maria: have a great day, great to see you, "varney and company" starts now. stuart: good morning. today biden's presidency is on the line failing almost every issue today he goes into a closed-door meeting with senate democrats. he must persuade them to somehow pass voting reform. not looking good with senators manchin and kirsten sinema refused to drop the filibuster. one of the lowest approval ratings of any president, down to 33% in the quinnipiac poll,

lame-duck territory. he may have to beg for support to keep his presidency alive it today's meeting. 894,000 new covid cases reported wednesday, 13 million reported in the last month. with numbers like that maybe covid is about to peek, that would be good, the president makes another address at 10:30 eastern this morning. the latest inflation number is a shocker, the producer price index shows a year on year gain of 9.7%. at the consumer level inflation is running hot at 7%. to the market despite the inflation numbers stocks higher, the dow up 120, nasdaq up 53. bitcoin, 43,$000 a coin, the yield on the 10 year treasury not moving up, one.7% despite the inflation numbers. oil is well above the $80 a

barrel level, natural gas with the cold snap holding at a high level, 458 british thermal units. enrollment at colleges and universities, down by million students since the pandemic began, enrollment in public schools down sharply. higher education and the teachers union failed our youngsters and are walking away. thursday january 13th, 2022, "varney and company" is about to begin. stuart: we start with that new quinnipiac poll. i found this really shocking, the president's approval

hitting a new low of 33%. what impact of these low approval numbers on the president's all important meeting with democrat senators, do those numbers we can its position? >> i want to say i want to hear one positive thing coming out of your speech earlier, it sounded so do and gloom, makes me deep press. stuart: there is nothing good about 9.7% inflation, doom and gloom on the biden administrative, nothing about him begging support to change the voting rules. continue please. >> on the poll numbers. the white house looking at poll numbers, the mere fact in the

white house you have multiple tools, you go out there and sell your message of hope and prosperity. they have nothing to sell. an invisible cabinet, we can vice president. the president is not even coherent when he speaks and on the messaging itself, look at this story, talking about how they come back, inflation, economic woes, supply chain crisis, wages going up but at the same time inflation eating into those wages. covid fatigue, forced vaccine mandates, there really is no messaging coming out of the white house other than get vaccinated and it is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. it is not working, not sufficient.

even losing democrats, seeing the democrat party shifting to voting rights trying to change the senate rules because if they can stay on this message of racism and identity politics which is there safe zone they think they are going to sway the american people. i think it is a failed strategy. stuart: all bad news, just put it out there but you are a conservative. bad news for the biden team is good news for you guys. as i want to be hopeful. what i am seeing is an awakening, it is about waking up to the realities and the agenda is you see these americans and parents and working class americans pushing against the left, if avapro

america first agenda, what they are seeing with the democrat party, very good shape going into these midterm elections. stuart: brian brandenberg, glutton for punishment, the president speaking at 10:30 on covid. we just reported 894,000 cases just yesterday. that is extraordinary. do you think he will continue to blame the unvaccinated? >> is he going to turn around and acknowledge what science is really telling us which is vaccines don't stop the spread, they might help you but don't stop the spread. he will stay on the same path which will get his poll numbers moving in the same direction they are always going because americans are saying i'm not getting the truth from you, mister president, that is what you promised. stuart: another part of the

quinnipiac poll showed 49% of people believe the president is creating more division in the country. now he has got to get all the senators together and try to persuade them to pass voting reform after making that divisive speech on tuesday. >> how does he do this? that speech on tuesday was one of the most divisive pieces of rhetoric i have ever heard. anybody who paid attention to it saw that. how is he going to remedy that? he's not doing it on covid and he is not doing it on voting rights, there is no dimension where he's unifying america. stuart: you've got to be positive somehow or another. >> that is mercedes's job. stay there please. more related. check futures, back to the markets, rally, modest in progress, dow was up 136 points. bill but root joins us, producer prices up 9.7% year-over-year, cause for alarm for investors? >> the market priced this in

attendance below expected, you are looking at probabilities of 80% the fed will hike twice by june and -- stuart: the markets accepted this, digested all of this, moving up even despite this news. >> i think we digested it. to start the year that is rebalancing, there will be more of that, volatility will continue but where we are right now, the market is digesting it, the 10 year yield surging higher. on your show week ago, one.8% a quick move to 2.one and overshoot two and whether it is ppi, a 30 year bond auction that could jumpstart something. stuart: oil, $82 a barrel, natural gas sharply higher. could we see renewed energy

price inflation and if we do, does that hit the market? >> great point. look at december. these numbers are both december reads. looking at december crude oil is coming out of the electron scare. those numbers were subdued due to crude oil and energy, we have a strong move we saw yesterday, in february, and basically the swing high of $85. we start $185 and it could be a pretty fast manner but this yesterday was a huge tailwind yesterday. the white house has released the strategic petroleum reserve to the tune of the lowest level since november of 2002.

and spare capacity. there was no spare capacity, this is what is driving energy prices higher. >> offering a hedge against inflation, ordinary investors, should they buy gold. >> i do expect gold to become an inflation hedge, rates in this area and potentially higher. watching the german 10 year yield getting close to 0%, in may of 2018, this goes back to 0% and get into positive territory, and dollar flows out of the dollar and into the euro, this is a supportive currency factor, gold can become an inflation hedge at that time.

stuart: there's a limited number of viewers closely checked the 10 year bond in germany. it is not one of those things they pay close attention to. >> keeping them in the know. stuart: you turned that around very well. cs again soon. futures one more time, dow is up 150 points. senator tom cotton laying the case for keeping the filibuster and used some powerful moves. >> ideologues want to turn the founding fathers what the founding fathers call the cooling father democracy into a rubberstamp of dictatorship. those are powerful words but they are not mine. stuart: they are chuck schumer's words. we have the full video. what after omicron? what comes next? will the next variant be stronger or weaker? we ask doctor mark siegel after

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♪♪ 8 that america ♪♪ stuart: i pronounced do more in des moines. i have corrected myself regally in the past. they could get 10 inches of snow tomorrow. the cdc is warning against travel to canada. they raised the morning to

level 4, very high. there are 80 destinations worldwide at level 4. the us has added a record high 5.5 million new cases of covid in the past week. studies show omicron is less severe but more transmissible. how is the administration handling this surge? >> the president is expected to announce sending 1000 military medical personnel to 6 different states to try to help with omicron. the 7-day average of the past week is 32,000 cases, that is roughly down 10,000 from the peak of january 2nd. the cdc director stressing the omicron remains less deadly than other variants, 91% lower risk of dying from omicron but other health officials continue to warn that in some form covid is here to stay. >> we are going to look ahead

at what happens when it peaks and goes down, that we are not going to eradicate this. we have only done that with smallpox. we are not going to laminate that, with massive vaccination programs. ultimately control it. >> reporter: when it comes to mask guidance the head of the cdc says the best mask, all day. stuart: nearly 900,000 new covid cases were reported. 5 million over the past week. doctor siegel joins us. are we near the peak? >> reporter: we are near the peak and we are starting to go slowly down especially in certain areas like new york, massachusetts and dc and

overall hospitalizations are much less among the vaccinated and boosted, 90% less chance of being in the hospital. this is a virus that affects the upper airways more than the lungs. given it is more contagious than the previous variant, in a way that is good news, less likely to end up on a ventilator or have severe complications. stuart: when i saw this i thought of you. senator sanders wants in 95 masks distributed to everyone. what does doctor siegel think of that? >> he's taking a card out of a totalitarian book. the mask will arrive at my house, i wear it in the office with patients, and they won't know what to do with it because

it is really confining, it is hard to where it effectively. don't know how well it works against omicron. mask wearing is something that has to be somewhat affective. the cdc, don't think cloth masks, they are quite twice as effective against the result variant. the compromise is to wear a surgical mask or k and 95 but the one senator sanders is talking about are prohibited. nobody is going to wear them. stuart: any idea what the next variant will be like? will it be stronger? weaker? any idea? >> want to hear something interesting? i spoke to john barry yesterday who wrote the 1918 blue book, the super influenza book, he said in 1918 we ended up with a variant of the much like

omicron that affected the upper airways, is wildly contagious and it ended up leading to the seasonal flu. i am hoping we are seeing that here. i find it hard to believe in other variant is going to emerge that is more transmissible than this one. i'm hoping we're moving in the direction of a seasonal covid rather than yet another ferocious variance coming. i'm interested in something else which is moderna and pfizer making specific boosters for this variance but the market hasn't reflected that. pfizer is flat, premarket trading is down. don't know if by the time the new boosters come out this variant will still be there and have any use at all. stuart: past the peak by then. thank you very much. two questions for you. number one, what do you think? have we reached peak covid? >> we probably have this round. we will hit another peak again

with the new strain. i don't know what it is going to be. it is going to be something. we've got to stop living like the last because the last peak. we've got to live there every peak like every other seasonal illness, trying to predict the future and this is an same. stuart: have we reached peak inflation? >> we are not acting like we reached peak covid which means supply chain problems, the president will still want to spend money, he's not doing anything to solve the underlying issues. 9.7%, who did that flow through to? >> bassoonist. >> we have not hit peak. just for you. stuart: check futures one more time, up 100 for the dow, up 60 for the nasdaq. we take you to "the opening bell" next.

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the one opening higher, "the opening bell" rings, green on the left-hand side of the

screen. explain this to me. 9.7% inflation at the producer price level and markets going up. >> a couple things happening. we expect this number, what is happening is giving the federal little leeway to say doing things they have to do monetarily to control inflation and over time it is going to be okay, 14 times in the past 60 years, rising inflation. 11 of those 14 times we had stronger bull markets accompanying them, because of the economic markets. that's my full explanation. stuart: do you think we've reached peak covid?

that is a positive, have we reached peak inflation? if we have that is very positive. answer both questions. >> on peak covid, i've been doing a lot of this and i believe peak severity of covid in terms of hospitalization, death, all of those major metrics, i believe we have peak covid, something should change my mind but i do believe so. on inflation i do not think we reached peak inflation but we are getting to the point we can see it in 6 months or so. stuart: i want to talk about one stock you mentioned recently. on so my conductor, i believe they've got a handle on the electric vehicle market. you recommended this some time ago.

it has gone up since then. is this a good way of getting a foot in the door of the electric vehicle market? >> a great way to have a piece in this. the electrical vehicle market plus some i conductor shortage is not yet over. we could have some more upside. 35% of their products go into automotive in general and ev in particular, in the 30s when i recommended them in june of 2021. we have gone up almost 80% and have more room to go up. stuart: where is it going? >> we are pushing 80s this year. stuart: i would take that pr. you are a good man and all right and see you again soon.

"the opening bell" is about to start ringing. you have 25 seconds to go and i noticed the market is inching up through the past hour. we are now looking at a gain of 150 on the dow into 60 odd point gain for the nasdaq. we will try to explain this one, 70% consumer price inflation, 9.7% producer price inflation, the market factored that in already, what is going on in the start? right from the start, most of the dow 30 are in the green. three court is of the dow 30 are in the green. we are up 141 as of now. the s&p up one third of one%. over one third of one%. big tech, all of them up except amazon. microsoft up one dollar and $0.50.

i own a thin sliver of microsoft. you know the story. a very prominent guy who follows microsoft, what is he saying about it? >> dan ives getting very bullish on microsoft, you have them on the program all the time. predicting a strong year ahead. a transformational deal is predicted this year and a lot of catch up for is your. and 400 for microsoft and same thing. cloud will continue with huge momentum and growth momentum of 50%. stuart: i think about selling microsoft.

really should have stopped. >> when did that happen? stuart: i did sell some a few months ago and put it back. what is delta doing? >> no one dies from capping profit but they are predicting recovery when it comes to a return in travel in the spring, upgrading the stock to a positive. upgrading the other airline, $60 positive, they believe in this travel recovery. you heard the numbers that might be going for amazon in new york state and across the rest of the midwest. stuart: they may see the peak in omicron looking past the peak to a spring travel revival. boeing moving up.

the story please. >> helping lift the dow, up $5, has been cleared by chinese regulators to get back into the sky as early as this month. the plan is to resume these flights in the next few weeks. the max is being grounded in china after those two failure crashes they killed more than 500. boeing trying to get back into the skies, the software as well. you multiply by 7, 40 points to the dow. stuart: i bought that thing at $300 a share. you didn't stop me doing that. you should have given me better advice. homebuilders, they reported today. >> two of the biggest home

builders, they came out with strong guidance, despite the fact that lumber prices, triple from the bottom. and they are paying one dollar and $0.50 on each share. these homebuilders rallying, the housing boom and lower impact when it comes to inflation and supply chain problems. a positive for the economy when powered by this. stuart: cryptos modest rally, the story please. >> back above 40,000 and the new explosive entrance, btc of which is a block chain

technology company continuing, in the premarket and last week the few companies that would pay out dividendss in bitcoin. a consumer trend is something to watch. the crypto proxies like coin base, marathon up today. stuart: and old favorites, dating systems dating people matched and fumble. goldman likes them. >> both stocks are down. goldman says that an attractive entry point. 50% of the dating revenues own tender which i'm sure you know about. goldman says online dating is the future, and 54 matches 157. stuart: times change. go to bars and dances and things any longer. >> and talk to people in person.

what happens to the old way of dating? how about in person? not online? stuart: time is up by the way. the dow winners on screen headed by boeing up $4, so is ibm. s&p 500 winners, watch the top one there. pulte group, the homebuilders, and kl a, chipmaker bio jen applied materials. don't see big names on the nasdaq winners list, the dow industrials up 110, 36,300. the 10 year treasury yields one.73% despite strong inflation. price of gold, $18.21 is your price per ounce and bitcoin 33,000 are headed reached 44? 443 as we speak.

oil big news here, 8264 and natural gas maybe down a little bit this morning but well above $4, 448, watch out for that cold snap. one california school district using taxpayer dollars to teach children how to engage in transformational resistance. part of the new curriculum. but, because gas prices are about to spike. so say our friends at gas buddy. we have a report on that. real cowboys get customized car insurance with liberty mutual, so we only pay for what we need.

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mere 29 degrees. as for the average price of a gallon of gas it is sitting at $3.30. gas buddies warns we are at, quote, high-risk of hitting $4 by the spring. gas buddy guy says he also says $4 might not be the peak. >> it certainly won't be here. we are up $3.99 at this gas station and he says the average run up between february and memorial day is between $0.35, and $0.85 a gallon. if that holds and the electron recovery a strong demand could be higher and we could go well over $4 a gallon and some states are already seeing that run up especially in the midwest. looking at indiana up $0.17 a gallon since last week. ohio and illinois not far

behind and it is not just gas prices climbing but also what you put your gas into. prices for vehicles are way higher. new car prices reaching record highs. the average transaction price for a new car is more than the average msrp according to edmonds. since last year to summon up gas is up 41.5%. used cars and trucks up 37%. new vehicles up 12% from a year ago. not a good time to be a driver in this country, not a good time to be anybody. stuart: did you see the headline on the graphic we use? it said pain in the gas. i thought it was rather clever actually. >> my producer came up with that one. stuart: natural gas prices as

we speak, $4 for per 50 million british thermal units. brian, we could be seeing this surge in energy price inflation. >> this is so depressing. it is getting cold outside, the market is so tight, and demand goes up, prices go through the roof. stuart: that is a political problem for the president. >> people need to keep their homes. people who vote for things like the president heat their homes and say i can't afford a car, can't afford a used car or gas or to heat their home, what can i afford but to sit around and wait for a regime change in this country? stuart: imagine the reaction if we get $4 a gallon gasoline on average around the country for regular gasoline in the spring. >> don't see how we are not going to get it. people are going to get out again. they are tired of being cooped up. $0.85 a gallon price, that is going to happen.

stuart: the average price of a new car has reached 47,$000. >> i want to buy a new car. you are not paying me enough. the average, not even for a fancy car, just the family truck you are paying 4. stuart: no surprise here, is there anything to do about it? i will ask the great john tapper in the 11:00 hour. have you heard of dale ho? the president's judicial post? he compared voter id to chemotherapy that he's not biden's only controversial nominee. hillary vaughan has an update on the controversial nominees after this. ♪♪

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stuart: controversial presidential nominees moving through the senate. hillary vaughan is with us. what is happening today? >> reporter: two of president biden's nominees in the hot seat on capitol hill, the first is dale pogue, the pic to serve

as federal district judge in southern new york. he is expected to move out of committee today, one step closer to senate confirmation but his past comments are causing controversy among some conservatives. as head of the zeal you voting rights project, in 2015 he compared voter id laws to chemo saying obviously all of us are against voter fraud, right? i am against cancer but i don't think everyone in this room should get chemotherapy. he also attacked the electoral college, and the senate, calling in anti-democratic. also in the spotlight, lyle brainard, biden's choice for vice chair of the federal reserve will face fresh questions from republicans on the senate banking committee. two big topics republicans will address his interest in letting banks be able to d bank fossil fuel companies in an effort to

push forward climate change priorities and also her dodging is when asked three times before congress in 2019 if she was a capitalist or a socialist, she refused to answer the question. one other nominee in lebeau, jp stone, his pick for sec commissioner, holding her nomination, past wes she admits have become pretty famous in the wake of her nomination. she routinely attacked republicans on twitter and news organizations, she called fox state-sponsored propaganda and questioned whether or not sinclair broadcasts should have a license to the on air at all but she was silent when we asked her last month if she stands by those statements still. >> do you still stand by the things you said on twitter? do you stand by those comments? >> reporter: she said she will recuse herself if an outside committee decides she has a conflict of interest in any matter but a big part of her job would be to regulate these

companies that she has publicly attacked. stuart: those nominees are really controversial, a great report, thank you very much. the federal reserve, she wants to d bank fossil fuel companies, did i get that right? what would be the result of that? >> doesn't want them to raise capital because if they can't raise capital they can't invest, they can't produce, those energy prices we were talking about the one direction for those. can you believe the answers to the questions she is giving, 7% inflation, are you a socialist or capitalist, i'm not going to answer that question, that sounds really good for inflation. stuart: very reassuring. this is an astonishing story. enrollment in the nation's colleges and universities is down, more than 1 million students, since 2019. that to me is people walking

away from universities as they now exist in discussed. >> parents and students look at universities and say if i go there what do i get? i am not going to be there. i not be in the room with my professors or other students, i will be sitting at home on a couch being lectured to and what am i going to be learning about? probably some form of wokeis him. why pay tens of thousands of dollars a year? stuart: a similar story in public schools, enrollment is down. it could be an opportunity. so many people walking away from the system that you may replace it in some way. innovate in some way down the road. >> the biggest time for innovation we have seen in 100 years or more. parents have gotten a view into the window of what kids are

getting and they are taking action. some are going to the school board and seeing change but many are saying let's find another vehicle. charter schools, private schools, homeschools you will see a continued rise in those modes of education because parents will not accept the status quo. stuart: do you think remote learning for college students or high school kids, could that be a successful way of teaching? >> not primarily. on the margin you can use that little bit but young people need social formation. they need to be together and wants to be, they want to be with other people, you learn oftentimes not by sitting alone in your room but by sitting in the dorm room at midnight with your buddies talking about what is going on in the world. you do other things too but that is where you learn and form bonds that will be with you the rest of your life. stuart: why should a parent or school patent of thousands of dollars a year and not get the university experience?

sit in a dorm room with the mascot all day long, sit in your parents basement looking at the screen. why should people do that? >> it is not human to ask people to grow up and develop and mature and learn without being together is not human. we are social beings, we've got to be together to learn if we are going to separate ourselves, you might as well buy a book for about 50 online and read all about it but that's not the kind of education young people need. stuart: let me tell you something. being face-to-face with you, many feet apart, dozens of feet apart, a point to be made here, this is the way you do an interview, the way you engage with people, one on one, straightforward, looking at each other without a mass, that is how you broadcast. >> i know what you are saying but i see what you are thinking at that helps us get somewhere. we are not doing that what are we doing?

stuart: thank you very much for being with me and sitting next to me. we appreciate it. coming up, indiana, the market, let's deal with that. producer price inflation 9.7% a year on year, consumer price inflation up 7% year on year and still have a market rally this thursday morning, thou hundred, nasdaq up 60. still ahead today indiana senator mike braun, bret baer will join us, so will pete hegseth and john tapper, 10:00 hour is next. ♪♪ be my baby now ♪♪ oh oh oh oh ♪♪ i will make you happy baby ♪♪

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muck well, shake, rattle and roll ♪♪ stuart: that must be elvis. that has got to be 60 years old. that's because i remember it. good morning, everyone. it's 10:00 eastern. dow's up 100, nasdaq's up 50. bitcoin, modest rally, $44,000 per coin, i should say. the 10-year treasury holding right at 1.73% despite inflation news, holding at 1.73. as for big tech, pretty much a

gain across the board. that's possibly because the 10-year treasury yield is just very limited. but alphabet, meta platforms, apple, microsoft, amazon all up. it's thursday, 10:00. that means mortgage rate time. lauren, the number, please. lauren: good morning. 3.45%. that is a big jump from last week, a jump of a quarter point. you have at least four voting federal reserve officials saying liftoff is happening in march. the 30-year mortgage rate tracks the 10-year treasury yield which is above 1.73%. stuart: that is a big jump, indeed. thanks very much, lauren. now this. the president has boxed himself into a corner. his pail yours on numerous -- failures are numerous, his successes hard to find. his presidency, after only one year, is on the brink of pail your. today he makes a last ditch effort to get a win. he will meet senate democrats

behind closed doors, twisting their arms to push through voting reform. it's not looking good. his speech on tuesday was widely bashed as divisive and insulting. he implied that anyone who disagrees with him is a racist. even some democrats thought that was over the top. three things to bear in mind as the president goes into this all-important week. number one, he's reeling from a 7% consumer price inflation rate which wipes out wage gains. his administration has no clue what to do about it. second, his approval rating has dropped to a shocking 33% x. this was from quinn by quinnipiac -- quinn by yak, a reputable organization. third, 13 million new covid cases in the last month, a record 1.4 million on monday alone. his mandates and bullying have not crushed covid as he said they would. it's looking desperate. he has to intersuede -- persuade senate democrats to pass radical reform.

he has to persuade them it's okay to ask for id to get on a plane, oh, but no, you cannot ask for one to vote. his prime minister city is, indeed, on the brink of failure. second hour of "varney" just getting started. ♪ ♪ stuart:my ran mirandaty sign joins us. good morning to you. great to have you with us. obvious question -- >> good morning, stiewment. stuart: -- can president biden rescue his presidency? >> well, i can't see unless he gets a personality transplant -- [laughter] that that happens. stuart: you're brutal. [laughter] >> well, look at him. i mean, he just continues to pile failure upon failure, self-inflicted crisis upon self-inflicted crisis. instead of even pretending to do something about the problems, for instance, you know, the

flood of illegal migrants at the southern border, he just ignores it. he ignores inflation having sent out his minions to tell us that it doesn't exist, to tell us that store shelves are not empty. i mean, people can see with their own eyes what's actually happening, and he just looks foolish. he looks like a liar. he's been a liar all his life, and now the american people are seeing the true joe biden, and they don't like what they're seeing. 9 and the 33% quinnipiac poll is brutal, and also fact that he's lost independents, he's lost hispanics. i think he only has a 25% approval rating among hispanics. similarly, those numbers with men, only about 25% of men in

america trust him and think he's doing a good job. similarly with young people 18-35. so he's really lost the room, and i don't know how he he recovers from this. this has been a

stuart: that word, profoundly un-presidential, that's not going to help him in today's meeting, is it, miranda? >> no. and, i mean, mitch mcconnell nailed it with that speech. you don't often see mitch mcconnell fire his, all his cylinders at a colleague in the senate or former colleague in the senate and really a friend, joe biden has been to him for decades. but mitch mcconnell recognizes what joe biden is doing to the country and sees how lethal it is to the future of america. so i think he's just being honest. pleasure the only thing i take issue with is that a lot of people say, oh, well, you know, joe biden, he used to be such a

great guy, now he's radically changed. that's not correct. he's always been the man he's being today. sean king, who's a democratic activist, wrote an amazing piece last year that sort of was ignored just pointing out, he said 31 lies that joe biden has told just about his supposed involvement in the civil rights movement which he never was involved in. in joe biden's own words when he was caught out plagiarizing in 1987 and destroyed his presidential bid then, he said, look, i was a middle class then, i wore sports jacket. no, i wasn't involved in sit-ins and protests, you know? i was married, just wasn't interested in that stuff. and now he suddenly, you know, he's with nelson man dem la -- mandela, he's organizing sit-ins. that's just one aspect of the really talented mr. ripley or, you know, whatever you want to call his delusion allying, pathological lying that he's --

stuart: miranda -- >> to create a narrative -- stuart: miranda divine, you are brutal, and that's a fact. thanks very much for being with us this morning. >> pleasure, stuart. [laughter] stuart: see you again soon. all right. to the market. i'm seeing some green. not too bad. dow is up 100, and dennis garten is with us. i read your stuff, i know what you're saying, and you're saying that the bear market, sort of a decline period, has already begun. has it? make your case. >> i actually think that it has. listen, without getting too technical, i watch the chanters as much as i watch -- charts as much as i watch fundamentals. the market tends to turn before the fundamentals do, and one of the technical signals i've paid attention to over the 50 years identify been involved in the markets is a weekly outside reversal date. you make a new high, you take out the previous week's low, and you close below that previous week's low. that happens very rarely, and it happened eight weeks ago in the

nasdaq. that's, i think, something to pay attention to. we haven't come close to the nasdaq's high since then, and the declines that we've had have been on greater volume. that's how bear markets act. i'm one-third long the stock market, i'm one-third in cash and one-third many short-term treasury securities. i feel comfortable owning old guard, old-line equities at point but a very small position, and i do fear we have entered a bear market. i can be wrong, but the fact that we had that technical outside reversal eight weeks ago is something that still stands, i pay attention to it. they happen very rarely, and when they do, they almost always mean something important. so time shall tell, but i think we started a bear market eight weeks ago. stuart: okay. before we close, if the bear market started eight weeks ago, what exactly does this bear market mean? a long, slow decline with some

ups and downs, but a strong, slow decline, is that what you're looking at? >> yeah. that's probably what'll happen. the fact that we've had monetary authorities be as expansionary as they have for a protracted period of time, the fact that there's been a delay, there's always delay between monetary expansion and economic activity, monetary expansion and stock market activity. we'll probably see a slowing of the bull market, a quiet, slow, laborious bear market. people say do i expect a crash? no, i do not. i expect a low, slow, laborious bear market that lasts for a year or two and takes stock prices down 10-15% -- stuart: [inaudible] >> i be wrong? absolutely. stuart: dennis, we're glad you're on the show to tell us what you think. dennis gartman, everyone. big tech executives meeting at the white house with the president today, i believe. i don't know whether the president's going to be there or

not. he may be on capitol hill. do we know what this big meeting is all about, lauren? lauren: yeah, cybersecurity. may major, major national security concerns. there were so many high profile concerns last year, apple, microsoft, oracle, ibm expected at the white house today. the catalyst is that log 4j absolutely innocent, open source software, used for government and industry to log data. they're going to discuss if a new approach to designing this is needed to prevent future hacks because it's happening time and time again and more so because so many people are working from home. stuart: all right. let's have a look at individual stocks starting with boeing. nice gain, nearly 3%. lauren: yeah. it's adding 44 points to the dow on a report that the 737 max will return to china, the world's biggest aviation market. of course, it's been grounded there for nearly three years, so that's a big deal.

let's look at snap. they were cut to market perform, and the price target was taken down to 45 which is more than it is now, but from 75. so that was print steep. they said the recent apple ios changes impact snap's ability to target its audience. and beyond meat, shares are surging. the biggest russell 1000 short today, pushing the price up. and you know all the news lately about beyond meat. it's being addled to the mcdonald's menu, kfc, even pizza hut many north america. stuart: it's on the menu at our cafeteria here at fox just yesterday. lauren: it was in oh, i'm not there. stuart: it's not on the menu. lauren: how are they serving it? stuart: i can't remember. i read beyond meat and that's all i read. lauren: and you walked away. got it. [laughter] stuart: i'm afraid so. i had short ribs, real ones. vice president harris is

questioned about why the white house didn't order home covid tests sooner. watch this. >> the 500 million tests that have been ordered that are going to be sent to every american, do we know when everyone is going to go out? >> shortly are. they've been ordered, i'd have to look at the current information. i think it's going to be by next week. and it is a matter of you are general i for us. >> should we have done that sooner? >> we are doing that. stuart: should we have done that sooner? we are doing it. we'll have more on that later in the show. new border -- expected to show ebb counters surging past the 2 million mark. the u.s. and nato said no to russia's demands for new security concessions, so how should the u.s. respond to putin's aggression? kt mcfarland breaks it down next. ♪ ♪ with liberty mutual, so we only pay for what we need. -hey tex, -wooo. can someone else get a turn? yeah, hang on, i'm about to break my own record.

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♪ muck. stuart: we don't have the very latest data yet for encounters at the border, but when we do get that number, it's expect to pass 2 million for the last year. dan springer's at the border in la jolla with, texas. we are on track to set a new record, right, dan? >> reporter: absolutely, stuart. we're actually waiting for two reports which will give the american public a pretty clear picture of what's been happening here at the southern border over the last year. one, as you mentioned, is the december apprehensions, and it is expected to push that total over 2 million for the year, 2021. the most in u.s. history. the other is a report from i.c.e. on the number of deportations they made in fiscal year 2021 which ended in september. that will give us the number of migrants who crossed the border illegally and were allowed to stay. the vast majority are making

asylum claims. brandon judd thinks it could be as high as 700,000 which would also be a record. >> we believe the owner had plans to lives this house in august of last year, but it was actually listed last week because of the lack of inventory. like, windows themselvessing took two months to be delivered and then the lumber they had in stock, but it was three times the price. so it made it very difficult to get it ready in time. we had about four months' delay. >> reporter: i a i -- apologize, that was not the sound bite we were expecting, but judd has also seen a change in recent weeks, the number of families crossing illegally and turning themselves in for processing has dropped. it could be i due to the holidays, colder weatherer or because word is spreading that the biden administration is expelling under title 42 claiming that the health risk is just too high.

judd believes this shift is a desperate political ploy. >> he's going to try to pivot. he's not going to be able to. the american public is going to recognize, you know, that's one thing that i greatly appreciate about my fellow citizens, we're not dumb, and we can see what this administration's already done. we know why he's trying to pivot right now, and that's strictly based upon politics, it's based upon the midterms. >> reporter: and that, of course, is brandon judd. apologize for that first sound bite. the illegal border crossings are still happening, very much so here on the southern border. in fact, just over the last 30-hour period,s they had five arrested of -- arrests of criminal migrants here in the rio grande valley sector, and two of them were convicted murderers, one was a rapist, and all were known gang members. is so these border crossings are still happening here, stuart, they're just more happening with people who are runners and those who are being smuggled in as opposed to those large groups of

families who were turning themselves in expecting to stay. stuart: dan, i'm glad you're this, because fox is the only outlet that's reporting on a regular basis what's happening in the border crisis. dan springer, thanks very much for being here. appreciate it, sir. into now this: talks between nato and russia don't seem to have diffused tensions on the ukraine border. listen to this. >> how close are we to a new armed conflict? >> there is a real risk for a new armed conflict in europe, but that's exactly why the meeting today and the other meetings that take place week are so important, because we will do what we can to prevent the new armed conflict. stuart: all right. kt mcfarland is with us, our expert on foreign policy, and we love to have her on the show. i think you've got some ideas about this, kt. how do we, how does america counter russian aggression? >> you know, it all goes back to

energy. vladimir putin wrote his graduate dissertation on how to make russia great again, and he was going to make russia great again by taking russian natural resources, oil and natural gas, exporting them, making a lot of money for russia and then making russia great again and, therefore, expanding russia. he has followed that step by step by step for 35 years. how do we counter that? forget about the conversations we're having and diplomatic halls in europe. what we should do is, number one, go back to american energy independence. we have oil, we have natural gas. once we can dominate that field again and we export our energy, we can export to europe instead of having russia do it. we can also push down the price of oil and natural gas. there's a number everybody should remember about russia and oil, $80 a barrel. once oil is above $80 a barrel, russia's rich. it can pay for all the rest of its government. below $80 a barrel, they're scraping by. guess where it is today?

over $80 a barrel. stuart: biden played into putin's hands. he killed the pipeline, he killed america's energy independence. that played right into the hands of the russians. >> yeah. let's just go back and look at the timeline. so president biden met with putin in june, and they had a meeting. now, what is putining thinking? he's known joe biden for 35 years. he's seeing a man in clear cognitive decline. in addition, biden didn't do anything about the russian hacking of american industries, and as you just said, the united states under biden has allowed the russians to have a gas pipeline into germany. they're going to have the -- [inaudible] hand over germany. putin does about this, thank you very much, and then he announces the great manifesto of expanding mother russia. he puts troops on the ukraine border. what happens in august? the sham afghanistan withdrawal. this is his time. he's waited 35 years for this. i don't think he invades, but i

don't think he backs down. stuart: another sorry story. k,, thank you very much for being with us. see you again soon. the administration has responded to north korea's ballistic missile tests. more sanctions, lauren? lauren: yes. president biden is hitting five north korean officials who are currently in china and russia with sanctions for their role in obtaining the equipment and the technology to enable those two missile tests in one week's time. they're also asking for new u.n. sanctions. but these sanctions have largely been ineffective in tempering or ambitions because they keep doing it. having trouble countering russia, china, north korea, on the world stage, this is embarrassing. stuart: yes, it is. thank you, lauren. if you're looking for a tax refund check, you may want to get a head start on filing your taxes this year because the irs is struggling to staff up for tax season.

you can expect big delays. we'll tell you all about it. owning the american dream becoming more costly than ever. home prices up, mortgage rates up. our real estate guy, mitch roh shell, telling us the play in the real estate market as of now. ♪ she's a brick house. ♪ well, we're together everybody knows, this is how story goes. ♪

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♪ stuart: shortly, president biden's giving an update on his administration's response to the covid surge. we understand he's directed his team toll procure an additional -- to procure an additional 500 million tests on top of the 500 million he's already ordered. we'll monitor his remarks, bring you any headlines. next case, home prices way up. are you were the off -- better off renting than buying? madison alworth in new jersey. madison, what do you say? >> reporter: stuart, it's really difficult because, unfortunately, neither is looking really good right now. renters are really feeling the brunt of inflation. they've seen an increase of 4% in rent really adding to that inflation number. so if you're renting, it's not looking so good. but here is the other bad news.

home buyers, they can't catch a break either. they're also seeing a lot of pressure in the market as well. not only does inventory remain low keeping the house prices very high, but once you get your hands on a home, mortgage rates are also up. rates have surged, the 30-year pixed rate mortgage rate jumped to 3.45% last week. that's up from this time last year. and then, of course, once you get your hands on a home like this one, your going to need -- you're going to need to fill it with stuff. those two things are also adding to the expense of this entire home buying process. talk a listen. -- take a listen. >> originally, the owner had plans to lives this house in august of last year, but it was listed last week because of the lack of inventory. the windows themselves took almost two months to be delivered, and then the lumber, they had it in stock, but it was three times the price. so it made it very difficult to

get it ready in time. we had over four months' delay. >> reporter: so delays and, like i also mentioned, those mortgages are up. pamela did tell me she's having potential buyers saying they want to buy now before rates go even higher, something that freddie mac is anticipating. but the challenge, stuart, is there are still not enough houses to sell, and this house was supposed to be listed in august, not on the market until 2022. inventory still super low. so i wish i could answer that a original question, what's better, to rent or buy. right now the american dream costing, it's going to cost a hot, stuart. stuart: everybody's getting squeezed, and that's the truth. madison, thanks very much, indeed. 9 let's bring in mitch roh shell, our real estate guy of this morning. rising interest rates, rising prices. what's the impact on the housing market? >> i think madison nail ld it. i mean, inventory remains the biggest challenge which is putting upward pressure on prices. but if you're a buyer, look at

that mortgage rate. i recall telling your audience, stuart, probably about 18 months ago that i thought it would be at 2%. now it's going to be at 4%. so, boy, was i wrong. but the fact of the matter is in answer to your question, you asked madison rent us haver us -- versus buy, i'm still bullish on buying because i do believe that borrowing money even at 3.5% which is it is now, you're going to look back on that in a couple of years and realize you got a bargain, because i think they're going to continue to crank upwards. stuart: but it's still a fairly active real estate market, isn't it, in terms of buying and selling? i understand there's been an increase in home buying in the winter which is unusual because spring is normally the time to buy. is that accurate in it's still an active real estate market? >> 100%, stuart. and if you are looking to buy a home, you can't wait because something comes on the market,

and it's gobbled up immediately. so, and, look, the reason why people buy homes, some people are upsizing, some people are downsizing, some people want to get access to schools for their children, some people want to get out of states like new york and move to florida like i did. there's a whole bunch of reasons for that, and you're not alone. the demand is wildly exceeding supply, and i do believe that spry and demand -- supply and demand imbalance is going to continue notwithstanding interest rates being a point higher. stuart: you and i have often talked about the number of people moving down to florida, buying a house, enjoying the weather and the freedom and all the rest of it. is that trend, that exodus from the northeast and other states, is that still in place, going to florida? still as strong as ever? >> as strong as ever if not accelerated. i think the omicron variant and the way states like new york responded to it and the way that states like florida responded to

it has somewhat accelerated that decision making process for some people. and tax policy remains an issue. you know, one of the things that's very interesting is this time of year when people start pulling their 1099s together to file their tax returns, that's when they're reminded how tax inefficient new york is, and that also accelerates that pattern. and many of the buyers who are moving from new york to florida who are selling their homes in new york are cash buyers. so if interest rates tick up a little bit, i don't think that's going to interfere with their celebration. stuart: same old, same old. mitch roh shell, thanks again. see you again, promise. how about manhattan rents? i believe they've hit their highest level ever for the month of december. what kind of money are we talking about, lauren? lauren: $3,392 in what is usually a slow month of december. and that includes, you know, some people were able to negotiate discounts.

that excludes the discount. but it's up 21 percent on the year. so i said, oh, hmm, is new york city making a comeback? i don't think so. i think this is what's going on. a lot of people moved out of manhattan. they moved to places like florida, and now they're dipping their toe back, they're renting, not buying. they're not sure what they're going to do, and i think that's why the rental market in manhattan is on fire. the vacancy rate is also way down to 1.7%. stuart: is that an average renting across all rental apartments, $3,000? lauren: no. the average rent was, it topped $4,000. i want to say 4400. so i gave you the record median rent that excluded the discounts and incentives. stuart: still a gigantic number any way you slice it. lauren: i know. stuart: you're still with me -- [laughter] we're talking home builders here. lennar raised its dividend, right? lauren: by 50%, from $1 to

$1.50. how about that? they obviously think the future looks good. we did hear from kb home earlier maybe not the best numbers, but the outlook is good. there's big demand despite the supply chain and labor issues. stuart: the home builders are doing well. now i can say thank you, lauren, and i'll move on to something else. [laughter] we have a tesla owner. he claims he uses his car to mine $800 worth of cryptocurrency every month. his create ins say he's lying -- critics say he's lying. we'll ask him about that, because he's on the show in the next hour. the president's approval rating plunging to 33%. he heads to capitol hill today in hopes of killing the nat filibuster, but can he get around senators manchin and sinema? i'll ask bret baier next. ♪ no one makes me feel like you do. ♪ upside down, boy, you turn me -- ♪ inside out and round and round.

♪ upside down --

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stuart: still showing a little green at least for the dow industrials, up 45, but we're in the -- 145, but we're in the red in the nasdaq and the s&p. this afternoon the president will attend a democrat lunch in the senate. he's pushing hard to pass voting rights legislation. he wants to change the filibuster rules to do it. bret baier is with me now. can the president get around senators manchin and sinema a on the filibuster? >> good morning, stuart. no, he can't. [laughter] and that's the simple answer. the more knew wanting complex -- nuanced, complex answer is that senator schumer's trying to work this procedural change that would be a loophole that enables one-time vote on just this to break up the filibuster. however, even that is, you know,

seen as a major departure from how the senate operates, and at least what manchin and sinema and even others like mark kelly from arizona and jeanne shaheen from new hampshire, jon tester from montana, they've all indicated that they're a little uncomfortable with even that procedural one-time change. that's how we started with the nuclear option under harry reid when this whole filibuster change started. stuart: if he fails on voting legislation, is that -- are we looking at a failed presidency? i mean, can i go that far? >> you can say that in the minds of progressives, and i think that barring some gang of 14 effort that has moderate republicans and moderate democrats together to try to get some piece of legislation through that then the biden administration takes credit for, barring that, you can say that this legislative agenda is pretty much stalled.

stuart: there was considerable hostility towards senator manchin, and they actually chased senator sinema into a bathroom. looking at that right now. did that kind of hostility backfire? >> i think so. and manchin has mentioned it numerous times in different interviews, how much that upset him, how much when the white house put out statements about him and the political arm kind of went after him for past, you know, coal investments or really targeted him from inside the democratic party, how much that hurt him. and i think that that was a moment as was this bathroom incident with sinema which kind of stiffened their spine to stand up to their own party. there are others who are not as much of profiles in courage being as public who have problem problems with some of the ways this has been dealing on capitol hill. stuart: you were the one who was doing the interview with senator manchin where he said, no, i'm

not doing this. you're smiling because that was a real coup on your part, i think. >> well, it was the booking that was the coup. i knew he was going to make news, i just didn't know he was going to make that news. stuart: right. [laughter] >> it really shook me because i had about 10-12 questions that were into the details of the bill, and suddenly i said, well, wait, this is a no. he said, yes, this is a no. stuart: when you were talking to him, did you get a sense of his alienation from other democrats? >> yes. and he is really upset about it and believes that the party is leaving him. he doesn't, you know, he's a longtime democrat. he's a former democratic governor in west virginia, he sits in the seat of robert byrd in west virginia is. there's a long tradition there. and he doesn't want to leave the democratic party, but he is suggesting that the democratic party is leaving him, and he's trying to hang on. stuart: i've got to tell you, brett, when i saw the quinnipiac poll this morning, the approval rating dropping to 33%, i was

really shocked when i saw that extremely low number. how about you? >> very. and it's even worse if you look at independents at 25 the %, hispanics at 28%. if you think about the worst quinnipiac poll number that president trump got, it was 37%. think about how divisive, you know, he was characterized. think about how much time was spent talking about russia and that investigation and that he might be a russian spy. i mean, this is what's going on. he's down to 37% in quinnipiac, this is president trump. now president biden's at 33. that suggests some major problems that they have to deal with. inflation and covid are the top. stuart: to put it bluntly are, i don't see how he comes back from that. >> and that's why you're seeing democrats speculate about all kinds of different people that could run in 2024 while their sitting president is a president of their party. stuart: i'm smiling because i saw doug schoen's piece in the

journal, i think,, suggesting hillary clinton. to me, that suggested that the bench strength amongst the democrats is zero. >> i took it a little bit tongue in cheek from that writing, but i think that there are people who are saying just throwing names against the wall to see what sticks. they realize that president biden is vulnerable, and i think that that in atlanta to characterize if you vote against this legislation, you are george wallace or jefferson davis or bull connor was really an indication of allowed bad it is that he's trying to stir up the base. stuart: it was really shocking when you saw the president -- he was angry. he was angry. you could see it in his face, you could see it in his tone of voice. extremely divisive. which senator was it who said he'd gone over the top? >> dick durbin. stuart: a leading democrat. he said it's gone over the top. it's going to be very hard for the president to get the

democrats in the senate together to pass any meaningful legislation. last word to you. >> i agree with you. i think that their build back better plan is kind of out the one doe. they're going to try -- window. they're going to try to get something cobbled together, but it's really joe manchin and the moderates that are running this show now, and the biden administration, because they went so progressive early, has cornered themselves and really is not in a leadership position. stuart: when the year started, i bent you didn't expect it to come out like this, did you? >> i did not, and we're only in january. stuart: yes, we are. bret, thank you very much. see you at 6:00 eastern tonight on "special report. " we'll be watching. fewer a fewer people are dining out. so how do you get people back to the restaurants? john taffe aer, host of "bar rescue, requests a real guy in the eating business, i'll ask him. he's on the show next hour. school attendance dropping

dramatically. some teachers say it's becoming more difficult to keep absent students up to speed. remote learning isn't helping. the full report after this. ♪ ♪ you're a one-man stitchwork master. but your staffing plan needs to go up a size. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do.

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muck. ♪ stuart: president biden has just it should his address on covid. i've got the headlines for you. quite dramatic, actually. he has reaffirmed that it is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. he's back to that, bullying the unvaxxed. next steps in the pandemic, he's calling for masking indoors and in public places. more restrictions. next week the white house will announce a plan to get high quality masks to all americans for free. we will hit 15 million tests a day this month. america's on track to roll out a web site next week to order free tests shipped to your home, and widen's directing -- biden's districting his team to deliver a billion tests, up 500 million, to meet demand. i'd say that's not much movement in the way the is going at covid. that is my opinion on what he's

just said. more on this later. to the markets real fast, we've still got some green for the dow but no place else. big selloff in the nasdaq. again, down 150 there. as schools across the country struggle to stay open, public schools are reporting unusually low attendance levels. bryan llenas is in brooklyn, new york. bryan, what's the plan to get absent kids back to school theresome. >> reporter: well, stuart, look, good morning. the vast majority of schools nationwide are offering in-person learning, but attendance is suffering simply because students are getting sick, they're in quarantine or anxious parents are too worried to send their kids too school. there's been a big drop in attendance in some of the nation's largest school districts. look at the latest data covering new york, 76% of students were in school. this is the nation's largest school district. just 70% of students were in class in los angeles. 72% in chicago before that five-day teacher work stoppage

and only 70% of students attended boston schools. houston and miami fared better at 90%. white plains, new york's' superintendent tells me he's keeping schools open. >> there are two reasons that the school district would go remote. one is that the government forced it, and -- or, two, that i don't have the colleagues in the classrooms, the work force and staff to be able to safely operate our school district. but i will say this, it wouldn't be the entire school district. >> reporter: if softing the staff -- it's solving the staff shortage issue that's the concern here. 4,000 schools have temporarily canceled in-person learning. the minneapolis school district announced it will go to remote learning for the next two weeks n. palo alto, hundreds of parents answered the call to volunteer doing light custodial, work, food services to keep their schools open, and despite these efforts though, stuart, there is pushback including from

students at the brooklyn tech high school, the largest high school in the city, hundreds of students walked out on tuesday in protest. they are demanding remote learning because they feel unsafe in the class room. but the mayor here, eric adams, has repeatedly rejected remote learning and said that schools must stay open. stuart: bryan, e hear you, got you. thank you very much, indeed. and i'm staying on education. let's see if you can believe this. one california school district is teaching its kids how to be left-wing revolutionaries. we have to get the story in, so tell it to us, lauren. lauren: if i lived here, i'd be getting my kids out so fast. it's jefferson district in california, 6,000 students. the district has a paid $170,000 for this curriculum that indoctrinates kids in elementary and middle school to ultimately denounce their skin color and their country. there are three parts of this coursework. the first is ethnic studies,

right? culture. fine. the second is condemning america as institutionally racist. that's a version of crt. it teaches kids that white spectrumming city is enfrenched in their schools -- entrenched in their schools and in our society. and number three, it then asks them to go out and create a campaign in their community to address these problems. we're destroying a generation of children with crt, with remote learning and teaching them these things. they're in elementary school and they don't even understand it. stuart: disgraceful and pathetic, but i've got to move on. coming up, pete hegseth, jon taffer and senator mike braun. enrollment in our colleges and universities down more than a million students since 2019. higher education failing, the college response to covid is to claim -- is to blame. that is my opinion. more on that in my take coming up next. and hegseth, don't forget. ♪ ♪ wow, we're crunching tons of polygons here!

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i find it hard to believe another variant is going to emerge that is more transmissible than this one. by the time the new boosters come out that variant will still be there and have any use at all. >> i believe we have reached peak covid. do not think peak inflation, getting to a point in 6 months or so. >> the bear market 8 weeks ago.

and bear market ignores, and they don't like what they have seen or how he recovers this. looking at these poll numbers saying we can't dig ourselves out of this. waking up to the reality of the radical agenda. ♪♪ don't stop the party ♪♪ stuart: it is 11:00 eastern time on january 13th, to the dow industrial average and on the nasdaq composite down 8 on the s&p. the yield on the 10 year

treasury, one.73%. now this. enrollment in the nation's colleges and universities down than 1 million students since 2019 but i'm not surprised. hire education is failing and the college response to covid is at the heart of the problem. why would anyone take on a lot of debt to spend months at home with your parents stuck in front of the screen learning by remote. if you get on campus you have to be vaccinated, wear a mask even indoors, probably no parties and watch out for snatchers who turned you and if your mask doesn't cover your nose. hardly the college experience you are paying 4. it is beginning to dawn on youngsters and their parents that skyhigh tuition and forced leftist ideology and denial of the full university experience just isn't worth it. it is the same in so many

public schools k-12. enrollment is down and for the same reasons masks all day, no socializing, endless testing and quarantine, disruption for parents and when the kids are not in school remote learning just does not work for so many youngsters especially minorities. don't expect this trend to end when omicron is done. 1 million students are missing from college and are not likely to come back as long as colleges charge a small fortune to teach that america is a rotten place. so long as the teachers union keeps its iron grip on public school students will desert to charter schools, parochial schools or won't show up at all. the failures and education are obvious. covid may be the catalyst for real change. we live in hope. third hour of varney just getting started.

good morning. obvious question from the start. is a college education worth it? trish: well said. if there's one silver lining of this covid moment it is the educational wake-up call parents and students have had. i call it the covid 1619 effect, you are locked at home watching kids stare at a zoom screen and they get -- they are not learning. i watched my kids when they attempted to do it, they are not learning, they are bored out of their minds, not socializing and in the worst of cases which is too many cases they are getting an indoctrination whether it is on race, gender, climate activism, schools have become indoctrination camps so parents have woken up and said why am i sending my kids to democrat every day and hoping i can deprogram them when they come home from middle school and high school and especially

colleges and universities. these numbers are good thing. i hope they are getting a skill. i hope they are waiting until they find a college that enforces what they believe or all the schools come off of zoom and back online or in person. then it changed the -- i can't count on one hand the amount of schools i feel comfortable sending my kids to. stuart: time for change. the president addressed the issue, the response to covid, he again called it a pandemic of the unvaccinated. same old story, bullying the unvaccinated. scientifically inaccurate in the extreme. >> digging his heels in,

refusing to look around, refusing to take in the evidence as if you wants's approval rating to go into the 20s because people who supported him, who recognize what is obvious in front of us. we are going to have to learn to live within the reality of what the china virus has unleashed and the lunacy of squishing the virus which was effective campaign progress is never going to happen. we saw signals they might turn over to living with covid but that speech sounds like an autocrat saying it will be masks, it will be tests, it will be booster after booster after booster, it will be lockdowns if necessary, people have had enough especially with omicron. stuart: another mistake from vice president harris, watch what happens when she's questioned about when the white house will send out the covid tests. >> the 500 million tests sent to every american, do you know when those are going out?

>> shortly. i have to look at the current information by next week that soon, absolutely soon. it is a matter of urgency for us. >> we have done it sooner? >> we are doing it. >> should we have done it sooner? >> where doing it. stuart: the white house came out to correct her, tests are not going out next week, the end of the month. the biden harris team is in trouble. >> if you read the dc parlor email list the talk about who is up and who is down, there's a hard-pressed right now to attempt to reformat or reshape kamala harris's image. how do you do it? that includes kamala harris actually answering questions and having solutions to problems. she doesn't. you can't reform an image that is and reform double, number one. and number 2, she's better job. the strategy of keeping her out of the limelight is probably

the best one and a little bit of humility from human beings goes a long way from doctors to the president of the vice president. it is okay to admit you were wrong. and unpredictable covid 19 pandemic tends to do that and a little bit from our officials might restore confidence but it is not going to come to her. stuart: only another 3 years to go. always a pleasure. thank you for being with us. see you again soon. let's talk energy price inflation. natural gas. just the other day spiked 14% and the cold winter months have arrived in the northeast. and economist, john wants key, will we see energy price inflation surge? >> you are. it is taking off. you mentioned natural gas. that price is up by 78% from a year ago. not long ago the year-to-year

increase was only 50% so unfortunately when many americans begin to receive the home heating bills they arrive in the month of february, they will be in for a great shock. they will realize there has been some loss of purchasing power to rapid energy price inflation. stuart: is middle america getting worse off? is middle america better off or worse off than it was two years ago? >> worse off without any question because of much higher price inflation. we only have an unemployment rate, 3.9% but despite that low unemployment rate if we look at the university of michigan index of us consumer sentiment, that is down from where it was a year ago and underwear was two years ago and let's not

forget president biden's disapproval rating, is very high, it is unheard of with such a low headline on employment. stuart: economically we are not a happy country. see you again soon. come back in again, you are looking at the movers. quest diagnostics down, testing operations down. >> the white house says it is procuring 500 million additional covid 19 at home tests. you would think that boosts the testmakers, they also front ran the demand. the online learning people. college lost 450,000 students this fall, kids are questioning

the value of a college degree and some just taking courses online and that is good for a company like this. american airlines number one on the s&p 500 rising after delta's earning demand is strong despite the omicron surge we are getting through despite the fact that flights have been canceled, despite the fact that delta said 8000 of its employees tested positive for covid over the holidays, 8000. stuart: stock is still at $19 a share. it is stuck for a long time. thanks very much indeed. very close, 2 weeks away, the irs will ask everyone about their crypto holdings. we have that story for you. the key to beating covid could be marijuana. smoking pot isn't going to help you. we will explain what a contradiction that is. msnbc host is calling for a tax on the unvaccinated.

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stuart: you are looking at jackson airport in atlanta, georgia. some airlines in europe flying thousands of near empty flights. they are losing their spots at the airport. use it or lose it will,

airlines use 50% of their airports when they get kicked out. they fly empty planes to keep the slot. southwest airlines partnering with city health, mailing at home covid tests to travelers returning to america. it will cost $50. passengers could buy the test before travel and use it in compliance to the new one day testing when they get back to the united states. president biden reaffirming it is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. role tape. >> vaccinated people test positive, overwhelmingly have no symptoms at all or have mild symptoms. if you are unvaccinated and test positive, you are 17 times more likely to get hospitalized. as a result, crowding the hospitals. stuart: you are a doctor, people who are vaccinated are

getting covid. is the president just plain wrong? >> he is absolutely wrong. don't know how many patients president biden has seen in the last month but his statistics are wrong. i'm talking to my physician friends all the time. there are tons of vaccinated people hospitalized right now all across america, a 17:1 ratio. i did a search this morning on medline and i could not find any article or published data suggesting that. stuart: he everyone i know who has covid has been fully vaccinated. so-called breakthrough infections are not breakthrough. i'm getting carried away. >> if someone got polio after getting the polio vaccine we would be going crazy. stuart: am i right in saying if you got the polio vaccine you didn't get polio after being vaccinated. it is not true of covid.

if the death rate from the virus, the black plague, 50% death rate, not for something like covid. >> don't think the federal government particularly the president has the authority to tell they have to vaccinate anyone. clearly omicron, the mortality from that is practically 0. this whole push, they are considering natural immunity, 60% of the% of the studies show is significantly better than the vaccine. it doesn't make sense. maybe it ends with the vaccine. something is going on.

they keep pushing this. it makes no sense. stuart: msnbc's host, joy you read calling on the unvaccinated to be taxed. role tape. >> people who are willfully unvaccinated, fine. they need to pay the cost of what this is doing to our system. stuart: tax the unvaccinated. what say you? >> the challenge of freedom in america is if you eat a lot of bacon you are going to have cardiovascular disease. the data suggests you should eat nitrite meets no more than once a week. this is a medical fact. we are not telling people who overeat they have to pay more taxes to cover healthcare in their old age so this whole idea is crazy. anti-american, not doing anything like that for any other lifestyle choices. it is more of this crazed

mentality, authoritarianism coming out of the far left party. stuart: could be look on the bright side for a moment? 13 million new cases in the last month. 1.4 million on monday of this week alone. doesn't that imply we are getting close to the peak and we can see the other side fairly soon? >> most of the virologists suggest the peak of omicron should happen in the next week so -- the peak will start trailing off in the next week so that is good news. stuart: will that open things up again? can we get back to a little bit of normality? >> there are people who are politically benefited by this thing being closed down. look at the teachers unions in chicago. that's an excellent example of people who are malingering and using the pandemic trying to stretch it out for their own personal benefit, to the harm

of children. i'm not sure the hard left wants to get rid of this pandemic anytime soon. stuart: malingering, long time since i heard that term but glad you broughtt back. thank you very much for being with us. check those markets. politics and money. we are checking money at the moment and are up 140 on the dow, over 100 on the nasdaq. the other company telling staff to get the booster or get out of the office. who are we talking about? >> blackstone. not only do we need to be fully vaccinated and boosted when you come into the office you have to get tested three times a week when you are at work. i could be wrong but is there another company that is requiring boosted individuals to get tested three times a week. blackstone is doing it. this is how they get their

workers back, goldman sachs pushing back the return to work date to february 1st from january 18th so they pushed it back two weeks. i'm viewing the start of february is the new year when omicron is behind us but who knows? would you be tested 3 times a week? >> don't want that. thank you very much. we've got a pot story for you and here it comes. some cannabis compounds could prevent getting covid but this is not about smoking pot, is it? lauren: it would be an oral prevention and treatment that is being considered because a study from oregon state university, the spike proteins of covid 19 to prevent it from entering ourselves and causing infection. they are looking at ways to develop these cannabinoids as they are called into drugs. it is something to consider about learning to live with covid. stuart: the potshots in california have a problem with the smash and grab brigade

because potshots deal in cash because they can't get banks to work with them so the potshots in california had the smash and grab problem for the product and the cash which they keep behind the counter. do you want to add to that? >> maybe we can expect laws down the pipeline that would set up an official banking system to legalize marijuana at the federal level. stuart: you are right, that could happen. stuart: open table reservations down a whopping 37% since before the pandemic. attend the owner claims he uses his tesla car to mine $800 with a bit coin. some people in the crypto community, responding to the critics. that is next.

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or visit cochlear. us/connection. outcomes may vary. please seek advice from your health professional. stuart: that is salt lake city, utah. what a beautiful view of a

sunny day, 32 degrees right there right now. as for the market a solid gain for the dow industrials up 180 points but a solid loss for the nasdaq down my the one. tax filing season set to start this month. we should all prepare for major league's backlogs. what is going on? lauren: finally, online and set up direct deposit if you are expecting a refund. the irs working with the same size of their workforce they had in the 1970s, 6 million returns from last year they have to get through so backlog is an understatement. if you need an agent on the phone good luck. 15,000 workers handling 240 million calls so yeah, i think the irs look like much of the country right now. stuart: earlier we reported the irs is asking taxpayers about crypto transactions. everybody is being asked that question.

lauren: the 1040 under your name and address, you have to check this box, yes or no. did you receive crypto as payment, did you profit from mining them, did you use them to buy a home or a tesla? crypto is mainstream and the irs is treating it as taxable property so you've got to answer yes or no. it is a know if you hold crypto in a digital wallet that is a no by the way. stuart: i got it. that is reasonable. thanks. our next guest is a tesla owner who claims he uses his car to mine $800 worth of crypto currency every month. the guy who claims this is with me now. how do you mind bit coin using a tesla? keep it simple because this is not a technical audience so simplify. how do you do it? >> the simplest way to do this

is to plug in an apple computer, by an all-in-1 computer, $300 at apple and plug it into your cigarette lighter in your car and it connects to your tesla wi-fi which is everywhere, downloads a program called honey minor, the one i use, there are many different ones out there and it is mining. there you go. nothing else necessary. stuart: you run it 24 hours a day. if you plug your car in your garage it is always powered. a simple way to do it. stuart: in the crypto community you come under a lot of criticism. your critics say you are stretching the numbers. you are aware of this. what is your response to your critics? >> two things, crypto is very volatile so i said i made up to 800 a month was this was a year ago.

the price appreciates over time. the second thing is i don't just use those returns from mining and say that's my profit. i also do -- a term that means that. you can take whatever funds you have in crypto and insert them into a pool or a steak and get a return, much more than any bank account. 23% returns and that is how i got the big returns as well. stuart: do you do this for living? do you do anything else for living? >> i work at crypto currency, the number one crypto currency, the whole point of polygon is to scale the area. online funds are in crypto. i mostly -- i think we get a

hyperinflated space here so i am all in on crypto. stuart: you are all in with reporting on your tax return or holdings in crypto, all the profit you've made and all the things you've done with it and all arrests. the irs on your back? >> they are open and transparent about it, trying to get a mortgage right now. my down payment is in cryptos, it is about educating everybody about what money is. stuart: anybody else using a tesla car to mine crypto? >> don't know anybody else. stuart: this is you. >> it is cool, and interesting project, think of an idea, see what people feel about it. stuart: thanks for coming on the show. that the unique original idea.

you made me understand how you do it which is a mark of genius in itself. come back and see us soon. >> thank you very much. stuart: more news on tesla. they are set to unveil the new product list later this month. you know what we can expect? lauren: we know elon musk will be on the earnings call, january 20 sixth. is not always on them anymore. the cyber truck. how much will it cost? when can we get it? looking at to the stock, might not happen in 2022 and that is a big problem. also anything on the semi trucks will make it. want to go online and will austin, the giga factory, be open before this earnings report because dan i've think it will be. the heart and lungs of tesla's

domestic operations which produce 2 million vehicles at a texas factory this year. stuart: wait a minute, 2 million vehicles a year, surely not to billion vehicles this year, is it? >> i think he is. you get 2 million this year. stuart: that is a huge number. >> for tesla, yeah. stuart: ford just hit a new milestone. are we talking stock price or some product? >> the market is back above $100 billion which makes it bigger than general motors. something it started recently doing after five years, they got a price target upgrade to 24 at. a bank. i want to link back to tesla. if the cyber truck isn't ready in time, afford 150, that is a big competitor. stuart: $25 at her, $100 billion market. general motors, who would have thought. we just got this coming at us.

the house has passed the voting rights bill, it will now head to the senate. this is a complicated maneuver. very difficult, very complicated thing to do. case closed. i was shocked when i follow president's approval rating, just 33% and we are only in year one of his presidency. to mike braun we will deal with that. robots could roam the street, to bring your next meal. robotics will complete the first ever uber eats delivery without human supervision. this is a foxbusiness exclusive and it is next.

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♪♪ i want is all ♪♪ i want it all ♪♪ i it all ♪♪ stuart: the empire state building new york city, 43 degrees as of right now. restaurants finding it hard to fill delivery positions so they are turning to robots. khalil grady with a foxbusiness exclusive taking a look at the serving robots in action. >> i will have one coming for you in a second. imagine these guys whizzing across the sidewalk navigating through people, across intersections and is coming in here right now. i want you to meet him and i will bring in the ceo to tell us about it. can you tell me how this guy works? >> it is pretty simple. the robot shows up, you unlock and grab your food. >> reporter: and café.

a very good one. he just moves away once you are done. thank you. tell me. the big thing about this is autonomous delivery, this robot operates without humans in the loop. how is that possible? >> we create a lot of redundancy. basically for every decision there are multiple brains working so the robots can be independent of humans and blue and be safe out there. the problem with self driving cars and robots is they are all overseen by people but video cuts off, people make mistakes of invested a lot of time so robots can be independent and safe by themselves. >> reporter: what interest i using from restaurants and delivery apps in these autonomous robots? >> a lot of interest to the point we haven't hired a sales team yet. uber eats was our first partner.

we have investments from 7-eleven. at this point we have enough interest for hundreds of thousands of robots which is more than we can make anytime soon. >> reporter: i will see you on the road. there you have it. this is going to make an impact potentially in the labor shortage we are seeing and though it doesn't mean time off, doesn't get sick from omicron and doesn't require tips. if you come to los angeles and san francisco you might see one of these guys on the road bringing you your food. stuart: i would love to know what the liability situation is when they go down the sidewalk or the road. there is a cost involved in this. foxbusiness exclusive, see you again later. open table, restaurant reservations plunging and look who is back. it has been a long absence the great to see john tapper, the man himself. as you well know it has been a brutal two years for restaurants. what is the outlook for 2022? >> a bit bleak as you can

imagine. we are getting a lot all 3 sides, can't get employees to serve the guests if we could get the guests was can't get our supply-side together which is more complicated than people think and we lost our revenue stream it even seems hour to go business is down a little bit right now which is very concerning. i don't know how any business survives on the revenue side, the labor side and product loss side. it is overwhelming but there are solutions out there and your last segment on robots is a great example. we were in las vegas, there must be 20 companies providing all different types of service robots. i was in a hotel, got room service and went up to my room, there was a robot riding in the elevator with me. came out of the elevator and he went one way and i went another. the robot comes up to your room and asks you questions about

your stay, a satisfaction survey and closes and you see it go back down the hallway towards the elevator again. again, there is no tipping, no labor costs so it is not only outside, it is servers inside the restaurant, runners, all of these things become robotic. stuart: that is the use of technology. how do you get people back into the restaurant themselves? do you get these restrictions lifted? >> clarity from the government as well, people are terrified this is so contagious and will get back in the hospital. the hospitalization numbers relating to covid, of all these external factors impacting the restaurant business, i have to say as an industry we've done everything everybody has asked of us. we've got chemicals to deal

with viral contamination, trained employees, putting all the packaging for to go items, we put in scrubbers for our air systems, we did everything possible. now there's an opportunity to put together the right type of relief package, this is two step, get rid of the mandates and a package that makes sense. restaurants gary three times the death of a retail business. kitchens are extensive to build, heads and ventilating systems are expensive to build to the restaurant industry has a debt load on it, the retail industry doesn't have. that needs to be considered in the relief package. stuart: i have a suspicion that eating out habits have changed the because of the pandemic. in what way have they changed? are fewer people eating out because of the pandemic? because habits of changed? >> reporter: to some degree. a lot of businesses national brands that have 5% to go are running 30% to go.

but before this last variant average restaurant sales were up 25%. we were seeing people really coming back to get out and socialize with each other. the last. cut our legs off again. this isn't environmental. i don't believe people will stop coming to restaurants. when this variance dies down they will come back as they did a few months ago. stuart: thanks for the christmas present. i did get it and really liked it, thank you very much. i've got 20 seconds. you are a mogul these days. what else do you do? >> we have tapper's tavern which is a restaurant franchise, robotic cooking, beef shank at costco, home bar coming up soon and a number of other secrets on the horizon. stuart: you will be a billionaire in the next 5 years and still appear on this program. you are all right. see you again soon.

breaking right now. new york times reporting the republican national committee will require candidates to pledge not to participate in presidential debates sponsored by the commission on presidential debates. the change will be voted on at the rnc meeting next month. for years republicans have claimed the commission processes favor democrats. they are out. show me the dow 30, overwhelmingly in the green and the dow industrials are up 220 points. today the president meets with senate democrats. it is a big push to change the filibuster rule. is the president going to have to beg senators to back him? i will ask senator mike braun next.

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stuart: president biden meets the senate democrats in a desperate push to change the filibuster rule, tried to pass voting legislation. look who is your, senator mike braun republican indiana, the president desperate for a win, begging senators for support.

>> i was watching your segment, mining crypto when it has led. i thought of you and me, with quality hardwood. i want you to try that first. stuart: i should have asked him, using the electricity supplied to the total from your own home, doesn't that cost a fortune and negate any income from the mining? i should have asked but i didn't. >> the devil is always in the details just like in politics. stuart: what do you make of this begging for support this afternoon? >> begging support within his own party. i point out recently this is a tougher lift than trying to push the big spending spree bill build back better. . is not only manchin and kristen sinema but mark kelly

and arizona, tester in montana and four five others. all of them are on record saying what an abomination this would be. when trump got elected and when we control both chambers. don't know what they expect to do other than he is getting so much pressure from his left flank, probably worried about getting primary maybe by summary like aoc next time he runs. they are setting themselves up for an embarrassment. schumer is how he would have to rely on. biden has been pushing, it doesn't make sense. all across the board it looks like they are getting desperate. i don't know how they can beg their own senators to fall in line on something they have all recently been on video saying they would never want to do. stuart: we saw shocking could drop in his approval rating this morning all the way down

to 33% in the quinnipiac poll and this morning he went after the unvaccinated again, bullying, said it was the unvaccinated -- pandemic of the unvaccinated. he is not changing course at this point. >> he is digging the hole deeper. i was in a hearing with all the healthcare czars earlier this weekend i got one to outright admit everyone is going to get omicron and the vaccines aren't working. if you push the vaccine mandate, i have lead that effort through the congressional review act, it is still alive in the house so we've got the supreme court, if it has a conservative strain to it at all will put a end to this, the biggest blow to businesses now we finally have a rhythm of living with it. all the experts say, even the washington post, dropping paper on monday. covid is here to stay, we can't

marinate in fear and keep disrupting the economy along the way. stuart: totally out of time but thanks for being with us. i've got time for the thursday trivia question. was the first american to win the nobel peace prize? four choices. the correct answer after this. on a comprehensive wealth plan across your full financial picture. a plan with tax-smart investing strategies designed to help you keep more of what you earn. this is the planning effect. ♪ 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. ♪

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(announcer) enough with the calorie counting, carb cutting, diet fatigue, and stress. just taking one golo release capsule with three balanced meals a day has been clinically proven to repair metabolism, optimize insulin levels, and balance the hormones that make weight loss easy. release works with your body, not against it, so you can put dieting behind you and go live your life. head to golo.com now to join the over 2 million people who have found the right way to lose weight and get healthier with golo. stuart: the question was, who was the first american to win the nobel peace prize? anybody can answer now. the expect answer, is teddy roosevelt. he received the award on december 10th, 1906 for having negotiated peace in the

russia-japanese war, 1904 to 1905. teddy roosevelt, first american peace prize. don't forget to send in "friday feedback." send an email, varneyviewers@fox.com. this is your chance to be part of the show. we're calling it fan friday. take a video of yourself, tell us your name, where you're from, say you're watching "varney & company." if you're not careful you will be on tv. ashley it is yours. ashley: fan friday. can't wait. i'm ashley webster in for neil cavuto. the producer price index soaring to a record 9.7%. the dow is up 200 points. it comes on heels of alarming consumer inflation figure. you're talking toorr