morning with you, i hope to see you both very soon. thank you so much, ken mahoney and lee carter. that does it for us, let's take a quick look at the futures as i hand it off to stuary varney. we've got gains across-the-board , stuart loves a rally. don't you, stuart? take it away, my friend. stuart: i'll circle back to you, okay, dagen? dagen: okay. stuart: good morning, dagen happy new year to you and to everyone. all right as we kickoff the new year how's this for a headline? covid rages on the market rall ies. that really does sum things up look at this. the dow industrials are going to be up about 100 points roughly speaking, 15 up for the s&p but a solid gain for the nasdaq, 50 points higher. bitcoin up a little this morning , we're looking at a $47, 100 and now the omicron surge absolutely continue there's are half a million new cases a day these days, but perhaps the surge will run itself out quickly.

that be a positive for the stock market. perhaps the fed will accommodate any slowing of the economy. that's positive stocks as well. we do have, however, a stock of the day, and it's tesla, despite the chip shortage and supply chain problems, tesla delivered 936,000 vehicles in the last year. that's up 87%. absolutely spectacular and musk will soon open a big factory near berlin and after that an even bigger one in texas. the stock is up $75 at 11.32. omicron still playing havoc with travel. 1,700 domestic flights canceled so far today, a snowstorm on the east coast is not helping and the virus is playing havoc with a return to work. quarantine rules are keeping many workers at home, vax mandates forced some workers off the job, in some parts of the country things seem to be grinding to a halt. what a way to start the new year , monday, january 3, 2022,

"varney" & company is about to begin. ♪ ♪ stuart: all right look at those futures again the market leads our show today, we're up across-the-board, not quite as up as we were about an hour ago, but there's plenty of green this monday morning, and look whose here, jason katz himself. all right, jason, covid is raging and the market is rally ing. do you want to explain that? >> well, the risk of over- simplifying it the market, stu, believes a few thing, that we're at peak covid. it's looking through the setback of the travel, cancellations over the weekend and live sporting events not having some spectators, and it's learning to live with the virus. then secondly, you referenced this before, the fed is going to

be deliberate in its approach. they are going to takeaway the punch bowl albeit slowly but then lastly, you and i talked about this a few weeks ago. we might get billed, we might get back, we might get better but we're not getting all three and so that means we're not going to have as big of a tax bill and then last but not least , it's the beginning of the year. seasonality flows and in fact last year, we had $2 trillion flow into exchange-traded funds. retail investors are seeking returns and they can't get it in bonds so they are likely to try to find it in equity. stuart: if the economy slows a little, because of omicron, does that make the outlook for inflation a little more positive? >> without a doubt. look, you know, inflation is showing some green shoots. oil prices have seemed to find a top, we're seeing some green shoots with respect to supply chain giving way, look the best cure for high prices ultimately

is high prices, so, you know, next year, call it this year, pardon me, it's really about not what to expect. it's what not to expect. and what should we not expect? a lack of volatility. we're going to get it. what not to expect? 26-27% returns. look they should have called the s&p last year, the s&p 5 not the s&p 500, because it was five names that did the returns. this year, i look for the returns to come elsewhere. stuart: got it. nasdaq was up 21% last year. can't see that happening again. anyway, jason, great to see you. happy new year to you. we'll see you again real soon. let's have a look at the price of gold. it was a pretty bad year last year, it showed its biggest decline in 2021 since 2015 that's quite a drop. lauren, good morning to you, and of course happy new year. lauren: good morning. stuart: i guess gold is not the inflation hedge these days right? lauren: well they have competition with cryptocurrenc ies, which are also

seen as a hedge against inflation, right? and bonds, which do generate yields for investors, gold doesn't really offer any income, so critics say look, if gold couldn't rally in 2021, what's its future for 2022 and gold is down $19 today stuart. stuart: 18.08 to be precise lauren thank you very much i will circle back to you in just a little bit later okay, lauren? we're not supposed to use that expression these days, next president biden and the democrat s are trying to pass some form of build back better, senate leader schumer is talking about breaking it up into pieces and holding a series of votes. jason chaffetz with us this morning. you think they will get a yes vote on any new entitlement program when they break it all up? >> possibly. look, you can use reconciliation and i do think they will get a version of that. timing, i think, is subject to what they announce with the state of the union. i think they will try to package

those together, the white house and the congress is indicating that that will either be february 1 or march 1. it'll certainly be i think some taxes particularly capital gains will go up. i think senator schumer has put himself in a bad position as it relates to voting. democrats want to use this as a bludgeoning tool to try to paint a picture of republicans as just being evil, but they don't have the votes to get through the filibuster, so that'll be the core question, sinema and manchin said they won't go that direction but schumer may force a vote anyway. stuart: what's the standing of the speaker pelosi at this moment? she's tried to reign in her left wing not entirely successfully. >> well she's got such a small margin, you know, less than five people. kevin mccarthy, the minority leader, has tried to paint her as a lame duck speaker that she will not be running against, she said as much in the past, but

she's still the biggest, she's still the biggest name on capitol hill. she's raised more money for people than anybody in the history of the united states congress. she tends to get her way with her caucus and she tends to get them over the line. i think schumer has the much more difficult time, because he doesn't have them all lined up. the majority of senators are opposed to build back better but they will get a paired down version around february or march 1. stuart: do you know what worried me, jason? when i hear republicans so confident they are going to sweep in 2022 this year of course. do you think they maybe getting a little over-confident counting their chickens before they are hatched? >> never discount republicans ability to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. they have a tendency to do so. they need to paint a picture other than hey, we're just not democrats. they need to show america what they stand for , what they believe in, what the they would pass and what they would do and

i think kevin mccarthy will lead that effort come summer. you won't see it until about summertime and then everybody will campaign on it furiously over the four months right up to the election in november, but i think most everybody is convinc ed that the republicans will take control, may not be by the biggest of margins but again , joe biden's not showing a lot of leadership and kamala harris doesn't inject a lot of confidence or excitement either so i think republicans prospects are as good as ever. stuart: you got it right jason thanks for joining us happy new year to you see you again real soon. >> happy new year, thank you. stuart: president biden's popularity continues to slip. come back in again, lauren, please, and give us a list. what are the biggest problems he faces? lauren: i say the economy and inflation had a hand on that mixed messaging on coronavirus and now, there's worries that the there will be a challenge coming from the progressive side , who consider him largely ineffective because he's not delivering on their left agenda, and that if a progressive runs

against president biden, if he does in fact run in 2024 that's a further rift in the party and that's not a winning strategy, so three big things. economy, covid mixed messaging and then the progressives are his biggest challenges in the new year. stuart: don't forget the border. lauren: oh, that too. keep going. stuart: yeah, right? the supply chain crisis, et cetera et cetera. there's a whole stack of problems contributing to the president's sliding popularity numbers. he's down there. lauren: and they keep trying to message and tell you that those aren't really problems, that everything is okay, when you look at reality, and most americans say but this is a problem, and it seems like our politicians keep denying it. stuart: i sense the country is in rather a sour mood as we start the new year and as we try to get over the disruptions of the holidays. i just feel there's a sour mood out there. not me, no, i'm as happy as a

clam but the country as a whole a little sour. we'll get into it later thanks lauren. now check those futures again, please. let's see 21 minutes to go before we open the market for the first time this year up about 90 now for the dow and 60 for the nasdaq. dr. fauci says the cdc may recommend testing at five days before leaving isolation. watch this. >> people are getting concerned about why not test people at that time. i myself feel that's a reasonable thing to do. stuart: they're changing the rules again. the cdc just said their tests don't perform well, and you could stay positive for up to 12 weeks. folks there is mass confusion out there. congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez has been partying maskless in florida. her own constituents in new york face strict mask and vaccine mandates wait until you hear what florida's governor had to

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guidelines. watch this. >> you're right. people are getting concerned about why not test people at that time. i, myself, feel that that's a reasonable thing to do. i believe that the cdc soon will be coming out with more clarification of that since it obviously has generated a number of questions about at that five day period, should you or should you not be testing people. stuart: is this another change in the rules? dr. marc siegel joins us this morning. doctor, last week the cdc director said covid tests can come up positive for 12 weeks, after infection. so how would testing after five days work? >> stuart, great question. what a messaging mess, isn't it? and good morning to you and welcome back. listen, here's the science of this. first of all, the thing that would work after five days that would help you is a rapid test.

not a pcr. the pcr, as you just said, is going to stay positive for weeks and weeks. the problem is, we don't have the rapid tests. we've been promised these rapid tests but if you've been to a pharmacy lately they have a big sign outside saying "sold out" so we don't have the tests, so i think the cdc director was trying to setup a policy where people could go back to work because as you just said, flight s are being canceled, businesses are closing, hospital s don't have workers, so the 10 day rule clearly wasn't working. the mistake she made, and it is a big mistake, was not acknowledging that after five days, 20 to 30% are still infectious, so you don't want them back at work and you don't want them sniffling back at work and thinking they're fine going back to work. one of the things you could do is a rapid test to help guide you, but we don't have them, so neither of these doctors is right. neither of these top scientists is right. she's not right because you do need a test, he's not right

because we don't have the test, and that's where we are. stuart: mass confusion that's where we are. we've got this report that suggests cloth masks may not protect against omicron. another mass confusion. >> mask confusion. yes, they don't protect against omicron because omicron is so wildly contagious and cloth mask s have never really worked, studies have shown that they are less than 11% effective against the previous variant. i call them a banner of compliance. it's a mask of compliance. you're wearing it too loosely over your chin, not over your nose, the cloth masks don't work i help to like the k-n-95 by the way. they are looser fitting than the n-95. i wear them in my office and they're a bear and very hard to wear for long periods of time but the k n-95 are much better than the cloth masks. when i see people on the street wearing those cloth masks i

think they are actually voting their political, which side of the aisle they're on rather than doing anything medical. stuart: is there a chance that we're close to the peak of omicron? i mean, the case is half million a day these days. are we close to the peak and looking to the other side? >> i think we are. i think we're a couple weeks away from it and i think if you look at south africa and then the united kingdom we're heading in that direction. i think the peak will occur sometime in mid-january. i'm concerned that the hospitalizations have now gone up. that's what i'm really keeping an eye on, but for people that are vaccinated or boosted or got over covid of a different variant they are almost definitely going to get a milder case. we gotta watch out for those at higher risk i'm keeping an eye on the hospital because we don't have any hospital workers. half of them are out but i do agree we're heading towards the peak of this and we're going to be on the downside of this by the end of the month. stuart: one last one real fast. leaked e-mails show that covid test distribution in new york

city has been based on race. city officials prioritizing communities that have been flagged by their racial inclusion task force. what do you say to that, doctor? >> yikes. talk about political bias, stuart. look i know where this came from they were trying to explain that the black community has had more covid, is at higher risk, is more obesity, more diabetes, maybe they don't have access to care but the way they worded that was clearly preferential to one race over another and there are plenty of white people in new york city getting bad covid and need the tests too so we didn't need that right now and it's a wake up call. be careful how you word things, guys. it absolutely sends the wrong message, stuart. stuart: it does indeed, dr. siegel thanks for joining us happy new year to you see you again soon. >> great to be with you stuart, thank you. stuart: goldman sachs, which has one of those giant office buildings in new york city, just backtracked on their return to work policy, lauren what are

they saying? lauren: you can work-from-home until january 18, then you need a booster to return to the office by the first of february. you have to agree to wear a mask and to two times a week testing, so it's a little bit of a backtracking, it's a little bit of following the number of omicron cases in the city, but hey, they're getting back in about two weeks time. stuart: throughout the show we're going to be showing the sixth avenue new york city midtown manhattan, it is absolutely empty, i mean, look at that. look at that. totally empty. 20 past 9:00 on a monday morning my goodness me. one more for you lauren. ocasio-cortez went to florida didn't she? lauren: she had a good time. critics say we don't care she's not wearing a mask. we care she's constantly fear longerring and criticizing ron desantis, the governor's policy

when she's enjoying what his state does have to offer and one more thing on this stuart. while she was in florida, aoc said well how come ron desantis is silent on twitter? well you want to know what the reason was? he was with his wife casey, who is undergoing treatment for breast cancer. that's where the governor was. he wasn't missing, he was with his wife. stuart: oh, okay nicely put, lauren, nicely put indeed. thank you very much. check those futures one more time, please. we've got a rally, not huge, but we've got some green. the opening bell is next. ♪

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example, almost put out a million vehicles last year, despite omicron, despite covid, despite chip shortages, despite manufacturing problems, they are but one of 50 or 60 companies out there really going to make a difference in our world. stuart: now this surge of covid, omicron, i mean, it could slow the economy a little. how will the fed respond to that >> you know that's an interesting question because i think the fed has been out to lunch somewhere for virtually the entire crisis. i think the fear is that the fed is going to clamp down and they are going to takeaway all of the punch at the punch bowl but the reality of the situation is they are going to hike rates q 1 , the market will have a knee jerk reaction we're right into earnings, right back to great numbers and move forward. stuart: could the slowing economy affect the inflation rate and therefore, the stock market? >> you know, in the past, stuart, i believe that that could have been the case, but now i think the statistics are so hopelessly cooked and messed up that i don't think so.

i think the official government inflation is going to differ radically from what we actually feel in our wallets and for that reason, again, i think the fed completely lost a narrative going to go down the transitory thing and down as one of the worst possible calls in recorded federal history maybe even financial history so i don't place a lot of importance in the fed's numbers as official inflation statistics go. i'm going to watch what people actually do with their money, the consumer spend is far more important number here. stuart: so to you, keith, the big deal here is the spike in covid which may soon be winding down, so we can see the other side, and not exactly get back to normal but put it in the rear view mirror. that to you is the overriding factor in the market today. is that correct? >> it is because again, we're learning to live with this. people want to be out, we're filled with hope and resilience. we've got more computing power and more smart people working on this than any other time in human history. we will beat this just like we've beaten other great

challenges in human history. the peaks always precede a heal ing period or moving away period and that's where i think we're going right now. stuart: maybe investors are in a good mood but i think the country as a whole is rather sour, a sour mood coming out of the holidays as they were disrupted. what do you say? >> i would share that sentiment , and you know, that, to me, is deeply saddening because america, this is not the america i know. the america i know is filled with smiling, happy, hopeful, aspirational people, and to feel these psychological over-weight of this to be three years into the crisis to not have rapid testing and not have this under control it's wearing on people including me. even my family, we're very very frustrated. we are about as optimistic as you can find, so to me that is a disjointed piece and it's unfortunate. stuart: it is indeed, keith happy new year to you if i can say that following my comments about the sour mood of the country. >> happy new year, stuart. stuart: see you again real soon, keith thank you very much indeed 30 seconds to go and we'll start

the trading session for 2022. first day, trading day that is, of the new year. it looks like we're seeing some green. when we started out this morning , a few hours ago when we first got into the building here we were looking at gains of over 200 points for the dow and 100 for the nasdaq so we paired those gains a bit and now we're about to start the trading session of 2022. >> [opening bell ringing] stuart: we're up, we're running, january 3, it is monday, right from the start we're up what, 80 points on the dow, yeah, 81 points on the dow. we're at 36, 400 worth remembering that. the s&p 500 also on the upside this morning by about one-third of 1%, so that's a solid gain right there. the nasdaq composite, again, a solid gain, two-thirds of 1% the nasdaq is at 15, 700, presumably, big tech is doing okay, yes, it is with the exception of microsoft. i still own a bit of it, haven't sold it yet.

apple, on the upside, google, amazon, and meta platforms all up, microsoft down just a fraction. let's have a look at the stock of the day that be tesla. its opened with a gain of 8% at $1,142 per share. they m it's have had some really good deliveries, in the fourth quarter, lauren. lauren: more than 936,000 electric cars delivered last year. that was a record, it was an 87% year-over-year increase. most of these cars were the model 3 and the model y, that came from shanghai as well as freemont, so everyone is saying as shares are about $100 below their all-time high now which is nothing on an $1,100 stock, what does this mean for deliveries, in the new year? the expectation is 1.3 million but i think a lot of the analysts up their estimates on that. why? often that factory is expect to come on line anyday now stuart.

stuart: what about the berlin factory. it's a big factory over there. lauren: that too. both are expected to come on line this year. stuart: so musk can sell any car he produces and he's about to produce a whole lot more in austin, texas and berlin, germany on top of the ones he's already producing in america and china. he's in a very good position right now at $1,100 a share. next one, china's electric vehicle makers. i think they are both higher. same story as tesla, lauren, good deliveries? lauren: yeah, we'll do neo first for december up 50% year-over-year, let's do xpong, because this was really remarkable up 263% for all of 2021 compared to 2020, so yes, these numbers are less than tesla. tesla is a big player. they have the first mover advantage, but neo and xpong highlight china is moving in really fast when it comes to ev

's i was reading a report in recent months one in five cars sold in china was an ev or a plug-in hybrid, stuart. stuart: the ev's have arrived and fats a fact. how about apple up today 178 is the quote there. what's dan ives, the big apple and ape analyst at wedbush what's he saying about iphone demand? lauren: demand is so strong it will outstrip supply by about 12 million units when we get the december quarter numbers his bold case for this year is 225. he thinks apple actually sold 40 million iphone 13s over christmas, and all this supply chain chaos he calls that a speed bump for apple. he thinks they are going to be just fine and wall street agrees a little bit this morning. stuart: it does. here is another strong performer , mcdonald's. solid gain this morning about two-thirds of 1%. i guess piper sandler, the investment firm, gave them a shot in the arm, right? lauren: their argument is that

mcdonald's can better handle inflation than their rivals right so they upgraded mcdonald's to overweight. they gave them the 282 price target, specifically, they like the drive-thru performance and the core menu and i was like well what's the core menu the hamburger and chicken mc nuggets. stuart: we're going through a list of stocks picking out those moving in a solid fashion i'm looking at wells fargo up over 2.2% they got an upgrade from barclays? lauren: they did, to overweight, the price target is 62, they say wells is least exposed to the capital markets, they like expense saving opportunities, and above-average excess capital to quote from the report, stuart stuart: okay here's a stock it's callaway golf, i've been following it for a long time. when the pandemic started it went down to $4 a share now its rallied to 27 at one point it was above 30. did they get a bullish call from

somebody important? lauren: yeah, so compass point calls them a top pick. they like the merger that they did with top golf. they say they are well positioned to deal with the supply chain and because we're still in a pandemic the continued case for americans to do distance things outside, that's good for golf companies. also most price targets are above this for callaway golf. stuart: lauren thanks very much. we're going to list the dow winners headed by goldman sachs, remember they changed their back to work policy, the work-from-home if you want to, until january 18. goldman is up $8 this morning and s&p 500 winners headed there by tesla, of course. stock of the day up $87, 1,142 is the quote there. and the nasdaq compass it winner s, the list there is headed by tesla inevitably,

nvidia back on the winner's list up another $10, 304 is the quote on nvidia right now. now we've been in business this morning for five and a half minutes and the dow is up 132 points, 36, 400. the ten year treasury yield we haven't checked that for you this morning we're checking it out. 1.59%, that's the 10 year treasury, the price of gold, well had a rotten year in 2021 and a pretty bad start to 2022 down $21, 1,806 is your price, bitcoin, 47, 100 the price of oil is $75 per barrel and rising. nat gas, there's a snowstorm on the east coast hasn't affected the nat gas price 371 down a little, the ample price for a gallon of regular gasoline now 3.29 worth pointing out the one year ago that same gallon was 2.26. california the highest price,

4.66 for normal, what that will be regular gasoline. where is the cheapest, he asks? oklahoma, where the average in that state is 2.87 for a gallon of regular. coming up, president biden says we will respond decisively, his words, if russia invades ukraine what does that mean exactly? i'll ask morgan ortegas next hour, thousands of flights are being canceled again today, it's a nightmare, and we've got a report on it for you. how much is the surge in omicron slowing down the economy? stephen moore is an economist, and will answer the question, next. ♪

stuart: the news is, the stock

market has started out 2022 on the upside, especially the nasdaq, now in with the gain of .8%, 128 points for the nasdaq. stephen moore with us this morning. stephen is an economist and i've got an economic question. how much is the economy going to slow because of this surge in covid? >> well, great to see you, stuart and happy new year. i have three big concerns going into this new year in terms of the stock market and economy. number one what you just mentioned is the threat that we have another political panic as we did at the beginning of 2020 and we start shutting things down in the economy, that be disastrous, you know, the left loves to talk about following the science and the science is very clear, the lockdowns and shutting down small businesses and restaurants and schools was a failure in terms of mitigating the effect of this virus, so i'm worried about it, i am worried.

there's something like 2,500 schools that are closed today, stuart, and not because of the weather, probably another few thousand because of the weather but because of the virus, and that's a big mistake. second of all, i'm concerned that the fed is behind the curve on inflation, and they are not going to act quickly enough and aggressively enough to solve this inflation problem which is a negative for stocks in the medium and long term and finally, stuart, i'm very worried about what i call the two joes. joe biden and joe manchin there's talk this week that the white house will again pow wow with joe manchin and try to put a deal on build back better which is an atrocious bill very negative for the market, so if we can solve those three problems i can be bullish on 2022. stuart: well, we're not going to solve those three problems now are we? my thought is -- >> well you never know. i'm an optimist. look i think the fed has to start raising rates immediately, and stop the massive increase in

asset purchases, and joe manchin , we don't need hundreds of billions of trillions of dollars of new fiscal stimulus, stuart. the economy is, if anything, has too much federal spending, not too little. stuart: but if the fed were to quickly raise rates, in the immediate future, the stock market would surely pullback dramatically. >> well that's a good question, stuart. you're more of an expert on the stock market than i am, but look, you have to have maybe some short-term pain for longer term gain, and do you remember the 1970s stuart when we had high inflation for persistent, for nine or 10 years, and don't forget the stock market over that period, i mean, this is really crucial, in the 1970s, adjusted for inflation, stocks lost almost half of their value, so somebody tell me how all this easy money policy in the medium and long term is good

for the economy and good for stocks. the evidence points in the opposite direction. now, deflation is a problem too, and we had actually deflation back in 2020, but the fed has, i just think, done a very poor job of keeping the dollar stable and strong. stuart: all right, we've got a rally on our hands this morning, this monday morning as we start trading for the 2022. stephen moore, thanks for being here, we will see you again real soon, thank you, stephen. i'm going to show you midtown manhattan, there you go left-hand side of the screen. it's 9:45 on a monday morning, in january. normally, if there was such a thing as a normal january, that street right there be just jam packed full. traffic, pedestrians on the sidewalk, bustle and hustle of the big city. it's not happening. new york city this morning is desserted. we have a new mayor in new york, eric adams but the same problems remain, high crime, fleeing residents, surging covid and more. madison all worth joins us.

madison, the big deal here is the new mayor is keeping the vaccine mandates in place. big deal, right? reporter: it is a big deal, so obviously, we're just a couple days in but so far, he has retained those policies yet to be seen if he's going to change anything, and that is something that has had a big impact on the city. like you said new mayor, but there's old problems that he's going to have to deal with. take a look at crime in the city over the past year, from november of last year to november of this year, crime is up over 21%, and then, it's not just the crime. you have to look at also the employment in new york city. employment has also been struggling unemployment rate 9% that's nearly double what the rest of the country is see ing. i'm here on the streets of manhattan, stuart with the owner of international, you guys do a lot of international shipping based out of the new york area. how have the covid policies set in place by the last mayor, what impact have they had on your new york city-based workers and shipping? >> i would say that the

policies have had a traumatic effect on the workers. first of all, especially at jfk, one of the biggest airports in the united states, where a tremendous amount of cargo is processed we are already short on workers for various reasons, and these covid policies have now just made it very hard for the airlines and handling agents, even to have workers come in timely. items that used to take three day turnaround arriving off the airplanes takes 10 days sometimes. it's only adding to the bottlenecks and exacerbating so many problems that we're having in shipping and it's just something that really needs to be remedies. reporter: so you worked within this industry here in new york for over 25 years. how would you describe the business environment and what are you hearing from your clients? >> i've been here 25 years. i, myself, have an apartment in manhattan and a home on long island but it's such a somber environment with the crime and a little depressing for myself. i'd rather quite frankly take

two hours on the long island expressway coming back and forth from the city than even staying in the city. i have a mother here that lives in the east side, i tell her, at dusk you better be home. you know? we don't know what's going on it's really saddening. reporter: yeah, all of that, not only the business, but also obviously the crime. thank you so much, sal, so stuart, obviously a lot of eyes on the new mayor really want to see if he's able to turn things around. stuart: madison thank you very much indeed. by the way did our viewers notice in the background madison was reporting there virtually no traffic, no people on the streets of new york. it really is desserted. and here, we have this op-ed and it's in the new york post. penn station needs a major clean up now, or commuters will never return to their new york city offices. i don't want to be too new york- centric here, lauren but what's the problem at penn station? lauren: well, what isn't the problem? you have drug use out in the open, panhandling, homeless ness, violence, i'm in penn station everyday, that's how i get home from work, stuart

it's scary. i hold my bag tight to me and just walk straight. i don't look at anybody except trying to find nearby cops. it's a disaster so if you have employees over the past two years who have shown that they can be productive working from their homes and, you know, connecticut, long island, staten island, you name it, new jersey, they might prefer that rather than going into a gross penn station buying an expensive train ticket and going to work so if they don't clean-up this major transportation hub of new york city, they have a big problem because they will have workers continuing to work-from-home if their employer allows them to. stuart: how do you get people to come back to the big city when the big city is not attractive good question, lauren thanks very much indeed. by the way if you just noticed this the dow just turned south reverse direction, we're now down 40 points for the dow. coming up mass confusion reigns in d.c. these days. do cloth masks work? are covid tests accurate? i'll take it on in my take, top

of the 10:00 hour. the chicago teacher's union may walk out on wednesday. they want schools to reopen, to go remote. some top doctors insist classrooms are safe, what a mess we've got a report. ♪

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stuart: the chicago teacher's union may walk out on wednesday. they're demanding schools go remote until new covid safety protocols are put in place. grady trimble is in chicago for us. grady, what additional protocols do the unions want? reporter: well, they wanted all students and staff and teachers to show proof of a negative covid test within 48 hours of the resumption of school. today they also wanted the district to handout newer, better masks to everybody. those n-95 or k n-95 that we talk about and they proposed to the district that they go remote for two weeks in order to implement those protocols, but the district insists that it is safe to return to the classroom

without them in place, and so now, tomorrow, the union will vote whether to walk out on wednesday. there's a similar back-to-school standoff taking place in new york city between the district and the union there, despite the fact that public health officials and the education secretary say classes should take place in-person. >> any decisions on very short-term or emergency closure s are most likely based off of staffing issues and ultimately those are safety issues when you don't have adequate staff but the goal is full time in-person learning for students they've suffered enough. reporter: there are districts in new jersey, ohio, maryland, indiana, gary, not too far from here, that are starting the year remote and hoping that this wave of omicron cases passes, and then they can go back to in- person learning but by and large across the country districts are starting the school year in-person or rather the new year, in-person and all of the large school districts, stu, are starting

with in-person classes. stuart: i hear you thanks grady, see you later. check those markets again, please, turnaround for the dow, we were down about 20 minutes ago, now we're are up ever so slightly, s&p is now down a fraction, and the nasdaq is up six. not much price change at this point in this morning. the fda has approved pfizer's booster, for kids 12-15. okay, got that in for you. still ahead, matt schlapp, morgan ortegas, kayleigh mcenany and steve forbes, the 10:00 hour of "varney" is next. ♪ welcome to allstate. where auto insurance now costs less. ♪

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is

♪. stuart: yeah, welcome back to another edition of "varney & company," starting out in 2022. good morning, everyone. yes it is 10:00 eastern. the market showing a modest gain pretty much across the board. dow up 31, nasdaq up 25. not a stronger gain as we saw earlier in the session. bitcoin coming in as, we dropped to 46,800 as we speak and the

yield on the 10-year treasury is 1.6%. we got that. we received the latest reading on construction spending in the month of november. what does it tell us lauren? lauren: up .4% in november. scant weaker than anticipated but more than the month prior. backward looking. we know the housing market is strong. stuart: no impact on the stock market which is where it was before that number came out. lauren, thank you very much indeed. now this. have you heard of brain fog. confusion in your head becomes with a omicron infection. there is a lot of brain fog in desee -- d.c. these days. confusion reigns supreme. we are told we must be vaxed. if we're not we can be fired. this is supposed to slow the spread and make us safe but it doesn't, does it? you can still get a case of omicron despite being

vaccinated. it is absolutely raging through the country, hasn't stopped. last week the president said the federal government can't solve the covid problem the president is sticking with federal mandates, that is confusing especially since the mandates are forcing some workers out just as we struggle through a chronic labor shortage. last week the cdc said you only have to quarantine for five days, not 10. you can go back to work without a negative test. they did this to get people back to work faster. the change was made for economic reasons, not medical. gee, i thought we were supposed to be following the science here? now by the way dr. fauci says you really should get a negative test before you can come out of quarantine. they're changing the rules all over again. there is confusion over the tests, how do you get one? are they accurate? where are the 500 million test kits promised by the president? one more item in mass confusion. dr. scott gottlieb says cloth

masks don't work. that ses not what we've been told for the last two years now, is it? i don't know how they will do it but the administration has to throw off the brain fog, the covid rules they put in place are not working. in fact they're dragging us all down. second you are hour of "varney" just getting started. ♪. stuart: president biden says there is no federal solution to the pandemic but his federal mandates are still in place. matt schlapp with us this morning. matt, this is confusing, confuse towing everyone. can you tell us what is the standing of the president, the political standing of the president as he returns from his vacation? >> well he is in a tough spot with virus, stuart. remember joe biden ran with the virus. donald trump against the virus.

joe biden is the president of the united states today largely because he fed into this idea there was something the president could do to make us safer. donald trump had taken extraordinary steps but joe biden had some kind of secret formula to make us safe. so because he ran on having this big federal response he is now really stuck with the bad politics of the fact not only does he not have a response, think of this. we're not focused on the fact that he passed a $1.9 trillion emergency plan through congress to take on the threat of the chinese coronavirus and what happened to the two trillion dollars? we don't have the tests we need. all of us who have families have to get tested regularly. you can't get tested in most of these major cities, really across the whole country. we know the vaccines are porous with this new omicron. so the one thing we should be

doing is testing regularly and we can't but the totalitarian nature of this new democratic party says it is the federal government that will tell you what you must do and that what is chafing the american people right now. stuart: i'm sure you saw this, matt, but hundreds of antilockdown protesters were in amsterdam and they clashed with riot police. the riot police had batons and shields t was a riot, but i don't know if you sue this one demonstrator was carrying a trump 2024 flag. how about that? matt, will we see a similar revolt, similar demonstrations taking place here especially in democrat-run states? are we going to see it? >> yeah i think you will as long as the federal government tells you must have a vaccine that isn't working with this new omicron in order to go to work, in order to go to school. they're starting to do it to kids, to force kids to get a vaccine in order to go back to

school and also forcing us to, you know, accept all of their dictates. that's when they go too far. it is okay to fan the flames of omicron if you think it works for you politically, the democrats think it does, the problem when you become totalitarian and mandate things. we will see the protests all over the ground. it will fertilize the ground to return someone like trump to politics or someone like trump for the republican nomination. this is not what america stands we believe in individual rights, the constitution, and ability to have common sense to govern ourselves. stuart: matt, thank you for joining us monday morning. see you soon. happy new year. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: eric adams officially the mayor of new york city. many residents are branding him as de blasio 2.0.

that is strong stuff. what is going on, lauren? lauren: first day in office he continued de blasio's mandate regulations. vaccination for private sector. the second is you need proof of vaccination going anywhere in new york city. many citizens, residents that mayor adams would not continue in his predecessor's footsteps but he is. not to defend him, this is how eric adams thinks. he wants clarity and consistency, that that is important to leading. as we get through omicron he think it is better to continue with omicron with the policies that new yorkers know. stuart: new york city is deserted as we speak. lauren: yeah. stuart: we'll circle back. check the markets. why not. the dow is down 26 but the nasdaq is up 67. s&p up two points. not that much price movement in the first 37 minutes of business in 2022. jeff sica with us this morning.

we've been saying all morning covid is raging and the market is doing okay. what's going on? >> well, stuart, if you look back, last year at this time, i don't think there are too many people thought we would have a 27% return to the s&p on, on s&p 500, nor do i think we would have many people who would think we would get the 27% in the midst of a 40-year high in inflation at about 7%. so what i see is that this is a big money grab because people know that ultimately the fed is going to have to do something about inflation or we're all going to become like dogs chasing parked cars when all this is said and don't. if the fed does get aggressive and takes inflation seriously and starts, starts raising interest rates, then a lot of us are going to head for the door. so i think the market right now

doesn't really believe that jerome powell is serious about raising interest rates. i think they think he is going to talk about it but he is scared to death to raise interest rates. he doesn't know what is going to happen. he is the man of the hour for the stock market. as a matter of fact every stock investor out there should send jerome powell a fruit basket, thanks for the return we got last year. stuart: will you sell a lot of your stocks when the fed raises rates? >> not if they raise rates in incrementally. i think if they get aggressive in raising interest rates i am going to start to sell because ultimately i think raising interest rates will be good for the economy if it hedges off inflation. if you look back to 1982, that's what they had to do. so i would sell if they get aggressive because honestly, a lot of these markets, these investors in the market, a lot

of these novices that came through with robinhood, that have come through have never seen a market downturn. they will head for the door at once. i would like to be one step ahead of them before they start selling. stuart: we're forewarned. jeff sica, thanks for joining us. happy new year to you, lad. see you later. >> happy new year. stuart: lauren, come back in again please. you're looking at some of the movers on the market today. let's start with robinhood. lauren: yes. so cathie wood, arc invest bottom robinhood, bought more shares, to be worth $10 million in the app. so the stock is up 5 1/2% for that news. stuart: 5 1/2%, that is a nice gain. we'll take that. boeing, how much are they up, 3%. what is the story? lauren: wow. 208 here. dubai says they are on track to receive 20 new boeing 737 max

jets, the one that was grounded for years, this year. news from a big order for a big market definitely helping boeing. stuart: radioshack, what is the plan there? lauren: sew the brand is still alive. there are actually radio shacks that still do exist but operated by different people. they know the name is popular, been around 100 years. they're getting into cryptocurrency because that is what everybody is doing. old technology company getting into the new technology of cryptocurrency and radioshack is allowing some users to trade tokens with each other rather than on an exchange like coinbase for instance. the name of their platform is radioshack defy. stuart: radioshack defi. i got it. get to sports. antonio broken appears to play his last game with the tampa bay

bucs. he stormed off the field. we'll tell you how much this mid-game meltdown will cost him. alexandria ocasio-cortez is seen partying it up at a packed bar in florida without a mask on. we'll take a report on that one too. president biden reaffirms his support for ukraine with a call with president zelensky? what happens if russia invades. morgan ortegas worked for the state department. she will take that on after this ♪. superpowers from a spider bite? i could use some help showing the world how liberty mutual customizes their car insurance. ow! i'm ok! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ only in theaters december 17th.

♪. stuart: middletown, rhode island, 29 degrees. very chilly. but again it is winter, isn't it? the markets are still moving higher pretty much across the board now. i would call that modest gains for the first trading day of 2022. the 10-year treasury, have a look at that, we have the yield at 1.60%. that's why big tech is mostly down this morning. look at microsoft. it is off four bucks today. google is down as well. when yield on 10-year treasury goes to 1.60. big tech tends to sell off. that is happening to microsoft this morning. then there is this, president biden reaffirmed support for ukraine with a call to president zelensky amid fears, russia may invade ukraine. lauren what is the latest.

lauren: that president biden underscored the the prince bill, reaffirming the sovereignty of ukraine. lawmakers warn that russia is very unlikely to back down from the invasion plans. the u.s. says we'll respond decisively if putin does invade. russia is demanding that ukraine be excluded from ever joining nato. later this month, russia and diplomats will meet to discuss all of this geneva, stuart. stuart: thank you, lauren. i want to bring in former state department official morgan ortegas who knows this situation very well. president biden says we will respond decisively if russia invades ukraine. what does that mean, respond decisively. morgan? >> who knows. i think putin is not too worried about whatever respond decisively means as well. if you want to stop putin, it

take as combination of efforts. one of the key things, missing things the biden administration hat done this year they slow-walked any sort of heat al aid to the ukraine was -- lethal aid. antimissile, antitank, antia artillery weaponry anything that raising costs. why haven't they done that. the russians say, okay, we get it. it will be bloody and costly. stu, the reason why this administration hasn't done that, if they believe if they arm the ukrainians that provokes the war. the strategy is we'll talk tough and threaten a lot and hopefully putin will blink at our threats. that is a very dangerous and costly thing to pursue. would i rather, if i were in, pompeo in, still secretary of state i would say, i would issue the threats have no problem with it but you have to provide the lethal aid and other support so there is something to back you up.

essentially what you're safing to putin, if you invade ukraine we'll provide lethal support afterwards. isn't it a little late at that point? stuart: what would putin gain if he did invade ukraine? >> well he certainly has a lot to lose, that is a great question, stu. because there is, there are some sanctions that could still be applied to russia's energy sector. the biden administration has rightly said they have threatened to cut off russian banks from the global finance hal sector. so there are plenty of actions that can be taken, however you know, they have been sanctioned quite a bit. under the trump administration, under mike pompeo russia faced more sanctions than anytime in modern history since the end of the cold war. we sanctioned them for human rights issues. we sanked them for crimea, for election interference. sanctions and threats, lethal aid all has to be a realistic package a combination of things putin believes. i think what putin, he has been

saying this for 20 years, this isn't new, putin does not like nato surrounding russia. he doesn't like it being on his worders. as the reporter said they do not want ukraine to be in nato. that is a guarranty we can't give. nato determines who is in nato not based on any russian threats. russia has the upper hand in many ways. you reported on the pipeline and europe is becoming more and more dependent on russia. in many ways russia has the upper hand here, even if they don't invade they will exact compromises from the u.s. and europe on issues, maybe like nato and other issues they have wanted for a long time. stuart: how does it play out, morgan? from what you say this sounds like a long running stand-off with danger periods before anybody actually does something, a long-running standoff looks to be the case, right? >> i think that's right. there are prominent think tanks

like aei, who reported that russia is using this for concessions that they may not actually invade because there are some costs to them but obviously our top intelligence committee members from both sides of the aisle were on sunday shows yesterday saying they fear an invasion is imminent. remember we have elections coming up in ukraine. so what russia wants to do, whether it is ukraine, whether it is georgia that they invaded in 2008, the country is on the periphery. they do not want to them to join nato. putin is obsessed with nato. he doesn't want them on the border. doesn't want missile defense systems near russia. he is a smart negotiator and smart holding a gun to our head in the process. stuart: and our president looks weak at this point. that is a problem in of itself. last word to you, morgan. >> yeah. this is the same group of people that did not provide lethal aid

to ukraine with russia encradled crimea. this is the same group of people that threatened action after russia invades. i don't think this can happen. it is certainly not a good thing for democracy. the it is not a good thing for europe. my prayers are always with the biden administration. democrats have to symptom being so hypocritical. these are the same people that impeached trump, supposedly not providing lethal aid fast enough. stuart: that is astonishing. morgan, i can see you shaking your head. see you see. >> that's right. stuart: now this a pro-democracy news site closing in hong kong. they're really stamping on what used to be a bastion of freedom, lauren. lauren: actually another publication that is calling it quits, because you're right, beijing continues their crackdown on dissent in hong kong. this news site called citizens now. their last publication is

tomorrow. comes days after one of their competitors was raided by police and had one of the editors charged with publishing set dish schuss material. stuart: freedom is done. i lived there a couple years of ago. it was a citadel of freedom in asia. now it is gone. terrible thing. thank you, lauren. look at this, people protesting covid lockdown measures in am sister dan, mauled by police dogs and hit by batons t got ugly. if you were hoping for a smooth flight home you think again. the travel nightmare continues into the new year. more than 2,000 flights canceled already today. jeff flock has the report from philadelphia's airport. that's next. ♪.

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♪. stuart: covid rages but the markets, goes up a little bit on this first trading day of 2022. the nasdaq by the way is now up

123 points. the dow is up 105. lauren joins us again looking at the stock of the day, tesla. go. lauren: it sure is. record deliveries last year and morgan stanley's adam jonas says theoretically tesla could do 2 million deliveries this year. that is the most bullish i've seen. that is more than double last year's number. take a look at pfizer and moderna. would you think these stocks would be up today. pfizer's booster shot was just approved for young teenagers. look at this, pfizer down 3%, moderna down 7%. there is a rethink going on. a lot of people are already vaccinated. there is a rush to get boosters but this omicron variant is getting through to people who are vaccinated and boosted. stuart, you have the airlines, i was counting 13,000 flight cancellations between christmas eve and yesterday, 13,000! more today. it's nuts. the airline stocks have

weathered the storm. i think that is because demand is still big. more than 2 million people passed through tsa checkpoints yesterday alone. think of all the people who have gotten omicron. they're raising their hands, i can go anywhere because i'm safe. itch the antibodies. you can see revenge travel coming back in a big way. stuart: we got that. airlines, stock, almost all of them up pretty much across the board. i want to bring in jeff flock. he is at the fit definitely international airport. status report, jeff, what is it like and how bad is it right now? reporter: i thought i left ching guy so i wouldn't get snowed on all the time but apparently followed me here. it is not terrible in philadelphia. we have 60 plus cancellations here but here, but it has been a terrible weekend and the rest. we got pictures i think from newark as well inside of the newark airport from this morning. folks sleeping on cots.

people with long lines, all the rest. here are the numbers on cancellations right now. 20, or 2072 cancellations today alone. 1675 flights delayed. newark, by the way, 144 cancellations there alone. you know is it going to get better you ask? well, maybe some day, not today. maybe not tomorrow. already 251 cancellations already tomorrow. it is not even tomorrow yet. another 16 on wednesday. where has it been the worse? maybe it was worse in chicago. over the weekend o'hare had 1400 cancellations. denver had 500, midway in chicago had 300 with weather. it is combination, stuart, of things. omicron having not enough workers at the airport. faa says it doesn't have enough workers either. then you get the snow coming in. on top of that, 5g is supposed

to launch this week and airlines say that will disrupt flights. what next? stuart: yeah. pretty bad. when we went to you, jeff, i said how bad is it? the answer is it's pretty bad and that's a fact. jeff, get out of the snow if you can. see you later. i wanted to bring in the man who created priceline.com. a man who knows the travel industry extremely well. it is jeff hoffman back with us this morning. jeff, big open question, when will air travel return to pre-covid levels. >> well it is not far off of precovid levels, probably -- during the holidays we got close to 2019 numbers. it is certainly trying to come back but as jeff flock just said it is always, every day it's something new, right? we already knew we had airline employees couldn't come back because of the vaccine. we had the variant. a lot of airline employees out

sick. the faa announced they're short-staffed. that means they will reduce the total number of flights that can be in the air. you have this weather. after we got through the chicago, denver weather, it is up in the northeast. every time we start to make progress something else happens. i agree with jeff, i don't think -- the demand is there, people want to go but they don't want to be stranded in the airport at the last minute with mo plan. stuart: it occurs to me what is happening now will delay the return of business travel even more. you've been on the show frequently saying if we don't get back to serious business travel for maybe, the end of this year. are you going to push that back even further? >> yes. i really think so, because, the difference is, business travel, you're flying to close the sale, meet with big customers, an important meeting, you can't take the risk.

if i'm going to grandma the flight cancels that is disappointing but not impacting a big contract or a sale. the business people, more though see this, more they say, let's not book a flight, let's start with a zoom meeting from the beginning so we don't run risk of. each time this happens reduces business travel confidence. including the international business travel. cdc added more countries to the level 4 list. don't go to them. a lot of things are pushing the recovery of business travel back further. stuart: i'm just surprised there is demand for domestic air travel right now bearing what is going on at airports, delays, confusion, all the rest of us. i'm surprised you told us demand is strong. that does surprise me. >> i agree with you there because demand was strong, i guess i should qualify that a little bit. demand was strong for the whole

holiday season. now, stu, it is really interesting to see over the next week after jeff's segments at airports from hell, after the number of people that spent holidays in the airport let's see what happens. i this over the next week, we already know jetblue is canceling flights all the way through mid-january, which is probably doing people a favor so they have time to find an alternate route. i think after everything that happened the last few weeks, 15,000 flights canceled, people stranded, i think demand might be up a little bit even though it was strong for the holidays. people were hoping for better and it didn't happen. stuart: the last thing i would like to do today is get on a flight. that's a fact. jeff hoffman, thanks for being here. we appreciate it. see you again soon. stuart: by the way bring in lauren here. united, spirit airlines are trying to come up with solutions for the staffing problem. what are they doing? lauren: well if you work at united, you're a pilot you can get triple pay, triple pay if you sign up for any extra flights for the month of

january. that is nice. that is a desperation measure on the part of the airline. then spirit, they're offering flight attendants double pay for the next couple days. they did that for the holidays, continuing for a little bit of january. they need healthy staff to show up. stuart: yes they do. thanks, lauren, now this. a new bill in florida would allow inclass room videotape something parents could watch what goes on in the classroom. how do you feel about that? we have got the story. the supreme court is going to weigh in on enforcing the president's vaccine mandates this week. we've got a report on that too, which will be next. ♪

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♪. stuart: all right. we got some green pretty much across the board on the stock market. the dow is up 60, nasdaq is up 105, s&p up 19. the new year kicking off with vaccine mandate uncertainty in the business world. hillary vaughn is with us. hillary, the supreme court is set to hold a hearing on biden's work place vaccine mandate on friday. what can we expect? reporter: well, stuart, if the supreme court does not overturn this vaccine mandate rule, about 80 million workers in the u.s. will either have to get vaccinated to go to work or they will have to submit to weekly testing. on friday the supreme court is holding a special hearing to look whether this vaccine mandate for certain businesses should be blocked. right now osha, the occupational safety and health administration, created the workplace rule as an emergency fix under their authority to protect employees from hazards. they say that includes being exposed to covid-19. the rule would require employers

with more than 100 workers to mandate vaccines for each employee or submit to weekly covid tests. in response 24 states are suing the biden administration over the rule but businesses are worried too that this mandate going into effect could make an ongoing labor shortage even worse and the advocacy group, advancing american freedom led by former vice president mike pence filed an amicus brief in the supreme court today urging them to reject the mandate saying quote, the framers of our constitution placed boundaries and limitations on the ability of the executive branch unilaterally to impose mandates on american citizens and to erect barriers to work. the court must act now to prevent the irreparable harm to americans, to jobs, to constitutional governance that will be done if osha's mandate is permitted to take effect. the group is also arguing that osha does not only have the

authority but the biden administration is betting on osha to put the vaccine mandate into effect because they could not get congress to do it. stuart. stuart: hillary, thank you very much indeed. here is what looks like a retreat in the vax mandate situation. unvaccinated health care workers in rhode island were fired a few months ago because of the state's vaccine mandate, but, lauren, employees can go back to work even if they have covid? that is a reversal? lauren: it's a reversal because it's a sign of desperation for the health care facilities and the changing nature of both the virus and way we react to it. now in rhode island the facilities need help so if you tested positive for covid, and you work in one of those facilities, you're asymptomatic, come on in, help out if you're needed, wearing n95 mask. in some cases rhode island says if you have mild symptoms, you can still come to work if they

absolutely need you. in those cases, stuart, those who are recovering from covid-19 would help the patients there who tested positive, keep them together. stuart: what about virginia schools are they mandating vaccination there? lauren: no, no. because the parents spoke up. so this is an interesting story because one mom petitioned the district, she said look, i want my kid safe in school, please mandate vaccines. they had a public comment period for about three weeks and 15,000 responses poured in from parents. it was the most they ever received in any public comment period but over 93% were antimandatory vaccination. so if you live in virginia, your kid goes to a public school there, you do not need to vaccinate them for covid-19. stuart: that is really good to hear that parent have a say in something as important as that. glad to hear that. lauren: yeah. stuart: tell me about texas. texas schools are resuming in-person class this is week,

that correct? lauren: yeah they are. in most of the district. if you look at the positivity rate in texas, it is like one in four. there is 220 kids and teenagers in the hospitals. so the situation is bad in texas but most schools, they're going to stay open to in-person learning. they will test kids at school. they will you know, you're not supposed to mandate masks in the state of texas but some of the districts will. they're just saying we'll keep protocols in place to get through this. what we learned from 2020, and, really became obvious in 2021, that the schools are not going to close down. they're safer for the kids than any many other places kids would be. most schools are trying to stay open. stuart: yeah. mass confusion for parents. in particularly difficult for parents with all the differing rules and whatever you got going for you here all across the country. lauren: yep. stuart: we feel for you. lauren: to say the least. stuart: we feel for you, we do.

lauren: our school district -- stuart: no, no-go ahead. lauren: all yours, stuart. stuart: go ahead. lauren: our school district says, d.a. says five davis. the district is going 10 days to be safe. you email the school. look, we were exposed or tested positive on this date and they say, fine, great. you don't need a negative test to return, come back after 10 days. stuart: where did you get the test? they're not available freely, are they? lauren: exactly. exactly. stuart: lauren, we feel for you. thank you very much indeed. new york city will consider race while distributing life-saving covid treatments. we have that story. democrats refusing to let go of "build back better." they warrant to break it up and jam it through congress in separate pieces with separate votes. grover norquist will deal with that after this. ♪.

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stuart: check the market the. we see some green especially the nasdaq. yep, it is up 122 points. maybe big tech turned around a

bit. look at starbucks. interesting news is developing there. they will require employees to disclose covid vaccinations. they will have weekly testing for unvaccinated workers. the stock is not reacting much, down half a percent. the senate returns to a new session today. the democrats are focused on reforming filibuster procedures. lauren is that for the voting bill? lauren: they want to get something through because build back better is stadd h stalled. they want to push through filibuster reforms. republicans say it doesn't make sense and undermine local needs and diversity of the election system. it makes it easier to disrupt if you just do everything the same way. so they want to keep local elections systems in place. but democrats have turned their attention to this and filibuster changes to get this done because "build back better" is being broken up. it is paused.

it's a mess right now. stuart: senators manchin and sinema say don't mess with the filibuster. so that takes away their ammunition. lauren: they do. stuart: lauren, thank you very much. senate majority leader chuck schumer he wants to break up "build back better" into separate programs with separate votes for each. here with me now, grover norquist. how do you think this plays out. build this, all the way down, how does it play out? >> well its an ad milks that schumer cannot put together a package that would get the votes of manchin, sinema and rest of democratic smart. i don't think it works. you have to put it all together with a reconciliation to pass it 51 votes. you have to have it in one package. you can't say we have 10 spending bills, vote for them separately to show how generous we are with other people's money and not include taxes? at the end of the day sinema and

manchin repeatedly said in writing they won't change the filibuster. unless you get rid of the filibuster, bend it, put a whole in it, you can't pass the spending bills. there are not 60 votes. not like they have a couple of good ideas within the bad ideas, they're all bad ideas. so you can't get a single republican vote for them. so he is trying to do something to look like he is doing something. stuart: are you saying, grover, at the end of the day they don't get anything, don't get new taxes, won't get new spending, don't get new entitlement programs. >> they are acting if they don't can. schumer and democrats have the votes, they fail, we go to the left, we tried it that way. we tried everything we can, we go with the small 1 1/2, $1.7 trillion spending proposal that manchin might approve of. interestingly manchin and sinema oppose different kinds of taxes.

sinema doesn't mind massive tax increases on pollution, okay or what she considers pollution. manchin doesn't want to tax energy but he does want, he is willing to tax businesses and individuals. west virginia, there isn't a single fortune 500 company in west virginia. so he can support all sorts of taxes he feels that hurt larger companies. there are eight fortune 500 companies in arizona. sinema will not tolerate raising the corporate rate. she said so. why it is off the table. stuart: got a good shot there. i read your op-ed, what's ahead for biden after very bumpy first year. what is the biggest problem he is facing going into the second year? >> his first year he didn't fix covid, didn't improve the covid situation even with the vax enseen. that is his number one claim to fame why he said he would beat

trump. inflation 1.3, 1.4, now going up towards jimmy carter territory. he didn't pass the massive spending permanent massive spending bill to buy his constituency's favor for the next election. you know is in year two with a covid problem he was supposed to have fixed, an inflation problem he doesn't know where it came from, i have no idea, closing down energy production in the united states raises cost of energy 33%, who knew this would happen? he has a whole bunch of self-inflicted wounds. his to-do list is what we talked about, massive increases on business, massive increases on self-employed people. all sorts of new regulatory regimes through executive orders. a lot of unpleasantness is he trying to pass through. he has a narrow house and 50-50 senate which means it is very difficult to pass the very left-wing things i now endorsed. he is running as bernie's

copresident. instead of being the alternative to the socialist from vermont, he embraced his world view and is trying to sell this. stuart: you, sir, are enjoying every moment of it. i know you, grover norquist, big smile. happy new year to you. we'll see you again soon. >> stu, thank you. stuart: still to come on the program, kayleigh mcenany, steve forbes, dr. frank canseca on the rise in covid cases. aoc in miami partying. she didn't wear a mask. she didn't social distance. she had a great ol' time. that is because florida is a free state. it is the exact opposite in new york where basic services are breaking down. that is my take it is next. ♪. at fidelity, your dedicated advisor will work with you on a comprehensive wealth plan across your full financial picture.

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the only one ranked #1 in reliability 16 times in a row. we are building 5g right. ♪ feel stuck with credit card debt? ♪ move your high-interest debt to a sofi personal loan. earn $10 just for viewing your rate — and get your money right. ♪ >> we're heading towards the peak of this and i think we're going to be on the downside of this by the end of the month. the majority of senators are opposed to build back better but i think they will get a paired down version of it around february or march 1. >> we don't need hundreds of billions of trillions of dollars of new fiscal stimulus, stuart. the economy is, if anything, has too much federal spending, not too little. >> this is a big money grab, because people know that ultimately, the fed is going to

have to do something about inflation, or we're all going to become like dogs chasing parked cars. >> people want to get out. omicron and covid is going to fade into the rear view mirror relatively quickly. we're learning to deal with it. ♪ the boys are back in town ♪ stuart: it is precisely 11:01 eastern time you're looking at the statue of liberty the snow is a-coming. the markets plenty of green this morning, we've got the dow up about 60 points as we speak but a really solid gain for the nasdaq up 135 points that's about .86%, solid gain indeed. how about a look at big tech. most of it doing well but not microsoft, i'm not sure what the specific story is, microsoft is down sharply, the rest of big tech only upside quite nicely so too. the 10 year treasury yield,

hovering around 1.6% dropped back now to 1.598%. now, this. if you watch this program, at anytime in the last year, you know, we have great affection for florida. we call it a free state, where you're allowed to make your own personal choices about vaccines and masks. new york, that is the exact opposite. the authorities here never met a regulation they didn't like. well, over the weekend, the new year weekend, a very well known new yorker headed south. aoc went to miami and she danced , she hugged, and she partied and did not wear a mask. she did not keep social distance she had a great time. the florida governor's office put out a tweet. welcome to florida, aoc. we hope you're enjoying a taste of freedom here in the sunshine state, thanks to ron desantis' leadership. nicely done, governor. nicely done indeed.

when aoc returns to new york, she will see a near deserted city, where basic services are breaking down, quarantine rules are keeping workers home, kids are masked up all day and you have to show your covid papers to go just about anywhere. it's not an accident. it's a direct result of the oppressive policies pushed by politicians like alexandria ocasio-cortez. at some point in this winter perhaps she will go back to florida's sunshine and freedom. if she did, floridians will beg her not to bring her politics with her. third hour of "varney" just getting started. we need kayleigh mcenany, and we found her, and she's with me now kayleigh? aoc accused governor desantis of going missing during the omicron surge in florida, but he was actually taking care of his wife

who was going through cancer treatment. aoc has egg all over her face, right? >> kayleigh: oh, she totally does. the question is does aoc realize she has egg on her face? she gave that rather bizarre response saying the criticism of her comes because republicans basically have loving affection for her and are angry they can't be with her so therefore, they criticize her and it was a really bizarre response. it was one that i don't think is befitting of a sitting elected member of the united states house of representatives so that aside, then she criticizes ron desantis whose wife casey, an incredible woman, is going through cancer treatment. she does have a lot of egg on her face but stuart i don't know if she realizes it. stuart: i don't think she does, no, i don't think she cares about it either that be my opinion. i just i'm just, i'll be very interested to see if she ever goes back to florida. what will the floridians say, please, don't bring your politic s with you. i can see that coming.

>> kayleigh: yeah. exactly right. stuart: the governor of arkansas says it's ironic that the president doesn't think the federal government can solve the covid crisis. just watch this tape, please, roll it. >> it's a little bit ironic. whenever you see the federal mandates on vaccinations, they have, in this administration, utilized federal power rather extensively and that's one of the things we're in litigation about, so it's a little bit in consistent. stuart: inconsistent? why can't the white house get the messaging straight? >> yeah, it's messaging straight and it's policy straight. i mean, stuart? yes, you've got the messaging problem where there is a federal solution, there's not a federal solution, back and forth all the mishaps on covid testing but then you also have the notion that president biden, as a candidate, joe biden told us he had a secret covid plan, in his basement. he told us he had the plan to shutdown the virus, as it turns out he had no plan whatsoever other than onerous mandates that are not working, quite clearly,

and he dropped the ball remarkably on testing, stuart, we had the most advanced testing system in the world when me and president trump left the administration. we were producing covid tests we increased production of covid tests by 32000 percent and when i say we, the federal government in partner with the private sector, and president biden just dropped the ball, abbott stopped producing test at the same rate, last june or july and he did nothing about it. so it's a messaging problem, it's also a very big policy problem, stuart. stuart: it's a profound problem in every respect. kayleigh thank you very much for joining us. we'll be watching you on "out numbered." you know, i like to call that show ambushed but its real name is outnumbered 12 noon eastern only on fox news, thank you, kayleigh. we'll see you later. back to the markets we still got that green around us, especially for the nasdaq composite nice gain there, 130 points higher. steve forbes is with us. we've been talking about this all morning, steve. covid is raging and the markets

are doing very well. can you explain this? >> i think the markets are see ing that this variety of covid is going to not only is it like a flu or cold for most people, especially if you had the vaccines but also, as dr. siegel noted by the end of the month the worst is going to be over so the affects are thankfully small for most people it's widespread. it's going to be gone and the markets always try to anticipate the future, but not what's happening in the present. stuart: that's fascinating, steve. you think that is the primary reason for today's rally? the fact that omicron is going to rocket through real fast and be gone in a month or so. that's your big deal. >> that's right, and then the markets going to start focusing on other things and may have to do so sooner depending on what happens in ukraine and elsewhere and what the federal reserve does, but the big fear that we had a few weeks ago about omicron shutting things down like the delta variant did or the original covid-19 did

thankfully that's not going to happen. widespread, but the effects are small and the real dangers coming as we see in new york and in new york city so from the reaction to this variant. stuart: yes, exactly. new york city has got a new mayor eric adams. some people are saying he is deblasio, just departed mayor, 2.0. what do you think? >> well it's nice to be able to say former mayor deblasio, but we have to see if the new mayor, eric adams, is going to have the backbone to make real change s. i think he muffed it on the vaccines he could have easily done away with those vaccine requirements which are deroy murdock as tating especially small businesses in a town that has twice the unemployment rate of the nation and could have ease it it postponed those and said let me see and examine it. unfortunately he's kept former mayor deblasio's health commissioner on for several months so that's not a good sign and then we'll see what he does on the crime front. if he goes back to the policies that worked in the 1990s and

afterwards follows through and takes the criticism about impacts and things like that, he will be a successful mayor, but the jury is still out on that whether he can clearly push that through. stuart: i still have to work this out, steve. there's a mandate, you've gotta get vaccinated and if you don't get vaccinated, you can be fired , but if you do get vaccinated, you still get omicron. what a contradiction. i simply can't work this out. >> well and it's for a lot of us it's personal. i had the omicron version a few days ago, couple of weeks ago even though i had the three shots and i took comfort from the fact that the disease would have been worse if i hadn't had the shots, but this is part of the problem in public health. they have given a very confusing signals, confused the public, put in policies that don't work, like mandating shots for young people. finland, for example, has banned shots for young people, because less than special circumstances they think can do more harm than good so wearying norring the science and harming the economy at the same time, one thing the public health officials should realize, stuart

as people have said, public health is pleural. it's not just about covid. it's about mental illnesses, treatments for heart disease, cancer and the like the impact it has on the economy which affects people's health, they gotta take an overview rather than this narrow view and responding with policies that often have no real science behind them. stuart: well-said, steve forbes, glad you're on the show this morning we appreciate that. words of wisdom, steve, thank you, sir. >> thank you. stuart: let's get back to the market lauren simonetti back with us looking at the gold stocks, what's going on? lauren: big declines as gold extends last year's losses because crypto and bonds are more attractive to many investors. look at anglo gold down 4%, kin rock is down nearly the same so gold players are getting hit today pretty badly. paypal has a green arrow they were upgraded to outperform, simple reason, buy the dip. they say the stocks slide has gone too far this year, at one point, last year, paypal was at 310 so it's nice to see them

going back in that direction. bmo seeing 21% organic revenue growth potentially in 2022 and finally, apple. we're still on $3 trillion market cap watch. wedbush says demand for the iphone 13 is so strong, they're estimating apple sold a record 40 million units over christmas, despite all the supply chain worries so apple is another winner today stuart. stuart: 40 million, my that's a big number right there. thanks lauren. lauren: it'll be a record. stuart: i want to talk sports, antonio brown, no lingerie buck. he stormed off-the-field in the middle of a game. he lost a lot more than his shirt in that dramatic exit, which we'll report on fully. thousands of protesters faceoff with police in the netherlands, they're pushing back against new lockdowns. could that come here? and the population of florida grew by 1% last year, that's big people are moving through in droves but a lot of them are priced out of the housing market

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♪ you can jump right in, let the music pull you in, you can jump right in ♪ stuart: that's st. augustine, florida, 59 degrees and sunny, the free state of florida, by the way florida saw its population grow 1% last year that's a big increase by the way their economy is simply booming, a state representative in

florida, and joining us now. sir, with all these people moving to your state, i imagine a lot of people are getting priced out of the housing market am i right? >> yeah, that's currently happening, as a home builder i'm seeing it first-hand. you're getting a lot of people fleeing these big blue liberal states and moving to the free state of florida, and now we have supply and demand issues taking over. we have way too much demand because of the influx of new people to the state, and we have supply chain issues just like everybody else so yes, the home prices are definitely speaking. stuart: are you worried about all these people moving to your state from blue states and bringing their politics with them? >> well, the first thing i would say is that, you know, freedom is a powerful magnet, and they're moving here because of mandates, mayhem, and money. mandates in the terms of mask and vaccine mandates, mayhem in

the terms of defund the police policies and high crime, and money, you know, we let you keep more of your hard-earned money but yes, we are a little concerned that they are going to bring their ideology here, so what i say is leave that progressive ideology at your state border and do not new york my florida. stuart: what do you think of aoc partying in miami enjoying the freedom of florida? >> i think she's a hypocrite just like the rest of the , you know, mask mandate vaccine mandate crowds. it's rules for the , not for me. if you want to have a great economy and you want to come here and take your mask off and enjoy the free state of florida just don't be a hypocrite. stuart: here's one thing i really want to talk to you about a new bill in your state would allow audio and video recordings in classrooms, parents be given access to those recordings if an incident occurs that involves their child. will you support this? >> i support any bill that is

going to hold bad teachers accountable. i don't know if this bill is going to make it across the finish line but what i do know is that parents are very concerned about what's going on inside classrooms, whether it be critical race theory, whether it be black lives matter indoctrination, whether it be bullying. there has to be a way to hold people accountable for what they're doing in these classrooms. there are great teachers doing great things but we also know that there are bad teachers doing very bad things that are indoctrinating our kids. stuart: is this supported by republicans and opposed by democrats? what's the politics of this? >> well, it's a new bill that's been followed but i would generally suspect that the republicans in the state legislature are more inclined to give something along the lines of this and i'm also positive the democrats be steadfast against this. stuart: now in your state, there

has been a real surge in omicron caseload, and hospitalization rates are going up a little bit. cause for concern in florida? >> you know, any time when you have a spike there's going to be cause for concern but what's important to note here is that this omicron surge really isn't showing a big spike in hospitalizations or deaths, in fact florida is doing much much better than some of these big states that have these lockdowns and these vaccine mandates and mask mandates so while we are see seeing a little bit of a spike in hospitalizations, it's not overwhelming the hospital system. in fact we're doing rather well. i think 25% of all hospital beds are open in the state of florida at this time and very little usage for covid with omicron in the hospital system, in terms of icu beds right now. florida's managing this much better than states like new york , new jersey, california. stuart: you are.

congratulations, sir. thank you very much for joining us and we hope to see you real soon. happy new year to you. >> my pleasure, happy new year, stu. stuart: yes, sir, back to those markets, please. dow is going nowhere at this point it's actually up just five points, nasdaq holding on to a gain of almost a hundred point, almost. guggenheim is calling it the best idea for this year. they say nike's expansion into the metaverse will allow them to keep growing. nike is actually down nearly 2%. gotta look at tesla, however, to the moon this morning up over $106 per share at 11.64. their goal is to deliver 20 million vehicles by 2030. they just reported 1 million deliveries,, almost a million deliveries, in 2021 so they do it 10 times the value in the next eight years. they are going to open a big factory in berlin soon and another one in austin, texas right after that. tesla on a terror this morning

up 10%, and then there's this. the tampa bay buccaneers have cut ties with antonio brown after his meltdown yesterday. todd piro is with us. that split is going to cost him a lot more than his position on the team isn't it? todd: happy new year to you, stu you sure bet it will, i just want to add at least in the premier league which i know you watch, they wait until after the game to take their shirts off, with antonio brown's exit from the bucks, brown is not going to get several contract incentives from his one year, $3.1 million deal. eight more catches which we could have done, would have unlocked a $333,000 bonus, 55 receiving yards with brady throwing that could happen on one pass, that would have brought the same amount and he was one touchdown away from another $333,000 bonus, so about a million in all, still no official reason, given for the offers but he's off the team, stu. stuart: he's had trouble before with other teams i believe. todd: yes, yes, he has.

stuart: okay, in that same game, was one of the jets players, he kind of star struck by tom brady todd: yeah, i do this every time i'm onset with you, i ask you to off my scripts but i'm still waiting, ending with a tom brady interception to jets rookie brandon eckles, but following the game which tampa ended up winning late he approached brady and asked for the goat, that's the greatest of all-time, to sign the ball, brady obliged and shared some words with the 24- year-old defensive back. stuart: all right, now i understand what was going on at that game. i didn't at the time i was watching. thanks very much, todd we'll see you again just one second. now this. new york city will take a person 's race into account before handing out life saving covid treatments. is that legal? we've got a lawyer on the case. remember what the cdc director said last week about testing for people who leave isolation? roll tape. >> what we do now is that the

pcr test after infection can be positive for up to 12 weeks, so that is not going to be helpful. you're not going to be transmit ting during all of that period of time. stuart: well now, dr. fauci says something completely different. we have a doctor to respond to that, next. ♪

♪ you're as cold as ice, you're willing to sacrifice our love ♪ stuart: yeah, cold as ice that actually describes new york sixth avenue, which doesn't have any people on the sidewalks and very little traffic on the street. new york city is really emptying out, it's 30 degrees and we're waiting for some snow, here it comes. check those markets, our next picture emerging now no clear trend except for the nasdaq which is consistently higher throughout the day. up 100 points as we speak. have a look at pfizer and bion tech the fda approved

their boosters for kids 12-15 both stocks are down sharply, go figure. take a look at covid headlines from around the world. first of all todd come back in again, please. what's with the riot in amsterdam? todd: yeah, rye at police breaking up a crowd of several thousand who gathered in amsterdam last night to protest against covid-19 lockdown measures and vaccinations, all this as australia's government said the milder impact of the omicron strain meant the country could push ahead with plans to reopen the economy even as new infections hit a record of more than 37,000, and as france slashes isolation times for vaccinated people in a bid to ease the financial and social burdens of the outbreak, a lot of covid throughout all the world, so the responses are happening, sometimes they're different from one another, that's what makes the world a aground stuart. stuart: new york city will consider race while distributing life saving covid treatments. make me through this. it doesn't sound legal. todd: yeah, i don't think it is. here's what's going to happen.

new york city will take a patient's race into account when distributing these treatments according to the department of health, the city will consider race and ethnicity, when assess ing individual risk. that reads the agency's official guidance from december 20 which adds, "longstanding systemic health and social inequities can contribute to an increased risk of dying from covid-19" the guidance applies to both the distribution of monoclonal antibodies and oral antivirals but stuart, day one of constitutional law and law school, you learn that the third rail that you cannot discriminate based upon is race. this is literally discrimination in the health sector based upon race, the health department of new york has since gone on to say they may make it based upon your wealth, your finances, but still this is a slippery slope that we don't want to go down, and would not be sariff the biden administration had simply focused on all three legs of the tricycle, not just

vaccines, not just mask mandates , but medications, therapeutics as well. they ignored it and here we are. stuart: and here we are. thanks, todd see you again later the u.s. hit a new record high with nearly a half million new covid cases reported for last wednesday. that, by the way, is the latest count we have from the cdc. last wednesday. but it marks the largest daily total of any country during the entire pandemic. let's bring in dr. frank casless a. can you tell us when we might hit peak omicron? >> think we're approaching it , stuart. if we look at the pattern that we saw in south africa over the last month or so, they peaked after about two or three weeks maybe four, and then you started to see a dramatic down- swing and i think we're coming to that point where we're probably hitting a peak pretty soon. they actually listed a lot of their covid restrictions in the last couple of weeks as they hit the downswing, so i think

we're getting there fairly soon. stuart: that's very good news isn't it because it spikes and you're over it, relatively quickly. i call that good news. >> i think it's very good news and if you compare that to the delta surge, which we really started talking about in the beginning of august, and it really was with us pretty much until about thanksgiving time, when we started to talk about omicron, you know, that was several month really more severe cases and delta hit us pretty hard, and omicron, i think, is going to wash over us a lot faster, with causing very little damage and much milder symptoms and that is holding. there were some questions initially of well, the rest of the world is seeing milder cases that remains to be seen if that's going to hold true here and so far it is. we're really not seeing severe cases here in the u.s.. stuart: i'm confused here. last week, the cdc shortened the quarantine time to five days , no test to get out of it. now, dr. fauci says you should be tested, to get out of that

quarantine situation. that's confusing. what's going on here? >> it is confusing. it's confusing to the public, it's even confusing to us doctors. i had to read the guidance a couple of times over before i understood it, so it's enormously hard to understand. the testing to get out of quarantine or isolation is a terrible idea. the pcr test can remain positive for weeks, even months after a positive case. the antigen test, the home tests are less reliable, and they are in short supply. even with the government comes through with these hundreds of thousands of kits that they're promising, the kits are still in short supply, my patients are having trouble finding them and then to have to use the kit to get out of quarantine, so now you're testing to go into quarantine, and you're testing to go out of quarantine, that's doubling the number of tests that are going to be needed and i think that's just going to cause more confusion.

also, you can have a false positive test on these kits with other strains of coronaviruses like the common cold. the common cold is caused by other coronaviruses, so you could have just a regular cold and test positive. stuart: that's just such a mess and here's another one for you. rhode island is allowing covid- positive healthcare workers to continue working if their facility is facing a staffing shortage. that's a complete retreat, isn't it? i mean, they haven't got the staff to run the hospital so you let in the covid-positive people. that's a complete retreat. >> it's a complete retreat. i think the public is sensing that there's, we're a little bit lost in the forest here. you know, watching them scramble to try to change these rules, it reminds me of sort of like a snowstorm. when the snowstorm is coming, the locality will have a plan in place to try to handle the storm and basically keep the roads clear, but you can't stop the

storm, and what i'm sensing from the government is that they're trying to stop the storm instead of just keeping the road s clear, if that makes any sense. they are trying to stop the inevitibility of omicron basically sweeping through the public and i think i'd mentioned this last time i was here. we're all going to either get it , come into contact with it or be exposed to it over the course of the next couple of weeks and nothing that the cdc or the fda does is going to stop it, so we have to manage it better. stuart: real fast, almost a technical question. if you've tested positive, right after that, can you get a boost er shot or do you have to wait for a long time to get the booster shot? >> i would wait. i would wait a while. the official guidance from the cdc is that you can get it and there's a push that you should get it. i tell my patients to wait at least three months, and, you know, the data will show whether that's even going to be necessary or not. we hope that omicron will convey

, confer a large degree of natural immunity. matter of fact, studies are now showing that if you've had omicron, there is some degree of immunity against delta, so and it doesn't work the other way so if you had delta, you can still get omicron, but if you have omicron, you're probably not going to get delta so its quickly swept delta off the map, so number one i would not encourage boosters right after you've had covid. i would wait a while if at all and the good news is that omicron is showing sort of like a retrograde immunity towards the prior strains and that's really good news. stuart: i'm still a little confused but nonetheless you did your best to straighten me out dr. frank contacessa, thank you for joining us. >> happy new year, stuart. stuart: thanks very much, doctor let's change the subject completely. you've heard jen psaki say it over and over again. roll tape. >> happy to circle back with our team on that specific report circle back, circle back, circle

back. i hate to disappoint conservative twitter but i'm going to circle back. stuart: the phrase "circle back" is now banned at a university, we'll tell you about that. 2,200 flights have already been canceled today. airlines scaling back their schedules to deal with snowstorm s, but the worse could yet to come. we'll head back to jeff flock in the snow in philly, right after this. ♪ for investors who can navigate this landscape,

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♪ help, i need somebody, not just anybody, help, you know i need someone, help ♪ stuart: there it is, a very snowy philadelphia international

airport, 30 degrees and yes, there is snow. let's bring in janice dean into the weather machine, janice, lots of snow today for the northeast, and more on the way. is that accurate? >> janice: i mean, it's possible. we're going to get some cold air arising here in the northeast over the next few days it's going to feel different than we experienced before the new year, where we had above-average temperatures so with that cold air in place, there's going to be a storm track and we could potentially see more of this later this weekend into next week as well, so let's talk about this , an area of low pressure that's moving across the mid-atlantic bringing d.c. several inches of snow. the most snow i think they've had in several years so that's going to be crippling for the d.c. area that's why everyone is urged to stay home but we saw snow in tennessee, as well as alabama, look at that , huntsville, alabama six inches that's more snowfall this season than new york city. new york, you're not going to get very much snow out of this one, but you know what? the next couple of weeks we could get some snow this is

mainly going to be an appalachia snow event up towards the mid-atlantic d.c. up towards southern new jersey, certainly still getting the snow, philadelphia getting quite a bit of snow but this storm is quickly moving offshore, so just a couple more hours and then it will be done, but it was, it had a lot of impact right across some of these big cities on the i-95 corridor and there is the snow to come so a couple more inches we could get upwards of a foot in the higher elevations and four to eight inches from the d.c. area up towards new jersey that's not too bad a snowstorm. stuart back to you. stuart: it'll mess things up let's put it like that janice thank you very much indeed. thank you. >> that's true. stuart: so far today, i've gotta tell you this , more than 2,200 flights have been canceled, 2,300 delayed. let's go back to jeff flock he's at the philadelphia international airport. is there any sign that things could start to improve this week

>> well, i don't know how it might get much worse, i should say, stuart, so maybe yeah, you know, it be one thing, as janice pointed out this isn't a terrible snowstorm in the northeast and in philadelphia maybe you see , i don't know, if you're able to see but planes are still moving out on the runway, they are still landing and taking off, but you know, you've got that and then you've got spiked problems because of not enough personnel because of omicron, faa is saying its not got enough personnel so then you get a lot of cancellations as you report we're at 2,200-plus cancellation s. the latest numbers, 2,340 for delays but you know this was nothing like what it was over the weekend. take a look at some of the weekend numbers just for perspective here on saturday , we had 2,700 cancellations. almost 10,000 delays, on sunday another 2,600 plus cancellations in almost 9,000 delays.

you wonder, maybe you wonder what were the airlines most affected? sky west which is a regional carrier that does delta, united and american flights, over a thousand cancellations for the weekend, southwest had 900-plus, delta and american similar numbers almost 400 for them. so yeah, the snow isn't going to last that long, but the issues with personnel are going to be an issue and then as i leave you with perhaps another overview of the whiteout conditions here you've got 5g being started this week, which the airlines say is going to muck up their radio communications, and potentially lead to delays there too, so other than that, everything is perfect, mr. "varney." stuart: i've gotta tell you jeff my heart goes out to any family trying to fly back home in weather and a situation like this. it's just awful, jeff thank you very much indeed. yes, sir. stuart: see you again soon. now a promotion of my own show. don't forget to tune in tonight

to my fox business prime show, it's called "american built" we're taking a look at chicago's o'hare airport. american built airs tonight, chicago o'hare, in the focus. that's at 9:00 eastern, fox business. all right, here is something unusual. didn't expect to hear this. people are allowed to smoke marijuana, weed, inside new york quarantine hotels. tell me more, todd? todd: yeah, i've gotta give the new york post credit for this because it wasn't mine it was there's but here we go. new york city's covid-19 quarantine hotels are dope. anyone saying taxpayer expense at one of the cities quarantine hotels is welcome to bring their weed, which an on-staff nurse will distribute for sanction smoke breaks. the lodging is meant to give new yorkers a place to recuperate from the coronavirus without sickening family or roommates. stuart: you can't smoke tobacco?

todd: they actually do have tobacco as well, but it just seems, you know at least in the tobacco front if your lungs are compromised maybe tobacco is not the way to go but again who am i to preach. stuart: i don't know what to say todd so i'll leave it there, todd piro, thank you very much indeed. back to the market show the dow 30, sense of the market more sellers than buyers, more down than up, the dow is up just 20 points as we speak. here is something i find extraordinary. princeton university is banning students from leaving the county until the middle of february. i just don't understand this. why are they doing that? we're going to talk to a princeton student about it, after this. ♪

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with no line-activation fees or term contract required. see if you can save by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities. stuart: a university in michigan unveiled its list of banned phrases for 2022 and todd piro, one of jen psaki's favorite phrases made the cut, right? todd: take a listen.

>> happy to eric swalwell is el back with our team on that specific report, circle back, circle back. i hate to disappoint conservative twitter but i'm going to circle back. todd: you might be able to guess one of them, stuart. lake superior state university back with its banished words list created from not just them, but from submissions around the world. here we go, the top 10 phrases. wait, what? no, no, i'm not telling you to wait, that's one of the top 10 phrases no worries which you know is big in australia i don't know why they have to attack that one at the end of the day, that being said, asking for a friend, the aforementioned circle back, thank you, jen psaki, deep dive, new normal, you're on mute, and supply chain , to which i say, stuart keep this list up for a second. i can't do analysis on fox & friends first without at the end of the day, that being said, deep dive, new normal, or supply chain. so i can't do my job, according to lake superior state. stuart: well, as i get older i find myself using more and more cliches, many of them, on that

list. so i have to watch out. todd: and do you know what, stuart? it's your show. do what you want. stuart: thank you, todd i shall do just that. thanks very much, todd now this. princeton university delaying its return from winter break, due to the covid surge. once students do come back, they will not be allowed to leave the county. yes, i said the county. can't leave the county, until mid-february. miles mcknight is a student at princeton, he's a correspondent for campus reform and he joins me now. let me try and get this straight you are required to be vaccinated, you're being told to stay in your rooms as much as possible, you've gotta mask up and you can't leave the county until mid-february. i think i've got that right. now you tell me why princeton is doing this? >> well good morning, stuart. so the university had some of these regulations in light of surging covid cases in new york and new jersey and some of the regulations are perfectly reasonable like testing requirements. others sort of fit within this broader trend that campus

reform has reported on at universities across country which is inconsistency with some of the policies so just to give you an example with the travel restriction, we're not able now to leave the immediate county surrounding princeton but if a university sports team or university-sponsored club wants to travel across the entire country to play a game or whatever that's perfectly fine, or another inconsistency, we're not allowed to gather in groups of over 20, we have to wear mask s and there's no food allowed but university is allow ing students to gather in the hundreds in masked in dining halls so i can't really explain it. stuart: if i was a student at princeton, if i was, i'd be really unhappy about this , because my university life is being destroyed. the experience of the university has been taken away from me. how do the other students feel? >> i think students are frustrated and concerned. a lot of these changes are reminiscent of where we were last spring with virtual learning and with that, you know the university saw a record mental health crisis, record numbers of mental health

hospitalizations, counseling appointments, and a number of regulations that came with the harsh disciplinary scheme so the university caused students to be really stressed because they hired private investigators to hound stunneds for trivial covid violations students were encouraged to nixon each other and made phony allegations for large friend groups to get back at petty drama and i no one student that was sexually assaulted reported to the university and instead of doing anything real about the sexual assault, the university dished out harsh consequences to the victim and her friends so it's frustrating and worrisome. stuart: thanks for coming on the show and telling us all about it because i never imagined it was as bad as that. come back and see us again soon, thanks very much, we'll see you soon. now then it is 11:55 that means it's time for the monday trivia question. alaska became the 49th state on this day, january 3, of which year? the answer after this.

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stuart: 1959. that is correct. when president eisenhower signed the official proclamation, 92 years after the u.s. bout the land from russia, that was 1867 for 7.2 million. two cents per acre. todd, you're partly right. alaska was 59, so was hawaii, august of 59 was hawaii. then we had alaska. got that? look who is here sitting in for neil. it is ashley webster. did you get the answer to alaska statehood? ashe i'm glad you asked. i said 1948. 1959 is not that long ago. remarkably. what a deal. great to see you, back, stu. happy new year to you