concept of what that would mean, but it be absolutely catastrophic, but when you've got weak leadership in washington, and this president is extremely weak, americans are on the march and they seek to undermine the dollar. maria: all right, monica crowley , steve forbes, thank you so much have a great day everybody we'll see you again tomorrow, "varney" & company begins right now. stuart: good morning, maria and good morning, everyone. president biden is now meeting european leaders, this is a high stakes wartime summit. several issues on the table, number one, sanctions on russian oil & gas, that would squeeze putin's revenue stream but would also squeeze europe's economies and ours as energy prices rise. number two, lethal weapons to help ukraine win, and i mean that, win the fight. that word win is being used. three, how the deal with china, if beijing helps putin's war effort, sanctions on china would

have a more profound impact on the world than the sanctions already imposed on russia. president biden's expected to make some kind of statement minutes from now. man, this is dramatic look at this. a russian naval ship hit are a ballistic missile and blown up. it was a tank carrier. elsewhere, scenes of complete destruction. the russians continue the bombardment of civilians, but they aren't making any military gains. zelenskyy addressing the european summit, pleaded for tanks and anti-ship missiles all right, to the markets and first, oil, because that determines the future course of energy price inflation. you're looking at 114 to $115 a barrel today, watch for any news on sanctions on russian oil, because that would move the market. gas stopped falling, the national average for regular unchanged at an average 4.23 a gallon but look at diesel. it started going up again, $5.05 a gallon now, truckers, farmers,

construction people, keep taking hits. interest rates holding at what i call this elevated level. 2.37% on the 10 year treasury and stocks left-hand side of the screen, a modest rebound after yesterday's big losses, dow up maybe 100 at the open, s&p up 20, nasa boris johnson 80 bitcoin and ethererum both pretty strong at 42, 800 on bitcoin just over $3,000 on ethererum. the democrats at it again, they have a scheme to pay everyone 100 bucks a month to makeup for high gas prices. i'll call that vote-buying, and military guy pete hegseth, he's going to be with us he's going to pass judgment on ukraine's chances of a military win if you crane gets the weapons it needs. thursday, march 24, 2022 "varney" & company is about to begin.

well, the top story is indeed president biden, he's in brussels. he is meeting now with members of nato, the g-7 and the european union. president zelenskyy of ukraine addressed nato leaders just a short time ago. i'm going to say good morning to lauren. lauren: good morning. stuart: i want to know more about that ship that they blew up. tell me more. lauren: could be a turning point here, it's an explosion of the russian landing ship called the orsk, look at it, look at those flames. it was in the sea of azol, which is by mariupol, you can see the black smoke and flames for miles and that ship was used by russia to resupply their troops for their attacks and constant attacks on mariupol especially. the u.s. government now formally accusing moscow of committing war crimes, we're at the one month point, nato says 15,000 russian troops have died and now even the weather is turning against the russians, the spring thaw, the vehicles get bogged down in the mud.

that's where we stand with the physical fighting in this war, at this hour president biden will speak at the g-7 leaders meeting and series of meetings with allies on how putin will pay "costs" for invading ukraine. the u.s. is also expected to announce it will accept up to 100,000 ukrainians fleeing war, so new actions to expedite the u.s. intake of ukrainians. stuart: lauren thanks very much indeed look whose with us this morning, will cain, will is here. i say if we give ukraine the weapons they could win, and i mean that word win, as in a surrender, or run them out of ukraine. what say you? >> will: wow, i was going to ask you, actually, stuart, what the definition of a win maybe. you just told us, a win is turning and running and surround erring on behalf of vladimir putin and the russians. i'm not quite as hopeful. i think a win, first of all, is probably defined by a war of attrition, a battle of wills and

eventually, the triumph of will of the ukrainian people but in the meantime, stuart, even with a resupply, even with weaponry from the west, i think it's an ugly war of blood letting and that's usually the war that is won by the underdog. it is the afghans against the russians, against the soviet union. it's the united states after 20 years in afghanistan. that's how an underdog generally wins a war, so the ability of the ukrainians to win, i think, is not predicated, stuart, on their weaponry, but predicated upon their will. stuart: okay. i would like to see president biden make a definitive statement about what he will give to the ukrainians, or what he and nato will actually do. do you think we'll get that? >> will: here is what i'd like to say. i think we will probably not get that. actually, i don't think we need to telegraph to vladimir putin every single commitment we will

make in defense or in supply and support of ukrainians. what i would begin to like to see , stuart is an argument made to the american people about exactly what are our red lines for american involvement. we've known from the very beginning that in article v, nato violation, would provoke an american response, but i feel like the emotional tenor and the public conversation has expanded beyond that red line, so for example, what is nato's position on the use of biological chemical weapons by the russians inside of ukraine? would that provoke a response? how do the american people feel about that? would that be worthy of the cost of american lives? what about a tactical nuclear weapon use, what if vladimir putin, you know, lets go of one of these atomic weapons somewhere inside of ukraine. would that provoke a response, how do the american people feel? do you want to sacrifice american lives then to stop that war of attrition? i think these are the types of, this is the conversation and clarity that i think the american people deserve. we'll make our decisions, stuart

, but we need honesty and information in order to make a logical, non-emotional decision. stuart: i'd like to see a statement of what our goal is. why we're there. what are we doing and what do we want to do. what do we want to achieve? if i saw that statement, i'd be happy. i'd like to see that. >> will: and what would our cost be? let us make an informed decision and by the way, why don't we apply that retrospectively toker are war we fought since world war ii and if we can't learn our lesson over half a century of wars who failed to do what you just asked can we at least sit and say how about every war going forward and we used to declare war, we used to put that to the legislature. how about we let the american people decide the costs and the goals that we are willing to pursue. stuart: got it. will cain, great to have you on the show today, at a very important moment and we appreciate it always, thanks, will. let's get back to the markets and first of all the price of oil we're at $113.90. my question to you, lauren simonetti look, what's the latest on iran and do we get

more oil on the world market if there's an iran nuke deal? lauren: yes and maybe quicker than we think, so national security advisor jake sullivan says progress has been made in the nuclear talks but obviously, they aren't done, but iran is already preparing for a ramp-up in exports because you have to remember, they had no market for the most part. they can't just, you know, start getting that oil out immediately so they are preparing for it but the other side of the story is, those sea storms that disrupted the oil flows through the damag ed caspian pipeline, we don't know how bad the damage is and we can't understand the scope of it because the information is coming from russia, is that a ploy? we don't know and i just wanted to add one thing into this. it is expected that president biden and european leaders will announce a major initiative for shipping lick liquefied natural gas to europe to supply them for the next two winters. stuart: good, i approve. 100%. lauren: should have done that a while ago. stuart: what's wrong with liquefied natural gas. i can't imagine.

futures suggest a modest bounce on wall street, after the big losses yesterday, dow up about 100 in about what, 20-odd minutes from now. jim lowell is with us. jim, look i'm going to say it again i've said it many times. my worry is that the market is down and stays down for the foreseeable future. reassure me. tell meme at some point it's going to go back up again. >> stuart if you give me, enough years i would guarantee you it will go up again, but if we're talking inside of this year, look, we fully expect to see this market be challenged , more challenged than it has been, not just due to the current known events, war on war , war on inflation, war on covid, but due to the high risk of yet another exogenous event piling on so this is a bigger volatile time in the marketplace , a very difficult time for investors to stay the course but precisely the time when long term investors, if they are wise, can find some rubies in the rubble.

stuart: are they rubies in the rubble to be found in big tech? >> absolutely so. technology as ubiquitous, it is in everything we do. we can't even brush our teeth without using it, without amazon pinging us letting us know we need more toothpaste so i think the overall ark of technology for growth investors a and for those with a high level of risk tolerance is good. do i suspect we're going to see some pretty significant price swings inside of the next three months, six months? absolutely so. this is not going to be a marketplace for the faint of heart. stuart: well said jim lowell thanks for being here, we'll see you again thanks a lot. new reports suggest that north korea has tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile i believe that be a first. lauren: so south korea and japan say this is the largest intercontinental ballistic missile test ever and its first since 2017 and it flew for 71 minutes and 684 miles.

it's an escalation in north korea's ability to eventually deliver nuclear warheads right here in the united states and the timing of this could not be more provocative. stuart: exactly, right, there's a war in europe and they launch an intercontinental, out of sight, check those futures again , please, 20 minutes to go until the opening bell, a very modest rebound from yesterday's big losses. the mayor of new york getting ready to lift the city's vaccine mandate, but only for big time basketball players, and a few other big celebrities. it's a dramatic turn from just last week, watch this. >> let's be clear. everyone is focusing on one person, i'm focused on nine million people, i'm not looking at one person, i'm looking at my city not closing down again. stuart: okay, your honor, but why not also kill the vax mandate for big companies and let new york get back to work? brian kilmeade will have something to say.

i'll tell you, gas rebate they want to send everybody 100 bucks a month my opinion that's blatant vote-buying, we'll have more on that, believe me. with my hectic life, you'd think retirement would be the last thing on my mind. thankfully, voya provides comprehensive solutions, and shows me how to get the most out of my workplace benefits. voya helps me feel like i got it all under control. voya. well planned. well invested. well protected. new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. when you sponsor a job, you immediately get your shortlist of quality candidates, whose resumes on indeed match your job criteria. visit indeed.com/hire and get started today. and it's easy to get a quote at libertymutual.com so you only pay for what you need. isn't that right limu? limu? sorry, one sec. doug blows a whistle. [a vulture squawks.] oh boy. only pay for what you need. ♪liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty♪

better hearing leads to a better life. only pay for what you need. and that better life... ...starts at miracle-ear. it all begins with the most innovative technology... ...like the new miracle-earmini™. available exclusively at miracle-ear. so small, no one will see it. but you'll notice the difference. and now, miracle-ear is offering a 30-day risk-free trial. you can experience better hearing with no obligation. call 1-800-miracle right now and experience a better life. at xfinity, we live and work in the same neighborhood as you.

we're always working to keep you connected to what you love. and now, we're working to bring you the next generation of wifi. it's ultra-fast. faster than a gig. supersonic wifi. only from xfinity. it can power hundreds of devices with three times the bandwidth. so your growing wifi needs will be met. supersonic wifi only from us... xfinity.

stuart: moments from now president biden will be speaking in brussels, edward lawrence is over there for us. what are we going to hear, edward? reporter: yeah, stu, we've heard a lot of unity message so far this morning. the president tried to zoom things so now he's here in person, meeting with european leaders, nato as well as g-7 that nato meeting happened earlier this morning and they are getting ready now for the g-7 family photo that happens before the g-7 meeting so again, out of this g-7, we

understand from senior administration officials that there will be new sanctions that will be announced by the u.s. , also out of the meeting we're talking about countries all of the countries in europe will line up with 400 russian lawmakers being sanctioned as well as 40 military companies now those officials say that the g-7 countries will prohibit any transactions by russia using gold as gold reserves to prop up the ruble. the g-7 countries also started an initiative to sanction evasion, that means going after any country that's helping russia get around the global sanctions. also the u.s. announced we will take in 100,000 ukrainian refugees now this comes at a time when a new fox news poll shows president biden's approval rating for his handling of the invasion of ukraine is just 42%. a majority of registered voters disapprove, in comparison, more than three-fourths of american voters approve of the job the ukrainian president zelenskyy is doing with only 19% disapprove, and we have not heard from the president yet

today. the elephant in the room for all of these meetings is the world leaders reliant at least in europe on russian oil and natural gas and the supplies that need to come into europe. now we're told on friday, there will be an announcement from the u.s. related to that as well as the u.s. pushing europe for a plan implemented in months, not years, to come off of russian energy assistance. now representative michael waltz says the president though, has all of this backwards, listen. >> as long as biden lets fear of escalation drive his policy, he will continue to give putin space to escalate, and that's why we've got to make it very clear that putin will continue to push until he meets steel and we have to make it very clear where those lines are. reporter: and the g-7 meetings will start in the next few minutes or so. back to you. stu. stuart: edward thanks very much indeed now look the average price for a gallon of regular

gas unchanged today at $4.23 a gallon. okay, that's down $0.05 from last week but up a buck and a half from last year. ronna mcdaniel, rnc lady is with me now. you know the story the democrats want to offer this gas rebate, 100 bucks a month. i call that vote-buying, but you know what, that could be very popular. >> let's just increase inflation, right, stuart? they are going to pump more money into the economy like they did with the stimulus bill that's caused prices to rise. what people want to see is joe biden say i'm going to invest in american energy. i'm going to get our energy going so the prices go down not a gimmick or a band aid. stuart: it is a gimmick and band aid, but keep on at it, it's going to be popular. people like free money. >> no, i think people understand what free money has meant. its meant we're paying people to stay out of the workforce and meant inflation, and the american people recognize biden as failing and we're see ing that in the numbers. stuart: well i hope you're right >> i think i'm right. stuart: we've got a new fox poll that gives the republicans an

engine the november elections , look at this. we've got 52% of republicans are extremely interested in the elections, only 44% are democrats are extremely interest ed. you've got a big edge right there. >> it is we just saw it in texas, twice as many republicans showed up than democrats for the primary we're seeing this across the country. i'm not taking anything for granted though. we have to do the work and make sure we're talking to voters to turn them out for the mid-terms to win back the house and senate stuart: so the voter count in the primaries is a very important indicator to the voter turnout hads on both parties. >> we're seeing it all over, texas we just doubled the democrats, we flipped a senate seat in connecticut that biden won by 25 points in 2020. we're seeing indicators look at virginia, a state that biden won by 10. we won all three constitutional offices and flipped the house of delegates so the energy is showing up right now. we just have to maintain that through november. stuart: privately, in your secret confines at the rnc, how

many seats do you expect to win in the house? >> stuart you can't ask me that question. stuart: well i'm asking >> it's six to win and take back the house. that's what i think about at l time. everything else is gravy. stuart: are you dreaming of 30 or 40? >> i'm dreaming of retiring nancy pelosi and chuck schumer. one in the senate, six on the house and that's enough. stuart: the senate can you win? >> we can. stuart: what are you most likely to pick-up a seat? >> georgia, new hampshire, nevada, arizona, and then outside chance in washington state, we've got a great candidate there, but the enthusiasms a big deal and the mid-term when you have less turnout the infrastructure of the rnc is building along with the enthusiasm we're seeing with republican voters could be a difference maker. stuart: all week long we've been running stories about you registering voters at gas stations to take advantage of the spike in gas prices. can you tell me how many voters nationwide you've signed up? >> it's in the thousands, it'll be in the thousands by the end, but that's hard to do, register ing a voter is not an easy thing so it doesn't sound as big, but we have taken

over democrats for the first time in florida with more republicans registered than democrats in the history of the state, in pennsylvania, we've cut in 100,000 since 2020, and north carolina 77,000, in iowa 33,000 i know all of the numbers. it's a numbers game, you're a numbers guy if you're register ing more voters you have more voters to turn out. stuart: i'm a political guy actually. basically what i am, supposed to be a financial guy but very much a political guy. >> but you appreciate the numbers and voter registration is an indicator and we've done well since the 2020 election. stuart: a very confident republican party sitting next to me. >> so happy to be with you. stuart: great to be back, ronna, thanks very much for being here. we've got a lot of these fox polls to go through, they are key to certain issues, and lauren has got the details. lauren: so the poll shows support for president biden is not as high as four years ago among pretty key demographics he's down 15 points we'll show you here among black voters with 71% support down 11 points among women, seven among hispanics even down among young people,

right? you imagine a wartime bump in his approval rating? he didn't get it in fact the latest polls show his approval ratings at 40% like an all-time low for some of them , so we're one month into this invasion, and look at this , 53% of voters say they are not confident in joe biden's handling of the crisis and his judgment of it. stuart: if you're not a socialist by the age of 25 you've got no heart. if you're still a socialist after you're 25 you've got no head. that's why youngsters i believe are beginning to turn towards the republican party. lauren that's great thanks very much indeed. check those futures please why not? we've got a little bit of green after yesterday's red ink. the opening bell, next and we'll take you to wall street.

if you invest in the s&p 500 your portfolio may be too concentrated in big companies. this can leave it imbalanced and exposed when performance varies. invesco's s&p 500 equal weight etf, rsp, is spread equally across the s&p 500, which reduces potential concentration risk and helps keep your portfolio in balance. stay in balance with invesco's rsp. alright, so...cordless headphones, you can watch movies through your phone? and y'all got electric cars? yeah. the future is crunk! (laughs) anything else you wanna know? is the hype too much? am i ready? i can't tell you everything. but if you want to make history, you gotta call your own shots.

we going to the league!

stuart: all right, three minutes until the open on wall street a little bit of green left-hand side of your screen gary kaltbaum joins us. gary, everybody knows it, i read your stuff, and you're telling me that your biggest worry is the sharp rise in commodity prices, i've watched them go to the moon, what's the problem? >> cost of everything going up

and you combine interest rates going higher, and stu, when i look at markets right now, everything consumer-oriented remains in a bear market. everything housing and housing- related remains in a bear market, because of elevated commodities and elevated interest rates at this point. if that is not figured out, if it does not come down, i'm telling you 100%, we will be in a recession and right now, i think all the predictions are somewhere around 1% gdp already, and i think i saw a durable goods this morning, pretty darn bad, and when i have to wake up every morning and look at the price of fertilizer and coal and aluminum and copper and nickel you know we got problems and these are things i really in the past haven't had to look at too often. stuart: so this is just not the time to jump into the market with both feet, if you're going to buy stocks buy selectively otherwise stay in cash. would you say that? >> there's a bullish market in everything commodity types and anything that moves commodities,

bearish market and everything consumer, a better action and technology recently because china back-stopping their market which is technology laden but after that, i think you have to be very careful and i surveillances we're going to do a lot of backing and filling right now. i'm not too sure off to the races like some people think. stuart: what did you think when you're watching the market i think it was tuesday, and gamestop went straight up, like 30%. what did that tell you? >> my biggest problem is if you're going to start new bull markets people are timid. they just don't jump in. i worry that there's a bunch of speculation going on, that chat rooms are very loud and people buying into these companies that are losing tons of money, they are squeezing up dollar stocks again, speculation and froth is not good for the markets and it's usually an indicator of not so good things going forward. i wish i didn't see that. stuart: the times have certainly changed have they not gary

kaltbaum great stuff, thanks very much. 20 seconds to go to open this market, the backdrop is the price of oil around $113 per barrel, what i'd call an elevated level. the yield on the 10 year treasury still at that elevated level about 2.37, 2.38%. >> [opening bell ringing] stuart: and we've got this big conference going on in europe and the question is will we sanction russian oil, will the europeans sanction, that's a difference today. we're open, we're open for business and the dow is opening with a very modest gain remember it's down huge yesterday, you're up 100 right now that's one-third of 1%. the s&p 500 also on the upside in the very early going to the tune of a half a percentage point and the nasdaq composite also higher right from the get-go, a half percentage point higher. have a look at big tech they are doing pretty well recently not a bad opening today either. microsoft, apple, alphabet, amazon, meta platforms all on

the upside. well amazon just slipped a fraction lower. susan li joins us this morning. >> good morning. stuart: high-tech, high growth stocks. they are rallying. >> yeah, great question in terms of why since we do have the 10 year yields as you mentioned pushing ever closer to 40, oil coming down by a buck, as you mentioned now you have more fed members this morning like kashkari arguing for seven interest rate hikes this year that's hawkish but you have to remember these stocks and high growth high-tech names are down 60-70% and there's bargain hunting taking place we know there's been money rotating into u.s. stocks because there's really no safer place to be in volatile times and also by the way, stocks have out performed other asset classes during high inflationary times. i mentioned this to you. this is staggering to me that in the 70s and 80s an era that you lived through the s&p returned 169% more than inflation which was only up 150% during that time you're paying mortgage rates of 20% right?

stuart: well yeah, we were back in the day, yeah. >> but would you argue that's the 10 year treasury yield is doing the work right now for the federal reserve? stuart: yes. >> because it's already anticipating seven more rate hikes to come and does the fed necessarily need to go if you already are draining the money out of the markets just by the rise in yields. stuart: it's a good question. everybody is looking at the fed and i don't know which way they go but if you get seven rate hikes, i'm willing to invest heavily in the stock market. >> 50 basis points in maybe may or june according to goldman sachs. stuart: the fed was true in my day and i think it's true in your day. >> always. stuart: tesla up above a thousand bucks a share. what's he doing there? >> so many factors today so i'd say that the california they are giving away 400 bucks for everybody driving an electric car that's registered in that $11 billion inflation relief package. first of all i don't know where california finds that kind of money. stuart: i thought they were giving 400 bucks to every driver >> correct.

for electric cars, that are registered as well. yeah, electric vehicles. stuart: you get another 400 if you have an electric car? >> no so if you are driving electric car you get the $400 and then you get relief at the gas pump if you drive the gas combustion ones. so that's listing not only tesla , but i would say rivian, n eos, et cetera, and then for tesla in particular, you are saying they are going to add the model y to the fleet, they already have the model 3 which was announced last year and the postal office, i mean, they just announced they are investing 2.9 billion for 50,000 vehicles, 10,000 of those will be electric cars, so i think that's pretty much a boost across-the-board for rivian and the like and it just shows you all this government spending going into electric green, climate change type of companies , you don't fight the u.s. government spending either. stuart: tesla $1,016 as we speak , susan i don't understand this. google is letting spotify offer

their own in-app payment option. >> okay what don't you understand about it? stuart: anything. anything about it. >> have you ever downloaded an app on the google play store or the apple app store? i'm going to take that as a no. stuart: i don't think so. >> okay so i think i've downloaded it for you. so basically what happens is if you download an app on the app store or the google play store if you want to buy in on a subscription, apple and google get a cutoff that, right? as a spotify subscription but now, google is really opening up the flood gates saying that on the google play store, spotify doesn't have to necessarily pay the 15 and 30% commission now, so this is a new app that spotify needs to come up with and there are caveats because still, spotify needs to pay a fee to google, they haven't specified how many others will be allowed for this exemption, they call it a test pilot so is

it necessarily permanent, that's still in question, but then if google does this , don't you feel that apple will be pressured to do this as well on the app store? stuart: sure. >> it's not justed spotify, think of the other apps complaining about these commissions like the match groups and the like. stuart: wouldn't that cut google 's revenue? >> i would say yes, probably, yes. i don't to how substantial, because i know the app store for apple is significant for other companies, but maybe not for apple itself. stuart: okay we've got match group on the screen. >> because they are another app as i mentioned that complains about these high commissions. stuart: we've got one more electric operation to talk about , and that's nikola up 15% almost, the story please? >> yeah, so they are starting their production of electric trucks, as promised, from their last earnings, and as you know, nikola has been in trouble given their founder was forced to step away because of the fake demonstrations of their technology, so apparently, they started making these electric trucks at their arizona factory

this week and they are also developing a fuel-powered electric truck that will start production in germany next june, positive, right? given they said they will deliver 300 of these semi trucks this year, let's see i think there's still a lot of skeptics in the market. this is what we call a possible short squeeze given that 27% of nikola's float is short, 27% of the shares are being bet against that they will fall at some point. stuart: uber, put them up on the screen please, depressed stock price recently but listen to this. now, shortly, you'll be able to catch a new york city cab, the yellow cabs, through the uber app. >> as a kid growing up looking at new york, you always saw people hailing cabs on the street, right? i don't think that's going to happen anymore, because uber is adding two of these taxi-hailing app capabilities on to their platform, so you can hail a taxi now on uber directly as well, so this is a big change, because remember, that taxis were fighting uber since 2009 so they are taking away their business

so the reason why uber is doing this is because there aren't enough drivers, there aren't enough cars on the road drivers aren't coming back fast enough so this is a big deal, given that uber ceo says he wants every taxi around the world on the platform by 2025. i think the stock is also being lifted by bank of america reiterating the buy call on uber despite the high gas fees. stuart: all right, there used to be thousands of yellow cabs in new york. those are since gone. >> would you take a yellow cab or ubiquitouser these days? stuart: whatever comes first. it's as simple as that. got to read this. intel the $49 a share up a buck, the big gain amongst the dow winners among the s&p 500 winner s freeport mcmoran, the energy company doing well and the nasdaq winner intel up 2.2% i missed them. i should have bought that. so much for pandemic relief. a new investigation finds millions in federal covid money spent on the ski slopes, golf courses and luxury hotel, we've

got details for you. on american express, new campaign taking on amex because of its racially divisive policies chris ruffo is leading the charge and he's coming on the show later. fill her up with free gas, spending a million bucks of his own money to give out free gas, we'll take you there for a live report. meet jessica moore. jessica was born to care. she always had your back... like the time she spotted the neighbor kid, an approaching car, a puddle, and knew there was going to be a situation.

♪ ♪ ms. hogan's class? yeah, it's atlantis. nice. i don't think they had camels in atlantis. really? today she's a teammate at truist, the bank that starts with care when you start with care, you get a different kind of bank. nicorette knows, quitting smoking is freaking hard. you get advice like: when you start with care, just stop. go for a run. go for 10 runs! run a marathon. instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette.

stuart: the national average for a gallon of regular gas $ 4.23 but in illinois, that same gallon will cost you an average in that state of $4.49, and yes there is a businessman there giving away a million bucks worth of free gas using his own money. garrett tenney is there, how many drivers are going to sign up for this thing?

reporter: more than 18,000, stu, that's how many cars are expected to get in on this give- away. at this location, the first driver in line showed up at 1:00 a.m. by 3:00 a.m. a dozen or so cars were lined up and take a look at the line now. you can see it stretches all the way down this street going around the corner, even through the stop light at times. all of them, waiting hours for just $50 worth of gas. that $50 though will not take you as far here in chicago as it does in a lot of places. you can see the price of regular at this station is $4.65 today, $0.22 higher than the national average. some of the drivers we spoke to this morning said with prices so high on everything, the small bit of help is making a big difference. >> i mean, i need it. i mean, i'm hurting right now. the economy, the gas is sky high i've got $26 to my name, i'm living off social security, i'm hurting, so yeah, i'm going once

i pay my bills i'm almost broke, now i can go buy something to eat. reporter: not everyone was happy about a $200,000 give-away last week that led to traffic jams and congestion across the city but the billionaire businessman behind these give aways say anyone who doesn't like it is welcome to pony up to help out as well. >> they should try coming up and putting in the main aisles and get people some free gas, or they should give maybe $20 worth of gas and help their neighbor, people are struggling, you know, you're saving families jobs and things of that nature. reporter: today's giveaway is expected to last for four or so hours until the gas runs out but if gas prices don't go down, willie wilson says he's planning on doing another giveaway down the road, stu? stuart: how about that, garrett thanks very much great report. now then let's bring in patrick duhan, our gasbuddy guy. democrats want these stimulus checks for gas, hundred bucks a

month. what's your reaction to that? >> boy, stuart if there's ever a moment this is like handing a battle of jack daniels to somebody trying to sober up here this is going to make the problem worse, not better. we need to break america's addiction on gasoline that would bring relief but handing out free gas to people that then go wait in line and do things that consume more gas? i don't think that's the answer. stuart: now let's take a look at diesel for a moment because that really perked up my interest, as it crossed above $5 a gallon. it's actually going up in price a little bit these days. it's a bit higher today than it was yesterday. what's your outlook for diesel because i think diesel makes a really big difference to our economy. >> yeah, it really does, stuart it's compelling how high diesel goes and the impact can't be understated. we all look at the price of gasoline but none of us are thinking about looking at that price of diesel which is higher than gasoline, you know? it could be $5, we could even

see 5.50 or $6 in the months ahead, con tengley entertainment on what's happening with russia and ukraine and in europe it's even more awful. we could be actually looking at some physical disruption in markets in europe for diesel fuel, and that is not going to be something that bodes well for diesel here in the u.s. we could see more exports of diesel. anyway you color it, it is not going to be a good summer promoter, stuart. stuart: have you seen any sign that car drivers and truck drivers are cutting back on their driving, destroying demand as we say, because of high prices? >> well so far, stuart, we're only seeing a little bit of that demand destruction on the west coast. this is obviously a time of year that americans are hitting the road for spring break and other travel plans. i've seen really no signs of demand disruption. now the eia has a metric called implied demand but our own gasoline consumption data showed another weekly increase last week. stuart this is par for the course. americans are talking about high gas prices, but they're not yet

changing their behavior with the exception of the west coast. that's the danger that could lead to higher gas prices than we've already seen. stuart: we hear you patrick duha n, great stuff thanks very much. left-hand side of the screen that's the gathering getting together for what they call the family photo of these 30 world leaders, they are just jaw -boning a little bit as they get in place. next one we've got california governor, gavin newsom. he has unveiled more details of his gas rebate. take us through that one. lauren: $9 billion tax refund for tens of billions of californians. $400 per registered vehicle in this state up to two cars per family, so your family would get $800. don't come until july so you've got to wait a little bit. no income limit, so the billionaires get the $800 too, and electric vehicles are included, and for californians that don't have cars their bus or train fare is free for three months. stuart: they don't want to cut

the gas tax. >> which is $0.50 in california stuart: because they realize motorists wouldn't know who had given that benefit but if you send them a check or a debit card you're sending them money and they know oh, that came from california governor democrat newsom. it's buying votes. lauren: it's popular and makes no sense there should be an income limit because very rich people don't need the gas rebate. the republicans made a strong push to at least suspend the gas tax for the time being and the democrats and newsom said absolutely not we're working on our rebate program instead and those are the details. stuart: they prefer to buy votes i'll have the last word. as democrat lawmakers push their green agenda, speaker pelosi's husband is cashing in on electric vehicle stocks, like tesla. we have that story. imagine this. having a choice as to whether you wear a mask on a plane or not. airlines pushing the president to end mask and testing mandates jeff flock has that story, next.

your shipping manager left to “find themself.” leaving you lost. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire

2021 was an exciting year for evergold. the company discovered its first high-grade gold-silver domain at its flagship property

in northern bc. the excellent drill results set the stage for a bright 2022. evergold. as a small business owner, your bottom line is always top of mind. so start saving with comcast business mobile. flexible data plans mean you can get unlimited data or pay by the gig. all on the most reliable 5g network. with no line activation fees or term contracts. saving you up to $500 a year. so boost your bottom line by switching today. get the new samsung galaxy s22 series on comcast business mobile and for a limited time save up to $750 on a new samsung device with eligible trade-in.

stuart: airline executives say it makes no sense for mask mandates on planes.

they want that mandate lifted. jeff flock at philadelphia's international airport joining us now. they want testing requirements lifted as well, is that correct? reporter: you're absolutely right, sir, and testing the mask mandate, you know the mask mandate applies not only airlines but inside the terminal and if i walk outside the terminal i have to have it in here but as soon as i walk outside the door, i think i'm legal now, so and you can also see now whether i'm frowning at you or smiling at you. this is all the major airlines so the ceo's of all of the major airlines have signed on to this letter, delta, united, american, even fedex and ups, and here is what they're saying in this letter, stuart. they say that they want government to sunset the federal transportation travel restrictions including a pre- departure testing and mask mandates saying "they are no longer aligned with the realities of the current environment" as to the pre- departure testing, that requirement has outever haded its utility, they say, and it

stymies the return of international travel. as to the masks, as you have not only said today, but have said all along, it makes no sense that people are still required to wear masks on airplanes, yet they are allowed to congregate at crowded restaurants, schools and sporting events without mask s, despite the fact that none of these venues have the protective air filtration system that the aircraft has. i will say, mr. "varney", and i've flown every week all the way through the pandemic, and that air filtration system is pretty darn good and so far, despite my best efforts, i have failed to get coronavirus. stuart: there you go. as far as i'm concerned if you want to wear a mask on a plane, wear a mask on a plane. you don't want to wear it don't wear it. >> freedom of choice. stuart: thank, jeff we'll be back to you later. the american rescue plan allotted $350 billion to help state and local governments weather the pandemic. new reports shows where some of that money went.

for example, did alabama spend 400 million on prisons? lauren: to build two super-sized prisons absolutely and that was a quarter of the total aid. that, the state of alabama received. look at scroll $140 million for a hotel in broward county, florida all this and more funded with federal covid relief dollars even though these things have nothing to do with combat ing the virus and that's why republicans and some democrats are requesting an accounting before they dole out more money, biden wants $22 billion more. stuart: more. lauren: more. there's always a variant now there's va-2 and they say they don't have enough vaccine for every single american. stuart: mandates and stimulus programs for all, forever. lauren: forever. stuart: check those markets again, please. 25 minutes into the trading day, we've got green, dow is up 100, nasdaq is up 61. still ahead, retired four star general jack keane, nigel farage , ambassador kurt volker and wyoming senator john barasso

the 10:00 hour of "varney" is next. throughout history i've observed markets shaped by the intentional and unforeseeable. for investors who can navigate this landscape, .. the path is gilded with the potential for rich returns.

i didn't know you had dahlias, they're my favorite. they just came in. thank you. i should do a marketing campaign. clover does that.

you're like a mind reader. secure payments, the tools you need, people who can help, we do that. better hearing leads to a better life. secure payments, the tools you need, and that better life... ...starts at miracle-ear. it all begins with the most innovative technology... ...like the new miracle-earmini™. available exclusively at miracle-ear. so small, no one will see it. but you'll notice the difference. and now, miracle-ear is offering a 30-day risk-free trial. you can experience better hearing with no obligation. call 1-800-miracle right now and experience a better life.

chef, can we hire another hostess? umm... psst. yeah. i was gonna add an exclamation point. secure payments, the tools you need, people who can help, we do that.

stuart: it is 10:00 eastern. the dow is up 130, the nasdaq up 35. what is moving the market? 10 year treasury yield is up 2.36% and the price of oil is 112, $113 a barrel. i call that an elevated level. it is thursday, 10:00 eastern. mortgage rate time. lauren: 4.2% last week up sharply from the week before, 3.7%. they have come up a lot, grim outlook from freddie mac. economist says increases monthly payment and impacts homebuyers ability to keep up with the market. stuart: no impact on the stock market. now this. it is time to say what you mean

and mean what you say, time to say we are in it to win it and give ukraine the weapons it needs to win it. the russian army has run out of ukraine or surrenders in place which i think winning is possible. so far the biden team has been unwilling to tell zelenskyy he will get what he needs. they don't want to provoke putin nor escalate. the thought of winning worries the white house. jake sullivan was asked twice if he and the president thought ukraine would win. he would not answer the question but now is the time to put maximum pressure on putin's failing ari. ukrainian fighters given the right firepower could surely rollback the badly equipped invaders. that's my opinion. we need the opinion of someone who knows what he's talking about. we have ptech south here --

pete hexa --hegseth. >> for ukraine when militarily? yes but it doesn't need to be decisively on the battlefield, winning is keeping zelenskyy alive, keeping kyiv from being i 5 or taken, preventing vladimir putin from controlling the blacks the. what he is stuck in right now is unlike anything he could have imagined and the amount of support, the fact that zelenskyy survived today as a surprise to vladimir putin. months waiter the fortifications are stronger, outside support, outside the beginning of this when president biden said he would deter a conflict, that is a failure on the outset. so far the level of support we've given them has been effective.

we could do more and should do more but how quickly we do more has implications in the kremlin not because we are afraid of vladimir putin but we don't want to corner him so badly that he unleashes something that leads to a wider war. keep it contained to the confines of ukraine, give the ukrainians what they need, they are using our weapons, a lot of support we are not aware of. that is a win, with vladimir putin not advancing he is losing and needs to make a decision when he tries to declare victory. stuart: can we run the victory of the russian ship, the naval ship, the ballistic missile filed by ukraine, that must've sent a big message to vladimir putin's navy. missiles like that, the writing is on the wall.

>> we shouldn't tell the world about it. do it quietly and let the results on the battlefield speak for themselves. more dead generals, more ships. think about 6 dead generals, reports are there are more russians are as many russians killed in this conflict as they last in afghanistan. that's not sustainable so the longer this draws out the closer we are to a ukrainian win. stuart: we are hearing those, kazi missiles have not gotten through yet. >> the speed, and what with the reasoning rationale be? i don't know and that's a question for the pentagon. we can move the 82nd airborne from fort bragg to poland in 24 hours. we can move javelins, singers

and switch blades into that country quickly. if it is not happening quickly we should get a sense of why or we are not hearing about it. stuart: we admire your military expertise and appreciate it. back to the markets, we have some green. dow is up 160, nasdaq is up 73. as usual i want to hear some growing dividend companies. you goes to -- start with exxon? >> what i've been talking about on your show for years, we were adding to our positions when they got crushed during covid. today there is huge demand and limited supply but a political

point that seems to be popular on your show. the president and his policies are helping exxon and chevron more than anyone can understand because his anti-fossil clear perspective is anti-american energy policies, hurting smaller companies, hurting newer companies, hurting more innovation, people that are not big legacy enterprises like exxon and chevron. their market share is not going anywhere so when you regulate away new competition the old guys benefit and exxon and chevron are those old guys. both of them are paying 5%. it varies based on where the stock price is but those deals are only lower because stock prices are higher. the dividend never went down

during covid. both of these companies have grown their dividends for decades. every single year so you have a high dividend now, and a growing dividend in the future which is all we care about. stuart: the midstream energy etf, their dividend changes every day. >> and etf, a basket of different stocks and the reason i talk on the show so much is 18 or 19 companies, i need to talk about 18 or 19 times. the stock price goes up and down, the distribution is doing nothing but growing as right now it is in the five, 6 by the end of the year and again, you have midstream energy companies.

lng terminals, pipeline necessary to move around oil and gas and exporting gas to europe the way we ought to be is a great dividend grower. stuart: in a market like this it is very attractive to me. see you again. lauren is looking at some movers. kb homes down 1%. lauren: their earnings were not great but supply chain weighing on their ability to deliver and sending home prices higher up 22% for the quarter, average price of $486,000. not only do you have a supply chain issue -- stuart: darden restaurants, parent company of olive garden.

do you believe olive garden is a general reflection of italian cuisine? >> they have good breadsticks. the italians can be tough critics i have to say and mom and pop italian restaurants are usually the best. olive garden is half of the revenue that comes from darden and did not do so well in the quarter, still up 30% missed expectations because of micron. stock is up because of these earnings. stuart: nevada. lauren: 10% gain, sales growth of 15%, they up their guidance for the future, raise their dividend 40% to 35%. stuart: speaker pelosi's husband is betting big on

tesla. lauren: a week ago 2500 shares, $500 each, to million-dollar investment and that paid off, this is raising ethical questions. should numbers of congress or their families participate in a free market economy while privy to the federal government? >> if they are a regulating company should they be allowed to invest in it, take advantage? lauren: there is a call for fossil fuels, we haven't seen the administration back that call, it makes it a to million-dollar investment instead of a big oil company. stuart: it doesn't seem right. wall street bonuses hit a new record this year and you know how much we are talking about. >> $270,500, 20% from a year

before thanks to strong markets and banks paying to >> reporter: that talent and salaries that average over $400,000 in the securities industry and i say congratulations. stuart: does every worker in these banks get 275? without was the average. 275,000, that's a lot. it took president biden two weeks into russia's invasion to ban imports of russian oil, natural gas and coal but what about uranium. john barrasso says a ban on russian uranium would revitalize our domestic energy industry. he's going to be on the show. the white house announced in around of sanctions against moscow. edward lawrence has the story from brussels next.

your record label is taking off. but so is your sound engineer. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire before nexium 24hr, matanna could only imagineion. a comfortable night's sleep without frequent heartburn waking her up. now, that dream... . ...is her reality. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts, for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn?

finding my way forward with node-positive breast cancer felt overwhelming at times. but i never just found my way, i made it. so when i finished active therapy, i kept moving forward and did everything i could to protect myself from recurrence. verzenio is the first treatment in over 15 years to reduce the risk of recurrence for adults with hr-positive, her2-negative, node-positive, early breast cancer with a high chance of returning, as determined by your doctor when added to hormone therapy. hormone therapy works outside the cell while verzenio works inside to help stop the growth of cancer cells. diarrhea is common, may be severe, or cause dehydration or infection. at the first sign, call your doctor, start an antidiarrheal, and drink fluids. before taking verzenio, tell your doctor about any fever, chills, or other signs of infection. verzenio may cause low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infection that can lead to death. life-threatening lung inflammation can occur. tell your doctor about any new or worsening trouble breathing, cough, or chest pain. serious liver problems can happen. symptoms include fatigue, appetite loss,

stomach pain, and bleeding or bruising. blood clots that can lead to death have occurred. tell your doctor if you have pain or swelling in your arms or legs, shortness of breath, chest pain, and rapid breathing or heart rate, or if you are nursing, pregnant, or plan to be. i'm making my way forward, my way with verzenio. ask your doctor about everyday verzenio. if you're a small business, there are lots of choices when it comes to your internet and technology needs. but when you choose comcast business internet, you choose the largest, fastest reliable network. you choose advanced security for total peace of mind. and you choose fiber solutions with speeds up to 10 gigs to the most small businesses. that's virtually everywhere we serve.

the choice is clear: make your business future ready with the network from the most innovative company. comcast business. powering possibilities™.

stuart: the market showing green, the dow is up 200 points. he's about to speak with the leader of the european council. biden is announcing new sanctions but will we hear anything, the weapons it needs. >> if he fielded that question they are getting the equipment they need. that is the distinction with that, president biden is talking about tangible

assistance they are giving to ukraine. anti-ship missiles to ukraine, 400 russian lawmakers as well as 40 military companies will be sanctions, the senior administration official, to prohibit transactions by russia related to gold reserves to prop up the ruble. helping russia get around global sanctions taking 100,000 ukrainian refugees, to talk to your buddy deb leaders, the president needs to start leading himself. >> as long as barden -- biden let's hear of escalation drive his policy, he will escalate.

and we've got to make it clear pollutant will push until he makes it clear where those lines are. >> the biden administration being pulled along to be more official. senior administration official announcing additional $1 billion to be spent by the us on clean medical supplies and other humanitarian assistance for those displaced by the invasion and providing $11 billion over five years to address food security threats across the globe mainly because a lot of wheat from the ukraine invasion, the white house teasing a big investment tomorrow morning and that is when he will meet with the european commission president, related to europe's dependence on oil and natural gas. back to you. stuart: an announcement on natural gas may be.

thanks very much indeed. senator john barrasso joins us now. what is stopping the united states from sending liquefied natural gas to europe and elsewhere? >> the administration, president biden has a case of the slows, leading from far behind, as you opened up the segment we should be talking about winning this and giving them everything they need to win. there is an urgency they feel it doesn't seem the administration is up to speed on that. we need to continue going after russia, with secondary sanctions and energy is able to provide liquefied natural gas,

the europeans have come to the realization that energy security is more important than climate zealotry, they realized the mistake they made by depending on enemies for their energy. we have it in the united states, the president needs to announce we are going to ship the more and actually produce more here at home. stuart: as i understand it we import some uranium from russia and you have a ton of uranium, why can't we get our own uranium and stop getting the russians uranium? >> vladimir putin uses energy as a weapon and he has done with cheap uranium for our nuclear power plants. i have legislation to stop that. 90% of the uranium we use in the united states is imported. we have massive amounts in the united states certainly in my home state of wyoming, vladimir putin has undercut us on prices

and president biden is headed in the wrong direction. they removed uranium from the critical minerals lift. uranium is critical, 20% of the electricity we use in the united states is from nuclear power and people with all the concerns about carbon it is the largest source of power without carbon being produced. we need to stop sending putin the money and start using american uranium. stuart: back to the question of sending more lethal weapons to ukraine, is the republican party united, serious lethal weapons to ukraine, so there's a chance of military victory? republicans united on that? >> i will tell you if ukrainians know how to fire it we need to get it to them. they have shown such aerobic patriotism, this is a fight between good and evil.

what the people in ukraine are fighting for, their freedom is good for the world. stuart: always great, thanks for joining us. i have to tell everyone we are still praying for our friend and colleague benjamin hall's speedy recovery. he was injured when reporting in ukraine. do we know anything about his rescue? lauren: the naval surgeon was teaching a class when the phone rang, please come to ukraine, a few days in he got the call come to kyiv, we need you to help. >> quickly injuries that required a lot of attention. one of the hallmarks is patients get worse under rough conditions getting out of a bad situation at the situation could have been made worse by

getting in the wrong kind of evacuation system. we put together the right scenario to get out safely. lauren: a hospital in germany treated him. he has a wife, three young daughters. over 3 million refugees have fled ukraine, most have gone to poland. the mayor of warsaw said that his city has reached capacity. if there were any more the us and europe would have to stand in. we have that in our next our. the ukrainian navy taking credit for destroying a russian warship. that's a major hit since the full-scale invasion began. mike tobin has the latest report after this.

allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. psst! psst! flonase all good. ♪ ♪ it's electric... made extraordinary. ingenuity... in motion. it listens, learns, adapts and anticipates your every need. with intelligence... that feels anything but artificial.

the eqs from mercedes-benz. it's the car electric has been waiting for. do you have a life insurance policy you no longer need? now you can sell your policy - even a term policy - for an immediate cash payment. we thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly realized we needed a way to supplement our income. if you have $100,000 or more of life insurance, you may qualify to sell your policy. don't cancel or let your policy lapse without finding out what it's worth.

visit coventrydirect.com to find out if your policy qualifies. or call the number on your screen. coventry direct, redefining insurance. better hearing leads to a better life. and that better life... ...starts at miracle-ear. it all begins with the most innovative technology... ...like the new miracle-earmini™. available exclusively at miracle-ear. so small, no one will see it. but you'll notice the difference. and now, miracle-ear is offering a 30-day risk-free trial.

you can experience better hearing with no obligation. call 1-800-miracle right now and experience a better life. stuart: almost an hour into the trading session. the dow is up 100 but the nasdaq has turned southward twee 8 points. 39 is the level.

what is with intel? one of the big movers today. >> it is helping the dow rise 148 points. larry think in his letter to shareholders talked about the end of globalization as a result of the russian war. until is leading the way in bringing chip manufacturing back home. is this the start of the end of globalization as companies like intel start to resource their supply? stuart: that is why -- >> i thought it was a good opportunity to bring up this topic, the changes we are seeing post pandemic and eventually postwar. stuart: it is a solid dividend too. lauren: led the effort to bring chip manufacturing to increase it. stuart: snowflake, a big data software company.

lauren: lowering the price target from 200 to 350, it has been struggling by 20%. stuart: nicolai electric trucks. lauren: they have started to produce electric trucks on schedule, that's the deal when you compare them to test low. they plan to deliver semi trucks but -- stuart: i would love to see that truck. sleek and well-designed product. thanks. look at this. ukraine's navy said they destroyed a russian warship south of mariupol. have we confirmed the ship strike? >> reporter: we got to ukrainian military channels. we have it from ukrainian military channels but several ships were hit there. the initial report was this 310

foot tank hauler was hit by ballistic missiles fired by ukrainian fighting forces, multiple explosions, multiple plumes of smoke were observed, the ukrainian military general said it is destroyed. we have reports that it sank at the dock, but two other ships were damaged and pulled out of port. that can be an important logistical hub for the russians since they took control of the town early in the invasion and this could be the first significant naval counterstrike of the war on the part of the ukrainians. it is a humanitarian disaster. they were caught up in the war early on as russian forces moved past them. they are without power and don't have gas, the bridge was taken out that effectively cuts them off from the outside world. residents who escaped report what it was like in the town

before the bridge was taken out. >> reporter: i had to flee because every thing was destroyed. there was no gas, no electricity, no water in the city. our children are dying. i could only take my daughter with me. it hurts a lot. we have nowhere to go. everything is completely destroyed. >> reporter: south of the country, mariupol is a humanitarian disaster, no signs of relief. the civilian casualties are in the thousands. russia offered a cease-fire to mariupol but the condition, the ukrainian army needed to surrender and handover weapons. it was flatly rejected. stuart: thanks very much indeed. general jack keane is with us. with the right weapons, could ukraine win militarily? by winning i mean russian -- run the russian army out of

ukraine or have them surrender? that an extreme version of winning but is it possible? >> a month ago most of us had never conceived that that was possible but is absolutely is. the war is stalemated today. the russian ground assault has largely been halted. they've not been able to take the major ukrainian city. there air war and bombardment with bombs and artillery has had a devastating impact on civilians but even that air war at times is interdicted by the ukrainians and we've seen the ukrainians begin to take territory back, they've done it to the northwest of kyiv and the east of kyiv and begin to take down russian shipping something we wanted to see from the outset and hopefully that is the result of the united states and nato providing the weapons to do that.

if not we've got to stop that restraint and give it to them because it is powerful. the opportunity is there but it will be challenging for them to create enough offensive momentum to drive the russians out but it is possible and what will help them is the amount of casualties the russians are taking and disintegration that comes in terms of fighting units as a result of that and certainly the ukrainian generals recognize that and that is why they are launching counterattacks because they know once they get into the russian units, they can break their ranks very quickly. we know there's low morale in the use organization so the opportunity is there. the problem is where is nato on the subjects you raised, why aren't they making public

declarations that we will support the ukrainians, help them drive the russians out of the country? they refused to talk in terms of ukraine winning and if they are not doing that what are we doing? we default to the fact that russia could win and that is an acceptable. tony: we should lay down the goals. why are we there and what do we want and what is our goal? is that what the president should be articulating right now? >> yes, he should be. but they avoid talking about ukraine winning. they parse their words about it and the other thing that is quite disturbing. i have a high level source that indicates for over a week the biden administration has been putting significant pressure on zelenskyy to take a deal and the deal he would be forced to take would favor russia. we should not be pressuring zelenskyy about taking a deal.

this is his country, his people, they are doing the suffering. we should be providing him moral support and all the equipment we can give him to stand up to the russians and by pressuring him like that behind closed doors i think that is pretty shameful. blue one no appeasement please. thank you very much. republicans on the house and senate armed services committee are demanding president biden increase the defense budget. how much do they want? stuart: lauren: 30 billion more. they want to increase 5% above the rate of inflation. 40 republicans in the armed services committee making that request officially, the president will release his budget monday coming. the bottom line is they want a repeat of the last budget deal that included $750 billion in defense spending which was an

increase of 5%. they say in their letter there's overwhelming political support for this increase because look at the situation in europe. stuart: overwhelming necessity in my opinion. a new fox paul reveals republicans are more interested in the november midterms than democrats. that's got to be good news for republicans looking to take back the house in november. democrats want to give more stimulus checks to deal with rising gas prices. hillary vaughan past that story from capitol hill. hillary is next. as an independent financial advisor, i stand by these promises:

i promise to be a careful steward of the things that matter to you most. i promise to bring you advice that fits your values. i promise our relationship will be one of trust and transparency. as a fiduciary, i promise to put your interests first, always. charles schwab is proud to support the independent financial advisors who are passionately dedicated to helping people achieve their financial goals. visit findyourindependentadvisor.com thinkorswim® by td ameritrade

is more than a trading platform. it's an entire trading experience. with innovation that lets you customize interfaces, charts and orders to your style of trading. personalized education to expand your perspective. and a dedicated trade desk of expert-level support. that will push you to be even better. and just might change how you trade—forever. because once you experience thinkorswim® by td ameritrade ♪♪♪ there's no going back.

stuart: it is biden's energy crisis, democrats using record high gas prices to produce stimulus payment in the form of

energy rebates. some democrats want to give $100, monthly checks to pay for gas. >> reporter: that is the fix some health democrats want to push through congress and put on the president's just, send a check to single americans, $200 for couples to counter the cost of gas. all of this would be means tested similar to what we saw under the american rescue plan. that would be just the band-aid on a problem and could actually make it worse at the end of the day. senator mike crapoh 7 influx of easy cash could make inflation worse and drive prices for everything higher. >> if you add more federal spending even to give temporary relief in terms of a gas car or something you are adding to the

demand side of the supply and demand economy that we live in and the end result is higher inflationary pressure. we've got to deal with the supply side. >> reporter: they considered sending gas cards to everyone that they could keep filling up as americans go to fill up at the pump. they ditched that idea because it was not practical, but they are open to the idea of stimulus checks while the price of gas is over $4 a gallon. stuart: that may be my opinion and a lot of people share it. look who is here. brent bozell who follows the media. who does the media blame for high gas prices? >> why this is so important, we looked at every story on the

network covering the surging out-of-control gas prices that are killing the average joe out there since the war began. of all the stories they've done, in 33 cases they blamed russia. in 3 instances they blamed the biden administration. by 11 to 1 they are saying russia is doing a, not the policies of this administration. why is this important? we took a survey after the 2020 elections in the battleground states and asked a series of questions of biden voters, did they know about something it if they knew what it have affected their vote, we asked them did you know that under the trump administration america had become energy independent. 50.5% of biden voters had never heard this.

this is because the media do not cover this story correctly. then we ask him had you known, would you have voted for joe biden? 5.8% of biden voters in those battleground states said they would not have voted for him had they known this. you take that 5. 8 and put it across the battleground states, nevada, arizona, georgia, north carolina, pennsylvania, wisconsin, trump would have won 295 electoral votes, he would have been elected president. stuart: one last one. the democrats blame gas stations for price gouging, they blame oil companies for profiteering, that played heavily in the media. >> how about the keystone pipeline? the cancellation of that. do you know how much time has been spent by abc, nbc and cbs combined since january 21,

2021, on the cancellation of the keystone pipeline to stop all this? stuart: not much. >> 29 seconds. stuart: i wish i had more time left. that is good stuff, we appreciate it, see you again soon. we showed you president biden and democrats blaming oil companies for the surge in gas comedies, oil and gas executives are firing back. lauren: be more of a target. let's not have the administration come at us more but now that the industry, it is getting louder, for the white house to stop berating them. >> the message to the administration, common ground, first you have to do is stop treating the gas industry as if it is an enemy to the american people. >> it is insulting to us we look at venezuela to increase oil production, 8000 barrels of oil a day.

>> why put killers over drillers? what about iran? there oil might be coming online. they don't care at all about emissions or climate. those are major roadblocks at home for everything our industry is trying to do. that is hypocritical about the administration. they will cut a bad nuclear deal, get dirty oil and produce it and create american jobs, in north dakota, west texas, new mexico. stuart: i will leave it at that. here is another one. the mayor of new york expected to lift the city's vaccine mandate but only for very high paid professional athletes. what about big companies laboring under the mandate, get rid of that too. nato officials say 40,000

russian soldiers have been wounded, captured or just missing. in my opinion it is time to give ukrainians the weapons they need to win. brian kilmeade is on next. p texas you're a one-man stitchwork master. but your staffing plan needs to go up a size. you need to hire. i need indeed. pete hegseth.. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire

stuart: we have a developing story concerning the attack on that russian warship, a ballistic missile that hit that ship and took it out. we have since learned two other russian ships nearby were also hit and damaged. the russian navy right there. 10:51, here is brian kilmeade. here is my position. if we give ukraine the right weapons i think ukraine could win. what say you? >> reporter: no question. one of them is the harpoons, who are able from land to take out ships at sea. we know where they are coming in odesa. that video, while blasting bon jovi given the harpoons necessary to blow them up

before they come ashore. my fear is as bad as bladder putin is doing, losing 40,000 according to one official off the battlefield, 40,000, 10 to 15,000 dead, if he takes odesa, now i got my offer, made ukraine a landlocked nation. what they've got to do is start arming ukrainians the way they promised from nato today and this is what i want to hear from the supreme allied commander, the objective is not only for ukrainians to hold but to win. we need to get rid of vladimir putin, the cancer of eastern europe, 6,000 more rockets, 7000 more rockets, you buddy deb, nato, the g7 all meeting for the same call. this is a rare moment of unity and only one man made it happen, vladimir putin the president has got to step up, he's taken 100,000 refugees.

poland has taken one. 8 million. romania about 600,000. at least give them what they need. they couldn't ask for a no-fly zone but tanks. why can't we get drones to drop water, to drop food into the cities that are proceeded. stuart: to some degree this administration is afraid of provoking the russians, would rather follow the lead. i'm glad we are in agreement because i think an actual win, a military win is possible and now is the time to strike. the mayor of new york america adams, is expected to lift the vaccine mandate for performers and athletes but he's not lifting it for private businesses. that does not make sense to me. >> this was left over by the previous mayor, he made it up and cops and firefighters have got to go home.

their careers are over but kai re-irving who never should have been kept from playing, so you couldn't tell aaron judge you can't play because you are not vaccinated, he can play home games like on vaccinated opponents can but while leaving cops who are making $80-$120,000 a year, he was getting paid 16 to 20 million for not playing half the games and back to help the fans, what about the nurses, cops and firefighters, lift them up, makes no sense, you could easily do it. if you didn't make this policy just divorce yourself from it. stuart: reverse course, open up new york city. midtown manhattan is not half-empty, not fully staffed, because if you are not vaccinated you can't come back

to work. lift that restriction, get us going again, get is working again. >> i looked at howard stern, say we should be in masked and distances and in our bunkers, that is a wrong mentality. we've got to live our lives, let us alone. leave us alone. stuart: this is america. we are going to be watching you, the one nation show saturday night at 8 p.m. eastern on the fox news channel. >> i've just gotten word you're going to be on and you can wear jeans and a sitting at the desk, no one will ever know. stuart: absolute deal, you got it. i will be there. see you later. quick check of the market, up 170 points and coming up on the show, katie have which, nigel farage next. , nigel

farage next. (fisher investments) it's easy to think that all money managers are pretty much the same, but at fisher investments we're clearly different. (other money manager) different how? you sell high commission investment products, right? (fisher investments) nope. fisher avoids them. (other money manager) well, you must earn commissions on trades. (fisher investments) never at fisher. (other money manager) ok, then you probably sneak in some hidden and layered fees. (fisher investments) no. we structure our fees so we do better when clients do better. that might be why most of our clients come from other money managers. at fisher investments, we're clearly different. i have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis. so i'm taking zeposia, a once-daily pill. because i won't let uc stop me from being me. zeposia can help people with uc achieve and maintain remission. and it's the first and only

s1p receptor modulator approved for uc. don't take zeposia if you've had a heart attack, chest pain, stroke or mini-stroke, heart failure in the last 6 months, irregular or abnormal heartbeat not corrected by a pacemaker, if you have untreated severe breathing problems during your sleep, or if you take medicines called maois. zeposia may cause serious side effects including infections that can be life-threatening and cause death, slow heart rate, liver or breathing problems, increased blood pressure, macular edema, and swelling and narrowing of the brain's blood vessels. though unlikely, a risk of pml--a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection--cannot be ruled out. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions, medications, or if you are or plan to become pregnant. if you can become pregnant, use birth control during treatment and for 3 months after you stop taking zeposia. .. ask your doctor about once-daily zeposia.

>> when i look at markets,

everything consumer oriented remains in a bear market. for comes down i tell you one hundred% we will be in a recession. >> could ukraine when militarily? yes. it has implications in the kremlin not because we are afraid of vladimir putin but we don't want to corner him so badly he unleashes something that leads to a wider war. >> exactly what are our redlines, for clarity the american people deserve. we will make a decision on the information to make a logical nonemotional decision. >> we 've taken over democrats for the first time in florida with more republicans registered than democrats in the history of the state. you are numbers guy, if you are registering more voters you have more voters to turn out. stuart: it is 11:00 eastern time thursday, march 24th and we have green on the left-hand

side of the screen. nasdaq is up 51. there was a big loss yesterday. the price of oil, the key to the markets, maybe the key today, $114 a barrel in the yield on the 10 year treasury holding elevated levels, 2.35%. here we go again. another example of democrats trying to buy votes with your money. here comes the gas rebate act of 2022. three house democrats, they want to send everyone a check for one hundred dollars when the gas price averages $4 or more. dependents would get $100 too. $400 a month for a family of four, that will buy a few votes but it will increase demand for gas.

don't democrats want us to use less gas because it's bad for the climate and the democrats largely responsible for high gas prices which started going up before vladimir putin's war. the climate crowd insisted we cut oil and gas production and supposedly fix it with the government handout. voters might not give democrats the credit but sending checks in the mail gets your attention. the elections are 7 months away. democrats will say look what we gave you. a vote buying is alive and well. third hour of varney starts now. welcome back, katie pavlich joins us now, welcome back. >> great to see you too.

stuart: i think democrats are trying to buy votes with his gas rebate but i think it might be successful. everybody likes free money. >> i'm not sure everybody likes free money. they do -- who doesn't want a $100 check, money they pay to the government and are getting back but americans are waking up that spending trillions of dollars and stimulus checks that went out, not only do not stimulate the economy because mass inflation problems not just affecting gas but every household item they need to buy at the store as a result of overspending. they are saying why don't we go back to domestic energy production, a poll this week showed the majority of americans, 65%, don't think the administration is doing a good job in ramping optimistic oil production and want to see more drilling on public land you are

right about the vote buying because of conditioning, to say gas might be $4.50. to make it a little better, people become accustomed to the high prices which are the goal of the administration. stuart: i don't understand why the administration won't raise domestic energy production. everybody wants them to do it except the greens. the climate crowd are stopping the democrats from doing the right thing, is that right? >> you have to remember the climate change policies of this administration are not about climate change, they are about government control, the united states being part of a global community of going after the issue but what is interesting is the biden administration could have a win optimistic energy production while also telling the paris climate

accord folks that we are still complying. under donald trump they pulled out of the paris agreement and were able to significantly reduce emissions which is the one standard they have for judging climate change in the united states in the production of natural gas so the biden administration could ramp up more natural gas can we are hearing from a number of ceos, it includes natural gas and they are completely paralyzed by the far left socialist part of their economic team the believes climate change is not about the environment but a way to more control of the economy from the federal government. stuart: you are exactly right. i have a new fox poll that shows only 42% approve of biden's response to the war. a theme we had on the show all

day long, do you think we should be giving more lethal weapons to the ukrainian so they could win militarily? should we go for a win in ukraine? >> i think that is the big issue. what is the spiegel goal? we don't -- open-ended situation where we are doing pinpricks here and there instead of getting the whole thing done with a victory more quickly instead of dragging this out which will take more money, more weapons over the long-term. we haven't heard the administration say they want ukrainians to win but simply want them to hold off the russians. they have been able to do that but almost like they are taking their time because they want to have conversations and committee hearings and discussions about what to do next rather than just getting the job done. i understand there are sensitivities because nato is

not directly involved. they are involved in terms of giving these weapons to the ukrainians at the question is how long will we be funding this, not saying what the mission is of what we are doing in ukraine. stuart: why are we there and what is the goal? the same fox poll was good news for the republicans, look at that. there's real enthusiasm among republicans to vote. only 44% of democrats feel that. that got to be good news for the republicans. >> as rhonda mcdaniel told you, they are registering more voters and democrats are. the issues on their side in

terms of the economy and parental rights when it comes to why voters are interested in voting for and the democrats had record number of retirements and let's not forget the 2020 election, the bar for republicans in taking over the house has been lowered a little bit. in terms of the margin nancy pelosi had. stuart: don't be such a stranger. we will see you soon. the markets, dow is up 200 and the nasdaq up 85. the s&p up 32. we have a modest rally on wall street. michael lee is with us. michael lee, i used to call him this, the super bowl, you are

no longer a super bull? what is the problem? >> number one concern is inflation and how to address it. i was saying all last summer and last fall, certain things, liquidity leaving the market. and uc chicago conditions. credit spreads 30% to 50%, all this liquidity is leaving, inflation is continuing to accelerate and not decelerate, take more liquidity out of the market to compress earnings multiples across the board. 187,000 is as low as you can get.

the durable goods orders and good pmi numbers. it is a confusing market. stuart: just cautious at this point. my big worry is the market has gone down and stayed down, bumping along the bottom. is that going to happen? >> if inflation doesn't get under control jerome powell is not without criticism but is an adult. and physically tear apart societies. the fed will take us into a recession and hurt the markets to get this inflation under control. would you rather have a brief were somewhat small recession versus tearing the fabric of our society apart.

the market is saying this inflation will decelerate, have modest increases, take more liquidity out of the market but not enough to crush stock prices, i'm in a wait and see mode. there is a case that will work in any environment and hiding out in defensive stocks. stuart: if i have any fresh money it goes into cash. like lee, formerly super bowl, thanks very much. lauren is looking at movies. alaska air. >> they are converting two of their 800 passenger jets into freighters. they continue to shift cargo because that's a profitable business for them. they are making that announcement ahead of their investor day but that's the jet

they chose to convert. with 132 people on board. stuart: boeing is active a fashion. >> one of the two block boxes indecent shape. investigators are getting details of communications between the pilots, they had and this is rare, three pilots on the domestic china flight. maybe we will get an explanation for what happens. stuart: we want to know why that plane plunged 21,000 feet in one minute. that is very troubling. meta as in facebook. lauren: 3d advertisements coming to facebook. they can upload 3d models of their products, i guess it would entice me to buy something, this is a

steppingstone to monetize the meta verse. we are going to instagram, 3d images of product. stuart: investors see the potential which is a big deal for stock of that size. a new poll shows majority of voters think public schools are on the wrong track. leading the charge against critical race theory and schools, will join us shortly. high-level sources tell general jack keane the administration is pressuring zelenskyy to make a deal with russia. former us ambassador to nato responds to that. 3.6 million people left ukraine, following the refugee story for weeks, he will join us next from poland.

it■s hard eating healthy. unless you happen to be a dog.

municipal bonds don't usually get the media coverage the stock market does. in fact, most people don't find them all that exciting. but, if you're looking for the potential for consistent income that's federally tax-free, now is an excellent time to consider municipal bonds from hennion & walsh. if you have at least 10,000 dollars to invest, call and talk with one of our bond specialists at 1-800-763-2763. we'll send you our exclusive bond guide, free. with details about how bonds can be an important part of your portfolio. hennion & walsh has specialized

in fixed income and growth solutions for 30 years, and offers high-quality municipal bonds from across the country. they provide the potential for regular income...are federally tax-free... and have historically low risk. call today to request your free bond guide. 1-800-763-2763. that's 1-800-763-2763

stuart: one month since russia invaded ukraine. 1.6 million people have fled the country. ashley webster is at the poland ukraine border. he's been there for some weeks covering the story. are refugees coming across the border in the same numbers? ashley: they are not. in the last 2 or 3 days we've seen numbers drop off significantly but that is because we haven't had a lot of attacks coming in from russia on ukraine. there is a high profile bombing in the western part of the country, we see refugee numbers pickup and it has been one month exactly since russia invaded ukraine. triggering the biggest exodus since world war ii. take a look at the sights and

sounds we've witnessed during our time here. they come by shopping carts. they come in wheelchairs. they even come by scooter. hundreds of thousands of ukrainian refugees happy to be on safe ground but sad to leave their homeland. >> with all my heart to go back home, because it is my motherland. i love it and -- >> reporter: they are tired and the willard and uncertain about the future but children accept candy. others grab giant teddy bears for comfort. a puppet show raises a smile on a young child's face. all the refugees are offered food, clothing, words of comfort, even family pets are provided with leashes and food. they stand in line for another leg of the journey. all the time the sound of music could be heard in the distance.

a piano played by david marcello who says he plays for peace and provides comfort. >> it is a sad time coming from ukraine. it is a sensation of peace and we made it. this is why i am doing this. >> is two most requested records, here comes the song by the beatles and in action by john lennon. one last point the biden administration saying they will take the united states up to 100,000 ukrainian refugees through the refugee program and fast-track that but ultimately when you consider the numbers it is a drop in the bucket but at least it is something. president biden is expected to come to poland but he will see the refugee impact firsthand. back to you.

stuart: thank you for showing us the human side of the story. kurt volcker joins us, former us ambassador to nato. general jack keane told me high-level sources have told him that the administration is pressuring zelenskyy to make a deal with russia that would favor russia. anything to add to that? sounds like appeasement to me. >> i have not heard that myself. i hope it is not true. i think that is an appalling show of disrespect to zelenskyy and the people of ukraine. he is there to fight for his country and so are the ukrainian soldiers, they held the russians off for a month, they deserve all our support, not pressure to sell out and if we live in a world where vladimir putin can engage in aggression against the country and get away with it that is a

world we will be very uncomfortable with for a long time to come. stuart: a question i've been asking all day, all week is if we supply ukraine with truly lethal weapons it is possible the ukrainians could win militarily. >> yes it is. you see the reports of the tremendous incompetence of the russian forces, lost personnel, lost equipment, desertions, low more row, everything they've given they have incorporated and used to great effect, the russians have not taken a single major city. even mariupol is still standing despite 10 days of no heat, power or water. the ukrainians are tough and anything we give them they will use. i think we are past the tipping point. i don't think russia can win this. they can grind it out and create a lot of casualties and

suffering but i don't see how they can take ukraine or hold it. stuart: sorry it is so short, we want to thank you for coming on the show. you offer us clarity. thank you. clarity is a valuable commodity. the russian stock market has reopened for trading. shut for a month and reopened today. lauren: enclosed 4.4%. very limited training. 33/50 stocks traded in a shortened session. moscow band shortselling, they also banned foreigners from selling and that is important because before the invasion, freely traded shares and putin ordered billions of dollars in stocks. it is not a real market but an isolated one and manipulated one. stuart: have we got new pictures of vladimir putin's luxury yacht? lauren: one. look at that.

a $700 million cost. that transitions to a dance floor. are you kidding me? it looks like the many city. there are other luxurious details. one is of his literal gold toilet paper roll. it is obscene access paid for by the russian people and it bothers people more now because of what he is doing to europe and the world. stuart: thanks. check the markets again please. i still see green, not much of a bounce from yesterday's selloff, the dow is up 200 and the nasdaq is up 108 but we are gaining ground throughout the day. philip morris, the cigarette maker, marlborough, looking at options to exit the russian market. take away the nicotine and it might have some effect. the freeze on student loan payments is set to expire may 1st.

dozens of democrats want to extend the freeze until the end of this year. we have a report. american express accused of teaching their employees racially divisive policies. a new campaign to expose what they are doing. he joins me next.

stuart: up 228 points, that's the dow, up 138 points, that's the nasdaq. i called at a pretty good rally. movers, chipmakers, where do we go? lauren: nvidia is the largest chipmaker in the world. amd as well, this is after the ceo said he would be open to teaming up with intel, if intel turned into foundries meaning you don't design the chips but just make them according to the other person's design. intel is building up that 20

billion-dollar multiple plant facility. really impressive. stuart: that is why intel is on top of the leaderboard. susan: and the global chip shortage, the supply, whoever can supply the chips. blue one treasury yields, where are we? susan: the high-tech selloff because of arising spikes in the treasury yield, morgan stanley has joined goldman sachs in getting hawkish in predictions of the federal reserve. morgan stanley, 50 basis point hike in may and june, four more times to end the year and rising yields make the long-term earnings of these companies a little less and riskier. stuart: reminds me of paul volcker who jacked up interest rates one full percentage point in one day and created a recession. susan: that is why you're paying 20% mortgage rate.

4.42 might look cheap in comparison. stuart: if i had gotten a 4% mortgage, xerox is moving. susan: the last we heard the stock being talked about, xerox might be taken over according to reports that the chairman step down and the board shrunk from 10 to 8 so that makes it easier to approve a sale and if you wonder who might buy xerox, that's a question, a dying industry. stuart: a copy of the company. susan: like a blackberry type of sale. stuart: which are valuable, you use them your self. susan: in different hardwares. stuart: the dow is up 237 points. we have a guest here, part of a new campaign to battle what he

calls racially divisive policies ask american express. chris rubio is here. exactly what racially divisive policies are we talking about? >> american express is hosting a critical race theory style training program for its employees teaching them the united states is fundamentally racist, capitalism is fundamentally racist and promoting the idea that all their white employees have white privilege they need to atone for and promoting material that suggest babies can be racist. it has gone totally woke, absolutely absurd, exposed, customers are mad, employees are mad, we are trying to raise awareness. of the one what are you trying to do? a boycott of american express? what action are you taking against the company? >> we have a petition at un-american express.com, we are saying to the ceo we are coming

after you, we think your training programs are not only racially divisive but potentially violate the civil rights act because they promote race-based stereotyping, scapegoating and harassment. other companies are backing away so we are trying to pin them on the leaderboard to say this is one of the worst offenders, they are hosting a speech considering charging different rates and different prices. this is totally outrageous, un-american and has to stop. stuart: charging different races different prices? you are kidding me. >> there company is fundamentally racist and they should be considering different price for different racial groups but just the fact they would host it and platform it.

>> you are active in the schools and crt. 64% of voters in public schools are on the wrong track. the public schools, and and more school choice. and there's a statement. >> they want to keep children permanent a mask that have prioritized their own financial and material interests, who are suffering tremendous, even catastrophic learning loss. time for wholesale reform effort. we have to get more school choice. someone like me are you have options.

those options given to every person regardless of economic background, i would like to see a fundamental right to exit so parents can take their education dollars to any school of their choice. this is the time legislators need to get busy and statehouses and provide universal school choice for america's families. stuart: this could be a big issue against the democrats this november, right? >> that's right. parents are livid, they are furious, we saw in virginia of the issues of education is critical race theory turn the tide. democrats could be down 14 points because of cultural issues on school and other domains. this is a lateral poison but what it is, it should be an opportunity for conservative legislators to get busy and get school choice, they push back against teachers unions to get this done for our families. stuart: got to do it, thanks

for joining us, thanks a lot. democrats calling on president biden to extend the freeze on student loan payments again. how much time to they want? >> the end of the year but it seems student borrowers will never pay another student loan payment again because they haven't for the past two years, the freeze expires may 1st but democrats are citing inflation is a reason for the white house to extend the freeze for the sixth time to the end of the year and who is to say it won't be extended again? 37 million more saved $200 billion because they haven't had to make federal student loan payments according to the federal reserve bank of new york. stuart: pumping money out. susan: they might as well this point raise student loan debt seriously. stuart: it has not been paid. federally. federal -- has been delayed?

lauren: you would imagine. stuart: they keep extending. classic. thank you. applebee's under fire after a leaked email reveals their plan to lower employee wages. the average price for a gallon of regular gas in california is $5.88 but california is an oil-rich state. why don't they drill their own oil? a report from california's oil company next.

tums vs. mozzarella stick when heartburn hits, fight back fast with tums chewy bites. fast heartburn relief in every bite. crunchy outside, chewy inside. ♪ tums, tums, tums, tums ♪ tums chewy bites

stuart: price of oil, $114 a barrel. the dow is up 200, nasdaq up 160. general mills, deutsche bank

raise their target price after a strong earnings report. a leaked email reveals a plan to lower employee wages. investors love it. lauren: the subject of the discussion was why gas increase is good for hiring. the energy crisis as a way to get more workers, people have less money to spend after filling up their gas tank and they want to work and need to work more, perhaps for less money. it is bad optics. it is a leaked e-mail. email. how corporate america is impacted by inflation for the goods that they buy and the workers. if this was an honest discussion that was not expected it is supposed to be made public. lauren: stuart: wait until bernie sanders get a hold of that.

they will have something to say. reducing workers wages shocking. new calls to boost oil production in california. where the average price of a gallon of regular gas is now almost $6. kelly oh grady is at an oilfield, why won't the governor of the formerly golden state let them drill for more loyal? >> the green agenda. he's proposing a $400 rebate to offset the rise in fuel costs rather than utilize the resources california has. they can produce much more oil but the green agenda forced fossil fuel companies to reduce production, california consumes 1.8 million barrels of oil a day but produced just 43,000. it is an energy islands, anything not produced here has to report from foreign nations since taking office the

governor reduced production by 20% or roughly $90,000 a day to reduce 50,000 with oil from russia and even if prices are receding a bit california hits record highs each day. i want to bring in past oil industry veteran dave moore. thanks for joining me. there are permits sitting on the governor's desk. how quickly could you be up and running? >> it is a treasure trove when it comes to producing our oil. we have the equipment and it is updated for the most economic standards. what we need is permits and policy change, that is all we need. >> how soon could prices drop? >> prices for a large portion of it are based on conception, if there is news that we are able to drill and produce more

oil and bring it to market you will see an immediate release somewhat but you can't turn on oil production like a light switch. >> reporter: we can see prices go down. representative kevin mccarthy also called on california to reduce dependence on foreign oil and the oil we import here is produced in a less environmentally friendly way. stuart: you can have that and see you soon. a quick programming note. fox business and fox nation teaming up for energy independence summit that streams live on fox nation starting next tuesday starting at 12:00 noon eastern. this just in. new york city mayor eric adams officially announced athletes and performance are exempt from the vaccine mandate but it remains in place for private sector companies.

show me the dow 30, i want to give you a sense of the market. a lot of buying today. 27 of the dow 30 are in the green. more varney after this. ♪ feel stuck with credit card debt? ♪ move your high-interest debt to a sofi personal loan. you could get out of debt sooner and feel what it's like to get your money right. ♪ i have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis. so i'm taking zeposia, a once-daily pill. because i won't let uc stop me from being me. zeposia can help people with uc achieve and maintain remission. and it's the first and only s1p receptor modulator approved for uc. don't take zeposia if you've had a heart attack, chest pain, stroke or mini-stroke, heart failure in the last 6 months, irregular or abnormal heartbeat not corrected by a pacemaker, if you have untreated

severe breathing problems during your sleep, or if you take medicines called maois. zeposia may cause serious side effects including infections that can be life-threatening and cause death, slow heart rate, liver or breathing problems, increased blood pressure, macular edema, and swelling and narrowing of the brain's blood vessels. though unlikely, a risk of pml--a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection--cannot be ruled out. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions, medications, or if you are or plan to become pregnant. if you can become pregnant, use birth control during treatment and for 3 months after you stop taking zeposia. don't let uc stop you from doing you. ask your doctor about once-daily zeposia. do you have a life insurance policy you no longer need? now you can sell your policy - even a term policy - for an immediate cash payment. we thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly realized we needed a way to supplement our income. if you have $100,000 or more of life insurance, you may qualify to sell your policy. don't cancel or let your policy lapse without finding out what it's worth. visit coventrydirect.com to find out if your policy qualifies. or

call the number on your screen. coventry direct, redefining insurance. defi technologies, bridges traditional financial markets to web 3.0 and decentralized finance, offers investors simplified access to crypto and decentralized technologies through a single investment. defi technologies. at xfinity, we live and work in the same neighborhood as you. we're always working to keep you connected to what you love. and now, we're working to bring you the next generation of wifi. it's ultra-fast. faster than a gig. supersonic wifi. only from xfinity. it can power hundreds of devices with three times the bandwidth. so your growing wifi needs will be met. supersonic wifi only from us... xfinity.

stuart: oil is the subject to contention, $112 a barrel but a big issue at these conferences taking place in europe with president biden in attendance was one of the things under discussion is whether or not to stop the export of russian oil and gas to europe. that would be extremely contentious and hurt the european economy and hours and send energy price inflation spiraling. that is under discussion in europe but don't think they will go fo of

americans oppose sending troops you have three meetings, if president biden is in europe, can he have a set of deliverables agreed upon b

lauren: president biden has done a pretty good job handling this situation, getting our allies on board. i'm not going to critique him for that. you can say he is leading from behind and should be more forceful, but his approval ratings, usually in a time of war, approval ratings would go up and that has not happened in this situation. stuart: i want to bring viewers up to speed on an important story, news of which broke on this program. we had general jack keane on the show and a retired four times general, he said he had a high level source, his words, high-level source the claimed the administration is pressuring zelenskyy behind closed doors to make a deal with russia, and that deal

being talked about would favor russia. that to me is not good news. that is a form of appeasement of the aggressor. if they are allowed to get away with it, we have troops on the ground, staying on the ground in ukraine, they have won have country. general jack keane says that is what a high-level source says is going on. the lenski pressure to make a deal. lauren: leading by fear of escalation by vladimir putin instead of going all in and saying if you do this, nuclear, chemical, biological, we will do this. a deal to get us out of this. stuart: look at what we are looking at, the destruction, i think that is mariupol in the southern part of the country, that is utterly destroyed. lauren: it has come to symbolize the plight of

ukraine. they are lining up for food, they are bombed incessantly, burying their dead, this has come to symbolize putin's destruction of ukraine. stuart: and to pressure ukraine into accepting that situation a dem demolition of more cities -- lauren: they might have to accept something. that is as we heard zelenskyy say maybe that means ukraine is not included in nato. maybe they give up, do thank about more territory? stuart: any deal that favors the russians to stay in place is surely unacceptable to us, must surely be unacceptable and i would like to discuss serious weaponry that would allow the ukrainians to win militarily on the ground. our military analysts say you could win, do the right thing. lauren: the first us shipment

of an $800 million package for ukraine didn't ship out yet. it will in the next couple days. stuart: it didn't ship out yet? lauren: it will in the next day or so. that is what officials say. stuart: unacceptable. this is opinion. on a news show this is an opinion show, that is unacceptable. lauren: getting lots of allies on board and unfortunately not saying it is right or wrong but the reality. stuart: i would love to go out of this segment showing you the attack on the russian naval ship, roll it up, want to see it again. a ballistic missile fired by the ukrainians took our russian warship, we are told that ship is sunk and damage was done to two other russian naval ships nearby. that wraps it up. now this. the first day trivia question. what is the most common time americans wake up in the morning?

that is a good one, a real change of subject, 5:30, 6:00, 730, whatever it is. it is not my time. the answer right after this. lauren: i think it is 6:00. . .

this is btv. on the next btv business

television. evergold, looking to find gold again in western canada. defi technologies educates you on the new hot sector of decentralized finance champion iron, filling the need for greener steel and exploits discoveries, at the head of the pack in newfoundland's modern day gold rush. watch btv online at be b-tv.com. ♪ stuart: we asked a pretty good question, what is the most common time for americans to wake up in the morning. guess, lauren? lauren: i'm 6:00 a.m. i'm jealous if it is 6:00. >> i said 6:30.

reveal the answer. lauren: i'm right. stuart: you and i both get up much earlier. i'm up at 2:30 in the morning. lauren: confession, i overslept by two hours monday this week. i woke up at 6:00 but you never knew. stuart: more than half of americans are awake by 6:30 a.m. how about that? time is up. i would love to tell you about getting up in the morning but i can't. here is neil cavuto. it is yours, man. neil: 2:30 in the morning? stuart: yeah. neil: you're like a vampire. you know there is no rest for the weary. no rest for the weary. thank you. we're following the same developments you are. what could be happening behind the scenes, negotiated settlement is in the works. stocks racing ahead right now on the fact at least the nato resolve to do something about vladmir putin is still on. the latest wrinkle in this is the central bank crack down on cold purchases out of russia. that is