get turned around. >> they are all up for election next year, democrats hold a slim eight seat majority in the house, 34 senate seats out of 100 out of election, the senate easily divided between republicans and democrats, vice president harris serving the president of the senate to give democrats a narrow majority. ashley: interesting stuff. the country was not on the brink of economic collapse when president biden took office.

let's bring in gerald starts to talk all things retail. you say president biden has done nothing to fix the supply chain problems. make your case. >> the supply chain is not fixed. the biggest problem is the ongoing labor shortage. there are unfilled position for truck drivers so you can't move the goods. there are 400,000 open positions for warehouse workers, you can't sell goods and ship them back out again. there are 10 to 15 million unfilled jobs in the country which is why things aren't working, that's the biggest problem, driving inflation and shortages. if you want to look at the ships, supply chain more complicated. 97 of them offshore, not much

of a reduction and it takes 10 days to get the container onto a truck. there are no truck drivers. meanwhile, this will continue a long time. if you don't fix the labor issue, over half of the existing -- not being taken by anyone because there are no trucks. ashley: no trucks to take the goods. you bring up the cargo ships, they are full of retail goods set to be unloaded the next few weeks slowly. these are goods and for the holidays. what do the retailers do with these products? >> all kinds of cool stuff thomas of it is pretty good still and will sell just fine. if it is -- the biggest movement and apparel over the

last 20 years beat up the supply chain so the apparel is fresh because the day of pizza closing starts to go bad. no one wants to buy last year's clothing. they are full of clothing and we see impacts for the retailers involved. ashley: you got it off your chest. thank you, we hear what you have to say. coming up over 100 nfl players that is the covid list in just one day. we take you in the league's battle with covid. the travel nightmare just goes on as hundreds of flights are delayed or canceled for a fifth straight day. we take you to chicago's o'hare airport for a live report after this. ♪♪

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ashley: let's look at the airline stocks moving up a little bit but the misery continues for travelers on the

fifth straight day of major disruptions. make tobin's at chicago's o'hare airport. any relief in sight? >> there is a little relief, it's getting a little better. it doesn't sell by the pilot in tsa at chicago's o'hare airport but the line piling up but it does that not necessarily due to the cancellations. there is not a lot of red on the board. a little bit of flight cancellations, use always in the days leading up to this, 1200 flights canceled due to the combination of coronavirus cases and bad weather in the pacific northwest. if you look at flightaware.com it looks like the bigger city

the bigger the airport the more delays, more flight cancellations and you see that in the red. this particular backup started on christmas eve when the coronavirus cases among airline employees and mirrored that of the general population and started to spike with the omicron variance, they didn't have enough staff to operate the flights and that is where you saw the cancellation, combine that with bad weather, alaska airlines got sick hard, skywest airlines not hit hard. for the airline industry, for the guidance trying to get home or make it to work after the holidays it is a disaster. >> my plane was canceled unfortunately. >> are we chopped liver or something? >> they stopped and sat there for a second. we've got some bad news for you and everyone goes -- >> two developments to watch

impacting air travel, the industry representatives went to the cdc answer reduce the amount of isolation for someone who tests positive. cutting the quarantine time in half for someone who is symptomatic from 10 days to 5 days to get staff back to work, doctor fauci recommending vaccine mandates for air travelers. they will see how they churn as time goes on. ashley: a little bit of hope from chicago, the 10 am hour of "varney and company" is next. ♪♪ it's an entire trading experience.

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♪. ashley: the sun just touching the freedom tower there. you bring into view the empire state building, beautiful pictures this morning. good morning, everybody. it is 10:00 in the morning eastern time. i'm ashley webster in for stuart varney today. let's get straight to your money in. the markets as you can see moving modestly higher. s&p a quarter of a percent. nasdaq slightly higher but the

dow picking up 186 points, good for half a percent gain. treasury yield, edging down a last several sessions. look at bitcoin it was above 51,000, is down 2180 bucks at 49,125 on bitcoin. now this, president biden met with governors yesterday to talk about solutions to the surging covid cases. take a listen. >> one word of concern or encouragement for your team as the, as you look towards federal solutions that will help alleviate the challenge make sure that we do not let federal solutions stand in the way of state solutions. >> look there, is no federal solution. this gets solved at a state level. i'm looking at governor sununu

on the board here. he talks about that a lot. it ultimately gets down to where the rubber meets the road. ashley: that is interesting. bill mcgurn is with us this morning. i guess the appointment we're saying here haven't republicans been saying this all along. >> yes. there is not quite unforgiving being held to standards you set for other people. when joe biden was running for president he promised to shut covid down, right? he also said that the president trump was unfit and should resign the because of the number of deaths that occurred from covid on his watch. there have been many more deaths under his watch. it is a turn to reality but shows one of the problems of joe biden and his team. they politicized covid throughout the campaign, may have helped them get elected but puts them in a bad way. he is right, there is no solution. i wish he would go further and

say look, the real solution we'll have to harness our private sector and our technology to learn ways to live with this that mitigates risk. ashley: right, right. i want to get to this. you have a new op-ed hearing is titled senator biden's shrinking presidency. i think i'm going out on a limb here bill, you're not impressed with his first year in office, right? >> no. a lot of it is connected with the 36 years he spent in the senate. you know the senate has some very learned minds, some very impressive figures. they're not executives. they are not legislators. they do things collectively. it is easy to give a big speech in the senate. in the senate you can be very old, as long as you can be wheeled in for your vote no one thinks anything of it. it is very different when you're president in the public eye all the time. jen psaki, spokeswoman was

joking before christmas he always thinks of himself as a senator. i think that is the problem. he hasn't shown the leadership. the one area where his senate experience might have have helped was he had a reputation in the senate for being genial colleague who would work across the aisle for legislation. but for some reason as president he could do it all with democrats when they have a tight majority. so i think a lot of this is that he doesn't understand the leadership required of a president. ashley: quickly, bill, is that partly because not reaching across the aisle because he is being pulled so far to the left by progressives in his own party? >> that is the problem. when you don't lead and say, this is what i want. this is what the party should do, you leave it open to all-comers and the progressives have the largest voice, if not the most votes. that is what he has done. he has let aoc and bernie drive his agenda, instead of --

democrats can't even say what joe biden's bottom lines are right? because he shifts them all the time. ashley: right. we'll have to leave it right there. >> okay. ashley: great stuff, bill mcgurn, thank you very much, bill, appreciate it. >> thank you. have a good knew year. ashley: yes, you too, sir. let's bring in lauren. what's jpmorgan saying this morning? lauren: investors are just too bearish that we've taken a hawkish central bank and the omicron narrative too far. jpmorgan does not see a selloff in sight. they also credit the record buybacks, positive seasonality that is january. all this is good news and yesterday pulled this quote, this was the moneymaker for me, they say we do not expect omicron to impact the growth outlook significantly. it will accelerate the end of the pandemic. so maybe this is the beginning of the end? fingers crossed. ashley: yes, let's hope. all right, lauren, thank you.

guess who is with us now? really great friend, been with the show so many years, scott shellady is with us. good morning, scott. >> morning. ashley: do you agree with jpmorgan, no selloff in sight? >> well, you talk about the beginning of the end, if we're talking about omicron or the end of something else? i think we will have selloffs but the problem, jpmorgan is not the problem. the reason jpmorgan is saying what they're saying there is no other alternative. you did the bond yield before we came on [inaudible] so i think what the bonds are telling me, remember, ashley the bond market is a lot bigger than the equity market, there will be either a hiccup with the economy or a hiccup with the fed but it isn't going to work out everybody thinks it is going to work out. now we all know that the fed has a afghanistan decision on their hands. they need to get out, we just don't know how.

so that is the problem. either they raise rates to curtail inflation but kill the economy or let inflation run and kill the consumer. they don't have an easy decision to make. i think the bond market is telling us, to go back a year before we started this. we were beauian that the economy will get going, we'll have gdp numbers off the charts because we'll be comparing ourself to a economy that was shut down, well, what a big disappointment 2021 was because here we sit with we're slowly going back to the gdp just under 2%. i think we'll struggle here. i want to be excited about the future. i think jpmorgan will probably end up being right because there is no earth place to go and the bond market will tell you that. here we sit, omicron will be done, right? that will be done but we can't forget about the fact that we still have rampant inflation, supply chain issues, those types

of things are going to hinder the economy. ashley: yeah. it could be other greek letters coming down the line. i want you to take a look at the headline in the "wall street journal," scott. it reads, "omicron variant is expected to dent global economy in early 2022". i guess my question to you is, is that accurate and how big of a dent? >> it's 100% accurate and the dent will be big. just depends who is in power and the country that we're talking about that is happening in because i'll tell you right now, ashley, i think a lot of people agree with me on this, we all can agree omicron is more transmissible and not as severe. however, it is just good enough to scare your constituents and beat them over the head again into submission. that is what its going to be. not about whether it is dangerous or it is killing people, look we have may more

cases and way less deaths. nobody is talking about the deaths and hospitalization. so they're going, the leaders in charge are going to beat up their constituents, turn them into subjects with the new variant or whatever new greek letter we've got and to keep their power and keep people subjugated and that is going to dent the economy, no matter how light or how easy omicron or the next greek letter may be that is why it will affect the economy. look, we're talking about, look at all the events getting canceled in the face of something not that serious. we're talking about canceling school again in chicago over something that is not serious. we are not seeing people die like last year. we're not seeing hospitalizations. we've got omicron, we're supposed to keep you scared, do what we say, take away more of your rights. that is the bottom line. ashley: ai agree. wanted very quickly, 30 seconds, inflation, the biden administration says it's the greedy profiteering meat

processing companies, the energy companies, the shipping container companies, they're all conglomerates, taking advantage of a situation to raise prices. how do you respond to that and when do we get a handle on inflation, do you think? >> i think we'll get a handle on it a little better towards the end of the year, really what he is saying, the administration is saying success is bad. you you're not allowed to make money. not allowed to be a leader. not allowed to be elon musk. those types of people are bad. look how they attack leadership, how they attack success, how they attack people that do well. those are type of things they don't like. they will blame anything they can on success. their idea of leadership is everybody is equal, nobody stands out. ashley: right. >> that is not my idea of leadership or idea of success f you're petrol company you make money you're bad if you're elon

musk, you make money, you're bad. success is bad. that is what they're saying. forget about why they're saying it, that is the message. ashley: i think you nailed it, absolutely nailed it. scott shellady, thank you so much, scott, appreciate you being here this morning. thank you, sir. let's bring in lauren simonetti. lauren you're watching novavax. lauren: sure am because their covid vaccine just received emergency use approval in india and that stock is up 8.25%. let's take a look at disney, ashley. "spider-man," $242 million in profits. after you factor out the cost of making the movie paying the actors, could triple to 600 million according to deadline. why? not just the box office but character sales. one more note on disney for you up 2% right now, typhoon lagoon opens in florida the day after new year's. it has been closed since march of 2020. that is a popular one. last one for you, inexpensive

stock. it is called flow tech chemistry and company, they make air disinfectants. they received 33% gain for all or buyout of the company. i know it is 75 cents but it is a big gain. ashley: 33%, that is 19 cents. lauren, thank you very much. one analyst says costco may be raising membership fees. stuart varney is not going to be happy about that. do we know how much more and when? lauren: we do. five to $10 in about nine months. that is according to guggenheim. they say this is a good thing for the stock. it is the first increase in five years. so if you're a gold star member, your fee goes to 65 to lars. executive membership goes to 130 bucks a year. think of all the extra money costco is paying for labor, inflation, shipping, et cetera, higher membership, if you're an

investor, higher membership fee is definitely a positive. ashley: stuart varney just sputtered in his coffee when he heard the news. lauren, thank you very much. appreciate that. now this, five red states extended unemployment benefits. more may soon follow suit. we'll tell you which states those are. founder of the 1619 project waging war against parents. she claims they don't need a say in their own child's education. we've got that story. plus new york is sending 6 million covid tests to schools in new york but one mom says omicron's low risk to children shouldn't upend their lives. that mom, naomi schaefer riley, joins me next. ♪. before investing consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. go to flexshares.com

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♪ ashley: life goes on. ah, the beatles. i'm not so sure that is one of stu's favorites. one he goes, i don't like that. you're looking at phoenix, arizona. cloudy in phoenix, what? it is cloudy and, is that a misprint? 47 degrees. how are they handling that in phoenix? all right, let's get on with the news of the day. the biden administration grappling with a severe shortage of tests while the number of covid cases continues to rise. rich edson is in rehobeth beach with the president. how is the president responding to this issue? reporter: good morning, ashley. i think phoenix's weather is like rio-- rehobeth's weather a

little dryer. shortly after the president arrived here last night to the delaware shore, the centers for disease control announced it was shortening the quarantine period it suggests if you have been infected. if you're asymptomatic, cdc, five days, quarantine, you test negative, you can mask. that used to be 10 days. in their news release the cdc says questioned the change is motivated by science, demonstrating the majority of sars-covid-2 transmission occurs in the early course of the illness, generally one to two days prior to the onset of symptoms and two to three days after. all of this as there is that worker shortage, especially when it comes to airlines and in health care workers. this will help address that. >> anyone who is infected, whether you're an unvaccinated person or whether or not you have a breakthrough infection following your vaccination. what it means, instead of

keeping people out of action, out of work, out of society, for 10 days, if you're infected and without symptoms, then you have five days of isolation and then you can go back out into society with a mask worn consistently. reporter: before leaving the white house yesterday the president met virtually with a bipartisan group of governors confronting surging cases. the president again stressed unvaccinated americans should get their shots and stay out of hospitals. the administration tried to implement a vaccine mandate for health care workers and large employers. legal challenges to those mandates have made their way to the supreme court. there will be a special hearing there early next month. the administration is pushing increased testing though the president said he wished he pushed that strategy monthses ago. the white house is trying to buy a half billion at home kits americans can get free on-line,

the website knit up yet and the tests won't go out until early next month. "vanity fair" reported that the administration passed in october to prepare for the holiday season to try to prevent a holiday surge of testing. the president denies the administration rejected that proposal. ashley? ashley: rich edson, with the president down in rehobeth beach. rich, thank you very much. now this, new york is sending out millions of covid tests to school districts across the state. let's bring in naomi schaefer riley. naomi you say omicron low risk to kids should not upend their life. what do you think the school districts should be doing? >> well it is absolutely true. i think really there is agreement across the board we have made kids pay the price for the pandemic. we have shut schools. there has been almost no effect on covid spread but there has been an enormous affect on kids

physical, mental health. i was recently looking up some statistics. little league baseball seems to pose a higher risk to kids mortality than covid does. you don't see parents keeping them home from little league as a result of that risk. it is "time for kids" to take remote schooling off the table. it is not real schooling. it should not be an option nor any school district. the president agrees. the governor of new york agrees. every school district should be taking note. but you already see districts like chicago talking about going back to remote schooling. districts, even private schools in new york who are saying oh, we might keep kids home for a few days after break. they're now going to rely on this as a strategy when ever they see case numbers go up but there is no evidence there is real risk to kids. ashley: all right. i will switch subjects for you, naomi, get into this issue. the founder of the 1619 project says parents should not be in charge of what their kids learn in schools. listen to this i will get your

comment. >> i don't really understand this idea that parents should decide what's being taught. i'm not a professional educator. i don't have a degree in social studies or science. we send our children to school because we want them to be taught by people who have expertise in the subject area. that is not my job. ashley: what the heck is that? one, she is a professional educator, so you know, can't say that she shouldn't have a say but the overall premise here, naomi, that parent shouldn't have any say. i want your response. >> this is absurd on so many levels. first of all obviously the educators have completely failed our children. 3/4 of american adults cannot even name the three branches of government. we have failed on that front. it is time for other people to get involved in what is going on in our schools. second of all the vast majority of teachers in our public school have education degrees. they have no expertise in the subject they're actually teaching. so this whole leave it up to the experts plan is not working

either. and third, the absolute gal, the chutzpah of nikole hannah-jones who is offering a education curriculum to every school in this country and she has no phd in history, she has never published a book on american history, but we are just supposed to take her word for what american history has been and it has been shown by professionals historians to be a complete load of bunk. the idea parents should stay out of after the complete failures of system and people like nikole hannah-jones who are claiming they are experts when they're really not, so infuriating. i cannot say. ashley: i'm so glad we got you fired up this morning, naomi. as always -- >> have to calm down. ashley: thank you so much. now this, a harvard professor was just convicted of taking payments from china. lauren, what is going on here? lauren: okay. so the former chair of harvard's chemistry department, dr. charles lieber, he was paid

$50,000 a month by china's communist party to collaborate with them, help them get this comprehensive, penetration of u.s. talent, intelligence and technology so they can beef up their position as a world power. professor lieber was convicted of not disclosing that relationship with china when he received $15 million of grant money from the u.s. department of defense and the national institutes of health. he didn't disclose the fact he was being paid by china. ashley, i have to say, $50,000 a month is cheap for china to penetrate and infiltrate our universities, to get all of this information, with national security implications this is a wake-up call for other universities to make sure you know what your staff is stooge. the university didn't know and the irs didn't know. that is why he was in trouble. ashley: i am glad he got caught. susan, thank you. if you're hoping to get a break

at the grocery store, don't hold your breath. many food manufacturers plan to raise prices even more of a the new year. that is great news, right? mick mulvaney that democrats economic agenda is fueling inflation and they don't care. >> more money, fewer goods and services that is the formula for inflation and that doesn't go away because covid might go away or we find a better vaccine. inflation is real. democrats don't seem to care. ashley: mick mulvaney will be joining me right after this. ♪.

♪. ashley: all right. now this, let's check the markets for you. nasdaq now just turning slightly negative but the dow up 171 points, the s&p up just modestly. susan is back. susan, looking at some of the movers. what is going on with oil? susan: the oil complex getting a lift today with another jump in oil pricing so you had another bunch being added per barrel, the highest oil price we've seen in over a month. gas buddy, just predicted, not

good for drivers, four bucks a gallon by memorial day. opec meeting to decide about oil supplies a lot going on in oil markets. recovery trade of the year with apache and the rest. the dow outperforming today. the dow outperforming the s&p. thanks to a big rally in boeing shares. 737 max has just been cleared to fly once again in indonesia which was the site as you know of the first fatal max jet crash back in 2019. i want to show the high-tech, high growth names back up on the lower treasury yields. roku was up pretty big, 5% there. roblox, pinterest, lower yields mean less money, guaranteed money on government bonds it goes into riskier names like high growth names. ashley: very good, susan, thank you. and now this, new estimates show that food prices could surge another 5% in the first half of 2022. that's the bad news. gerri willis is here with us.

gerri, is there any end in sight for these rising costs? reporter: no, look, ash, if you like to eat, if you like to drink wine, drink beer, guess what, you will have higher prices next year for sure. as you said food prices-off all in the first half expected to rise 5%. let's dig right into that. mondelese already said its cookies, candies, other products will rise six to 7% and craft hines is -- kraft-heinz is raising prices. general mills and campbells soup will raise prices starting next month. watch out for the ritz crackers and oreo cookies. what is interesting the biggest price hikes are to the heavier products, wine, beer, liquor, potatoes, get this, even celery, they will carry higher price tags as higher freight and labor costs push up the cost of transport. staples like mayo and frozen

meals will be pricier. supermarkets which operate on super narrow margins have been trying to hold the line to keep customers by holding down prices on basics like milk and eggs and raising prices on specialty items. it is not really clear how long that strategy can hold. consumers are in a vise grip of higher prices after gas rose to its highest level in seven years in november and home heating sources spiked with natural gas prices up 158% at their peak in 2021. look, bottom line, transitory inflation, the federal reserve told us all about ain't so temporary and you can bet consumers will be trading down when it comes to buying at the grocery store just so they cover the essentials. back to you. ashley: yes. wow, gerri, chips, wine, mayo, talking about the major food groups for me, gerri. not good news for me. thank you very much. reporter: absolutely. ashley: yes, not good news.

thank you very much. good time to bring in mick mulvaney. okay, mick, you say inflation is real. we know that but you say democrats just don't care. >> yeah. and i want to explain that a little bit because what i think i'm trying to say democrats don't really care much about economic policy and if they do they only care about it towards the end of social policy. that is what drives most democrats. not most democrats. only two parties in this country to paint with broad brush, the progressives wing of this party, don't care about economics, it is about growing the government. that sounds like evil plan but it is not. you did a piece of the role of government in education. the democrats like it when the government does more. because they think they are better at it than you. they are more than willing to take a little bit of inflation a lot of inflation in order to get that done. facing inflation, ash, as i said before, too much money is chasing too few goods. democrats have thrown a bunch of money into the system with a

government spending. at the same time made it harder to get goods and services to market that adds inflationary pressures but it grows the government. the government has more money to spend and the government has more regulations to promulgate. this is what you're seeing the economic results of democrat social policy and they will continue to push that regardless the impact on inflation. ashley: yeah, but you know what is interesting, mick, the biden administration is all going, looking at antitrust issues that the meat producers are colluding to raise prices. the energy companies, shipping container companies and they blame these big companies for inflation. >> sure. that is what they will continue to do because the reality it is their own fault. so it is always smart politically to try to find someone else to blame your problems on. they will look around at big oil, big ag, whatever, not really the government's fault. not because we spent a bunch of money and raised regulations,

these nasty people, most folks don't like anyway are doing it to you. it is classic sort of trying to deflect attention away from the true causes. keep in mind biden tried a couple weeks back to solve our gasoline crisis by releasing 50 million gallons, barrels of oil from the petroleum reserve. that is only go days supply. it is window-dressing at this time to draw attention away from the fact that underlying democrat policies are doing this to the american public. ashley: all right. great stuff. we'll have to leave it there. mick mulvaney, thank you for joining us this morning. we do appreciate it. >> thank you. ashley: thank you. some experts by the way are warning that the next few months will be critical to determine if the ongoing supply chain crisis will extend into 2023. let's bring back in lauren. what are they saying? lauren: yeah. well, chinese new year is upon us, february 1st starts seven day public holiday.

what does it do? takes the supply chains off-line. couple that with omicron and china's zero covid policies, this supply chain crisis could get really bad before it gets better. experts are saying, wait until the end of february. we'll have a better idea how bad it is to determine whether we can recover for it or from it, right? will it be end of this year or 2023? if you look at number of ships waiting outside of california ports you want to say it is going into 2023 unfortunately. a lot of people, ashley, got gift cards for christmas, up 43% this year. what are they going to buy with those gift cards when they to to the store? you might want to wait to hold on to them. ashley: that is a very good point. we're still no, not enough truck drivers, those goods are going nowhere at the ports. lauren, thank you very much. >> that too. ashley: yeah. the supply chain crisis could fizzle your new year's evening plans. there is a champagne shortage.

you may need to dig deeper into your pockets to get your hands on bubbly. say it ain't so. we have details. airlines are struggling with staffing shortages and more travelers are getting stranded after testing positive for covid. we have a report from philadelphia international airport next. ♪. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

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ashley: now this, dr. fauci weighing in on a vaccine mandate for air travel, that is. come in, lauren. is this about domestic travel? lauren: it is. it is. another way to push people to get vaccinated. here is fauci. >> when you make vaccination a requirement that is another incentive to get more people vaccinated. if you want to do that with domestic flights i think that is something that seriously should be considered. lauren: we don't know, ashley,

if he actually made this recommendation to president biden but i mean it would get pushback for two main reasons. you could list a lot. i will give you two. people are fighting on planes because they are just fed up. and two, omicron is surging in highly vaccinated areas. so with this variant it is debatable whether vaccine mandate would even work. ashley: that is very true. lauren, thank you. more than 1000 flights have been canceled and even more delayed just monday alone as covid driven staffing shortages continue to disrupt holiday airport travel. jeff flock is at a philadelphia international airport this morning. jeff, has this morning been any better for travelers? reporter: in a word, ashley, no. ashley: oh. reporter: a lot of cancellations and delays today as well. take a look at numbers, latest numbers from flightaware. 820 cancellations so far already

today. 1200 plus delays. good piece of news, you talked to lauren about dr. fauci, he actually clarified yesterday, i guess you could say walked back what he had said earlier. that is to say he is not right at the moment pushing for a vaccine mandate. that is good news for the airlines. here is how he put it in his own words? >> i did not say i support mandates domestic flights. i said that is something that is on the table for consideration. i didn't say i support it or didn't support it. reporter: another piece of good news i think fair to say for the airlines, ashley, something they were pushing for. they were getting a lot of workers that were testing positive for covid not symptomatic. they had to be out of work for 10 days. new regulations that is what is leading to the delays and the cancellation of flights, long lines, all the rest. now new regulations from the cdc

says you only have to be in quarantine for five days if you're symptomatic. if you're boosted and exposed to covid you don't even need to go into quarantine. you simply need to mask. so good news there. reaction from the cdc or i should explanation from the cdc in the personal of rochelle walensky, we want to make sure there is mechanism to keep society functioning while following the science. airlines have been pushing this all along to ease the staffing crunch. airlines reacting to us as well. get you one more quote. glasses out for it as well. aviation workforce is essential to operation of air travel, cargo supply chains, we appreciate the cdc updating the guidelines and action is based on science. always good when it is based on

science. ashley: always. jeff flock, glasses and all. i empathize with you. and now this, the cdc says it is actively investigating cruise ships. we go from the air to the seas, following covid outbreaks on board. come back in lauren. how many ships are under investigation? lauren: 68 are either under investigation or observation. they include all the big ones, carnival, royal caribbean, region gent, and disney. why? outbreaks on board. most of these ships are fully vaccinated passengers. they have a lot of safety protocols in place. so yes the cdc is looking into this. but they note, look, it is impossible for cruises to be a zero risk activity. if that is the goal i don't think they will get there, ashley. we have people wearing masks on the ship the whole time. ashley: yeah. exactly. it has been so tough for "the croods" industry. they were really the poster-child at the beginning of

the pandemic. now here we are again year-and-a-half later. so it has been a tough road, certainly. choppy seas i guess is the right analogy. lauren, thank you very much. now this, the u.s. china trade deal, signed under president trump is set to expire on friday. the question is what happens next? i will ask christian whiton that question in our next hour. president biden's approval rating sinking to 43% in a new poll. michael goodwin says his numbers are in the danger zone because the president doesn't have a plan to tackle covid and keeps blaming trump. michael goodwin is next. ♪. your shipping manager left to “find themself.” leaving you lost. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do.

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move, look, and feel better. it targets more than just joint pain and treats the multiple symptoms like joint swelling and tenderness, back pain, helps clear skin and helps stop further joint damage. 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. it's good to be moving on. watch me. move, look, and feel better. ask your rheumatologist about cosentyx. ashley: taking a look at the markets does the santa claus rally continue. kind of, a bit of a mixed picture. nasdaq just below the water line, just down slightly four points. the dow up half a percent. the s&p up, up .2 of a percent. two out of three on the upside. now take a look at this op-ed from the "new york post,"

and it reads, biden deliver as double dose of ineptitude as covid, bbb, "build back better" bedevil his presidency. the author of that piece, michael goodwin. great to see you. michael you join us, i want to ask you, those two issues, bbb, covid, the two issues i would argue for the presidency, would you say getting a failing grade on both? >> good morning, ashley. i would give him a failing grade on both. that column was in response to the president's speech a week ago where he laid out this commitment to battling covid. he was going to do all kinds of new testing regimes and sending tests, you know, even directly to homes and thinks like that. and this appeal, we're going to get through this, we'll beat this. this was an obligatory speech. there was no passion to it. there was really little new in

it. but then afterwards, the question and answer to reporters he became very animated talking about the "build back better" bill and specifically trying to get joe manchin to support it and you contrast the two. the coronavirus is harming america in so many important and fundamental ways and the "build back better" thing is a purely optional choice by democrats to try to transform america as they say. well it seems to me that the president's first attention and where he really should put his passion is in battling the coronavirus but we saw again yesterday where he said to the governors, there is no federal solution. i mean it is almost as though he has given up on the most important issue facing the presidency. ashley: yeah. it is fascinating, isn't it? because republicans forever have been saying look, let the states, they know their states the best because they live there, let the governors office,

let the local people handle it. biden said no. i'm the leader. campaigned on it. and as you have just pointed out michael, yesterday throws it back into their laps. questions have been raised from day one about his leadership abilities. guy the to tell you, the more we see, the more of his actions we get to sigh, the more we believe he is not leading at all. >> right. i think we should probably draw a distinctin when it comes to his leadership to say he is not really leading. he is presiding. he is presiding over the federal government. incompetence and all. so there is no real leadership. there is no sense of a central command here. you have a very diffused white house. you, we often wonder who is making these decisions. who is making these appointments and nominations. so you don't really have a leader in the white house. you have a career senator, who is used to kind of giving a speech around then walking away

and letting somebody else do the work. i think when you're president that doesn't work. you have got to get in there, you have to understand, command all these different government agencies. you don't get sense that joe biden is the commander-in-chief. ashley: very good. great place to leave it. michael goodwin, thank you, michael, for joining us today. we appreciate it. >> thank you. ashley: thank you. new "gallup poll" shows just how low biden's approval rating is compared to other leaders in washington. lauren, come in, kind of take us through it. lauren: so americans think the most highly of supreme court chief justice john roberts. his approval rating according to gallup here, 60%. pretty consistent across the political spectrum. then you have federal reserve chair jay powell and dr. fauci each getting more than 50%. vice president kamala harris at 44 just above her boss,

joe biden is at 43%. and only nancy pelosi and mitch mcconnell rate lower than them. so that is what people think of people in power. ashley: not surprised. lauren: highest rating is 60%. ashley: oh, boy, we'll leave it there, lauren, thank you. still ahead in the show, r smith, todd piro, christian whiton. remember when president biden vowed he would shut down the virus. take a listen. >> i will not shut down the economy. i'm not going to shut down the country. i'm going to shut down the virus. not going to shut down the country, i'm going to shut down the virus. i'm going to shut down the virus. i'm going to shut down the virus ashley: i think he is going to shut down the virus. biden just admitted there is no federal solution to the pandemic. will the media hold him accountable? we'll take that on next. ..

..

and when joe biden was running for president he promised to shut covid down. it puts them in a bad way. >> objectively, but did biden and the team do? to make the situation better, can't think of a single thing.

>> it is not as severe. just good enough to scare constituents. >> it is the ongoing labor shortage. >> it is definitely official. just like the home run king. ashley: rock 'n roll all night, it is the daytime, it is 11 am on the east coast on tuesday december 20 eighth. i'm ashley webster in first stuart varney. a big push upward yesterday,

the nasdaq struggling to get any momentum, down slightly by 7 points. the s&p up 2 tenths of one%. one.2 basis flights on 4.6%. president biden admits covid cannot be solved at the federal level. >> as you look for in federal solutions that help alleviate the challenge, when we don't have federal solutions instead of the state solutions. >> there is no federal solution, this is solved at the state level. >> he is going to shutdown the

virus now, and and isn't going hold them accountable for this flip-flop? >> to correct everything. was that the freudian slip, that is stark contrast to the administration. you look at the fact they are so into their mandates it is not just for the military, they are going to the supreme court to get mandates for the private workforce to hold up. that doesn't strike me as the federal government that wants to be hands-off when it comes to this pandemic. i'm curious to see what the white house does in terms of cleaning this up and what the media to your question does, what they do in terms of

allowing him to do so. ashley: i don't think the media will do anything but it was his campaign message, i am going to kill the virus in this is basically an admission that he is giving up and throwing it back to the states. that the horrible image. >> if that is ultimately what he meant. we need to accounts for the fact that president biden has a tendency to slip up on things. did he mean this? if he did you are right, this could be, this is your problem. ashley: next one. we've seen this video for dad, let's go brandon on a call but that is -- one more time. >> hope you have a wonderful christmas, let's go brandon. >> president biden: let's go brandon, i agree.

ashley: that makes some democrats melt down. >> it is juvenile and reprehensible by the father but it is not about instability. it is about insurrection. >> this is a deep sickness in our democracy. what it says about the country, but people telling the president of the united states, can't put aside their petty grudges. this is a cancer. ashley: talk about the pot calling the kettle black. trump is disrespected when he was president and the liberal media had no problem, they piled on. >> 100%, the juxtaposition is striking but let's take a step back at what this was. i make jokes every now and again on this show, on fox and friends first, not all the time do they hit but there is not

this level of analysis you are hearing in the mainstream media about the joke. the guy saw a moment, went for joe, some people thought it worked and some people didn't but for that guy from the atlantic to say this rises to the level of an insurrection shows he doesn't know what insurrection means. insurrection is 2021's version of racism that was in 2020. everything this year is insurrection. and insurrection is taking a step to lead to the violent overthrow the government. this guy made a joke and if we can't be a society where we can laugh at this, laugh the way president biden laughed at it, but we can't be in this position where we have two versions of what is funny in this world especially when it divides us, in the analysis of something that was strictly

innocuous, and -- ashley: the caller from oregon has received multiple threats which again if you look at it the other way around what went on in the trump administration is an example of it is okay to say it when you are over here but god bless you view try to say it on the other side. it is so hypocritical is what i am trying to say. >> the people that control what is right and wrong, the blue check on twitter, very quiet minority but it is not very quiet. they control what happens in society and if you poll i guarantee half your friends thought this was funny, half really don't care and get twitter makes it out to be the next coming of presidential assassination attempt.

ashley: a cancer is one of those analysts put it. great news, back to you shortly. let's get back to the markets. bring in ed, you think the covid cases spreading rapidly now could be a positive for the economy next year. house so? >> i'm not a neurologist or epidemiologist. i'm an economist. it sticks to me this fourth wave of a variant is wildfire. it is spreading everywhere very very quickly. fortunately it is rather mild if you have been vaccinated. those who haven't been vaccinated are taking the brunt, it is like a wildfire that can burn itself out rapidly. the stock market seems to be a hint and i tend to agree with

that and willing to live with this pandemic, a problem we have to live with. ashley: with that in mind you are bullish on the auto industry, when you talk about the auto industry, the chip shortage. what is your take on this. >> the supply chain disruption, for the past year or so, what i gather there was no shortage of people, that received during the holidays, that belies the notion, the stuff we can't get to, it is ironic, the auto industry, and just in case, they piled on some extra layers

of chips, from what i understand a month or two ago, piles of ford pickup trucks ready to go except the shortage of semiconductors. that shortage, i was concerned to see japan's industrial production and auto production, they are fighting the chips. and it is good for the economy. >> hopefully those prices will come down. thank you so much for joining us this morning. let's bring get lauren back in. you are watching pellet on this morning. >> what a fall from grace, stock is up 35, it is high this year with 171. the biggest competitor is apple

specifically, apple fitness plus. apple and telecom have the same business model, use of extensive hardware and get recurring income. that model is not working for pellets on. they cut the price of the bike several times recently. that is not helping at the number of average work outs is down so palatine is really struggling. i also want to look at ocular, meta-facebook's partner, facebook's parent rather. a popular gift is the oculus head set. how do we know that? it was number one in the apple apps store. because of the surge in popularity stock is up 13% and that is the wrong tip for facebook. facebook stock, had a nice 2021. ashley: i will take facebook, $0.93 every day. thank you very much.

the nfl by the way placed 500 players on its covid list in the last month. one team has 20 players on the bench. we have that story. 5 republican states extending unemployment benefits to people who lost jobs over vaccine mandates, more could follow suit. this is supposed to be the busiest time of year for new york city but the virus keeping tourists at home. how are restaurant supposed to survive. we get into that next. ♪♪ something bad ♪♪ ♪♪ 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

ashley: behave, take a look at los angeles where it is actually 43 degrees, rain expected later today. the whole west coast from seattle to san diego, it is chilly, stormy, winter time. now this. blue cities, tightening covid mandates for the unvaccinated, but red states like arkansas and florida looking to assist those who lost their job over the jab. kelly o'grady, won't this incentivize people not to get the jab? >> at this point if someone hasn't gotten the shot these

mandates are in many cases cementing the decision so critics of these unemployment measures say it equates to paying people to remain unvaccinated. these new vaccine release efforts insist americans should be able to decide for themselves whether to get vaccinated or not. at least five republican states extended unemployment benefits to people who lost jobs over vaccine mandates was arkansas, florida, kansas, tennessee have carved out exceptions insular ideas floated in wyoming, wisconsin and missouri. this is important because workers typically don't qualify for unemployment benefits if they could or violating company policies. some states like kansas allow individuals to decline a job offer due to vaccine requirements due to remaining on unemployment and ordinarily would lose their eligibility for turning it down and these benefits will come into play because on top of the upcoming osha mandate many corporations are requiring employees to be fully vaccinated. united airlines, a full dose,

goldman sachs will require them to get a booster shot to enter the building and that is coming to question the definition of fully vaccinated. new york city's private company mandate going to affect yesterday many are wondering how these directives are going to last. these unemployment benefits help certain classes of people i want to highlight the independent contractors like to drivers -- truck drivers are presented different population at risk of losing their job if they remain unvaccinated. lots of questions and everything is changing quickly right now. ashley: it does indeed. thank you very much. our next guest is a new york restaurant owner who says covid regulations and rising prices have been catastrophic for his business. let's colin the owner of mellow restaurant. i just don't know how you are surviving.

how are you getting by? >> it has been difficult as the supply chain is broken and getting raw material to work with has become very difficult. truck drivers and distribution is very difficult and the labor is difficult. we try to do our best, tried to be very famous restaurant and people prefer us and we have staff that has been with us for many years and we continue to be okay, holding up prices as we are an expensive restaurant and we try to navigate through without going up and down in prices as restaurants are forced to do that because again, afford all the price increases we have seen in the last year and it is not getting better, prices keep going up and sometimes you find merchandise.

ashley: so how much has business dropped off? do you see a recovery and what is this new omicron variant doing to you as a business owner? >> the last two weeks businesses have gone down 60% to 70%. a lot of cancellations, yes, yes, people are very afraid to come out, very transmissible and has created a huge vacuum of cancellations the keep on going. ashley: how much is new york city regulations hurt your efforts to keep the business going? >> immensely, the regulations were very strict from day one for new york especially for new york restaurants, closed for 6 or 7 months, then opened at 25%. it was catastrophic and that

was only for the tri-state area. we were open and they did tremendous business. we've seen in florida every restaurant from new york open at least one restaurant in florida, the politics and the way they have safe keeping the people from covid, we have a bigger problem to deal with than the economy. the economy will kill you because you are safe not to do business in this happened to us. restaurants are in trouble, they lend or runout of money in their behind on everyone. landlords participating and giving the lifeline to extend to the world. ashley: i mean as we see this

new variant spread, how threatened are you of being forced to shutdown again? you managed to survive that many restaurants of not, have they? >> too many restaurants have not survived, that makes it better if weber was able to survive, less people in new york city, people working from home. it is very difficult but again, the restaurant has been there for 25 years, we are internationally known and with that support we were able to be here and hopefully navigate through the next couple months. hopefully omicron will subside.

ashley: we are running out of time but i wanted to thank you for taking time to chat with us and wish you the best luck for the future. hopefully you can hang in, so many have been able to. thanks again for talking to us today. a popular chain restaurant might not bring back one of its most popular promotions. which restaurant and what are they doing? >> staring down the face of another national crisis, the end of the never-ending possible from the olive garden. say it ain't so. the ceo say it may not help sales as much as hopes, saying they were more profitable without the promotion but don't fret, fingers crossed, the unlimited soup, salad and bread sticks promotion is here to stay.

ashley: it was the fourth sign of the apocalypse. no never-ending mallss being furnished. a former president congratulates enes kanter freedom for becoming a citizen. the us china trade deal signed under donald trump is set to expire friday so what happens next? i will ask christian wyden after the break. ♪♪ real cowboys get customized car insurance with liberty mutual, so we only pay for what we need. -hey tex, -wooo. can someone else get a turn? yeah, hang on, i'm about to break my own record. only pay for what you need.

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ashley: a great song, the twist. the skyline in chicago, 29 degrees, not bad for this time of year. only 4 degrees warmer in los angeles. look at the markets, the nasdaq struggling to get going, it has been negative but down the third of one% with the dow in the s&p on the upside.

let's bring in susan with some movers. >> chicago is downright balmy. maybe not florida but we can all wish. travel stocks are recovering, the majority of cruise itineraries remain intact and a few select destinations reviewing their protocols in light of the omicron spread. three cruises reported covid outbreaks and royal caribbean and aruba was among these ports that report talking for these cruise lines. you have this travel and recovery, with 2500 flights. a peak travel season over christmas. according length of days, mason

being blamed here. amazon outperformance, one of baron's top picks for 2022, mark markhaney comes on the show, 20% upside in the stock hasn't really jumped as much of the other names like google for instance. price to earnings. ashley: president biden signed a defense spending bill on monday that includes a 2.7% raise for troops but the president complained the bill would not let him quote on a. biden saying it continues to bar the use of funds to transfer guantánamo bay detainees to the custody or effective control of certain foreign countries. the president also took issue with provisions in the bill

requires reporting on the amount of military equip and destroyed during that chaotic afghan withdrawal. now this was the us china trade deal signed under donald trump is set to expire friday. let's bring in christian wyden, former state department official. what is the state of play here? what happens when the deal expires? >> probably nothing. no requirement that the us waive any of the tariffs that applied under the trump administration, these are tariffs that applied significant levies, half of what we import from china. china hasn't complied with its part of the deal, only imported 65% of what it said but a couple things happened since the deal was signed like the covid pandemic that probably

the tariffs, the one part of the trump agenda biden has continued will persist. ashley: russia's defense ministry warning there is, quote, high risk of armed conflict between russia and ukraine. that comes days after russia removed 10,000 troops from the ukrainian border. president biden has warned russia not to invade but does that count for anything? a verbal warning? >> don't think it counts for much. president biden on the other hand used strong language, hasn't bothered explaining to the american people what us interests are in ukraine and i would argue pretty limited, we don't want russia invading other countries but ukraine is not a part of nato. what russia is doing is good cop bad cop, doing what they did earlier this year which

increase the number of forces on the border with ukraine, increased tension and draw attention to their concerns and earlier this year they took them away and could be doing that again. outright invasion is unlikely but russia keeping up the firm binge ahead of expected january 12th meeting between nato and russia where russia will reiterate its demand that nato not move any farther to the east. ashley: what is our reputation, how do people view the united states on the world stage when it comes to international policies and international conflicts. >> the opposite of what the roosevelt said, speak softly and carry a big stick. we are doing the opposite, calling president putin a killer, aggressive in the realm of diplomacy, we had this democracy summit where we can preach values to the world, but

the military, a shift of forces, and negotiations with iran ran a pathetic situation, people see the united states shooting its mouth off but pretty weak in reality. ashley: who represents in your mind the biggest threat to this country? >> pretty clearly china. russia takes a little pleasure in sticking their thumb in our eye, they are not our friends but people tends to run the russia threat through a cold war scenario and it isn't that. vladimir putin is not stalling, not a nice guy, not a boy scout but the real threat, the nationstate that can alter our way of life is china i would say. ashley: in what way? through expansion in the south pacific? hacking or all of the above?

>> all the above. they want to exclude us from the western pacific, that is their backyard they should dominate that, not the u.s. navy. also in cyberspace in the digital realm, supercomputers etc. they would like to make the world less based on the us dominated model that has been in place since 1945 and have more multipolar world with china being a significant -- that does threaten our economy directly if you look at the amount of trade and we are dependent on the western pacific. ashley: very good, great to pick your brain. thanks for joining us. fascinating stuff. now this. voters helps president biden when the white house but are they satisfied with what he's done his first year in office. we have that. the holiday flight mayor enters its fifth consecutive day.

hundreds of flights have been canceled. jeff flock has the latest from philadelphia international airport next. ♪♪ ♪♪ if you can use some exotic booze, far from me ♪♪ to come fly with me,

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a citizen. >> the boston celtics big man enes kanter freedom getting that letter congratulating him on the honor. freedom, as he is now known, posting it on twitter saying it was an honor. the letter encouraged freedom to, quote, embrace this chance to add to our country's proud heritage. he mentioned china inelastic want, freedom spent the last nba season calling out nike's labor practices. lebron james and china. ashley: congratulations to him. the nfl set a single day record for those placed on the covid reserve list. how many? >> they placed 106 players on the covid 19 list thanks to positive tests including mike evans of the bucks, julio jones of the titans injured this year. this after the past week of the

schedule saw 250 nfl players on the list by game day, multiple teams including the jets, texans and ravens played a dozen players on the list, no games were rescheduled this week unlike the previous week were three games were scheduled. who knows what this week will bring but we see the jets have 20 on the list, shocking your rosters are 53, 20 players on the list means pulling people from practice squads. ashley: your misery, massive cancellations and delays grip airports across the country. jeff flock at philadelphia international airport. how many more cancellations are we seeing today? >> i was just looking at that number. 70 more cancellations just in the past our, 400 more delays,

1637 is the number on flightaware. nice to see my face. i can tell you what may help this cancellation issue is new guidelines, if you have been exposed to covid and get a positive test but don't have any symptoms you only need to quarantine for five days. that men's a lot of workers particularly airline workers who got a positive tests were out for 10 days even though they weren't sick, the definition of sick. the airline flight attendants and been pushing back against this was in response to cdc guidelines the president of the flight attendants union said the fact that it aligns with the number of days pushed by

corporate america is less then reassuring. the cdc says it is all about the science. flight attendants that it should be about the science. there you go. i leave you with a word about what is to come in the next few days from aviation analyst mike boyd who said the airlines are doing the best they can. they didn't see it coming in terms of people sticking out but if you had to fly this weekend on new year's eve go ahead and do it. >> they will be working hard to reduce the number of airplanes they put in the sky, they know omicron exists and they will do the best they can to adjust to it. it is not good business, they will do what they can to the extent they can. >> reporter: i can report from philadelphia perhaps you see it

is not a madhouse. it was earlier. that is positive from here. we will continue to watch it. >> that freshly shaven jeff flock outside philadelphia international airport. the dow 30 stocks, a sense of the market, plenty more green on the screen, the dow close to 150 points. walt disney, boeing and dow leading the way on the dow this hour. an op-ed in the miami herald blaming governor ron desantis for the omicron surge in florida, they claim he acted selfishly and allow people to take risks. florida guy rob smith will react next.

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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: back with the czech republic, the nasdaq stubbornly lower but the dow up 163 points and the s&p up 0.one%.

the national gas average standing at $3.28, guess but hitting $4 a gallon. come on in. when could we see that. >> gas buddy, nobody here, predicting the national average is going to rise to $3.41, up from $3.02. an average of $3.79 a gallon, you know that means $4 a gallon, in new york, california, places where gas is hot. low oil production from opec and refinery closures thanks to covid, that is the start of the summer driving season, so many

trying to enjoy life. ashley: thank you. a new poll shows 48% of black voters a president biden is addressing their needs, down from 66% in june. rob smith joins me, good morning to you. what do you make of that drop? >> that it is pretty substantial but also obvious what is going on in the country. we have rent and inflation, talk about gas prices going up, you have to understand these things are hurting all americans but particularly african-americans as well. african-americans were the cour the horror and trauma of the trump years for african-americans was the

horror and trauma have having low unemployment and low gas prices, lauren from of being able to afford groceries so black people and african-americans are waking up to what is going on in the country and they are not liking it. when it comes to inflation and gas prices, in 2022. ashley: i did use a look at this. last lesson of 2021, florida, omicron happens when we act selfishly like governor ron desantis. omicron is searching everywhere so why is desantis being singled out? >> it is weird because i came from new york to florida and florida seems to have a lot of people in the liberal enclaves like miami have a pathological hatred of ron desantis and i'm not sure they know why they hate him, because he is a

republican but the governor is governing with such authoritarianism that he comes close to fascism with every move. i who they are hiring at the herald, if this person knows what fascism and authoritarianism is because governor desantis is not governing that way, he is taking a science-based approach to everything that happened with the coronavirus. if you look at new york, los angeles, the cities that were run by authoritarians have the worst bouts of authoritarians, locked down the most are still hurting the most. ashley: i know you moved from new york to florida. i have done the same. though have many democrats coming here from everywhere, california, you name it. the dangers from neighbors and everywhere else is they don't want people bringing their politics with them. is florida becoming more purple i guess is the question?

>> i don't think so. when you look at miami and fort lauderdale a lot of self lord is liberal leaning but miami, every great republican congresswoman maria salazar, i do not see -- i'm on the west coast of florida in the tampa bay area. i don't see becoming more purple, i see it becoming more red. we want these people to not forget what they led to be here. ashley: i am about three hours from you on the northeast coast and i've got to tell you not too many democratic ways of thinking in this part of the country, this part of the state, great to talk to you. enjoy the weather, we appreciate your time. time for the tuesday trivia question. when was the first new year's eve ball drop in times square. don't have a clue. we will find out of todd pyro

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ashley: before the break we asked you when was the first new year's eve ball drop in times swear? come on, todd, take a guess. >> c. ashley: c. is that number three. you got it. you are right. december 31st, 1907. tell you what, that man is a

master historian. todd, thank you for joining us this hour. very good. surprise in the mail. that's true. you will be watching, everyone is watching usual "fox & friends first" every weekday, 4:00 a.m. eastern. set your alarm clock. he is worth it on the fox news channel. our time is up. david asman in for neil cavuto. take it away. david: ashley, thank you very much. welcome to "cavuto: coast to coast." i'm david asman in for neil cavuto. the santa rally is here. the best start to the santa claus rally in 20 years. already lifting the s&p 500 to an all-time high today. it is on track for its third straight record close. our market experts are here with what you need to know for 2022. plus we have former republican louisiana governor, presidential candidate, bobby jindal and former trump omb director russ vought. w