an international celebritiment it already has a twitter account, thousands of followers. i think it's the next big thing in washington, without question. [laughter] maria: that's funny. a pleasure to be with you both this morning. brandon, come back soon. brandon arnold, james freeman, great to see you both. have a great wednesday, and we'll see you all again tomorrow. thanks for being here, everybody or. "varney & company" begins right now. stuart: good morning, maria and everyone. here's what we have for you, the hunter biden scandal is back, interest rates are rising. we're now at 5%30-year fixed rate mortgages, stocks are falling, and tiger woods thinks he can win the masters. so why don't we start with elon? musk makes the headline of the day. here's the headline today: he's changed from being a pass i investor to an active investor in twitter. he's up to something, we just don't know quite what. does he really have any interest in

running, managing a digital advertising company? i don't know. tesla and twitter stock both pulling back and so is the rest of the market. big dropped yesterday and another one coming at the opening bell today. the dow's going to be down around 200 and the nasdaq also. that's a selloff. look at this, here's why, the 10-year treasury yield moving all the way up to 2.6 of 3%, and that has moved more range -- mortgage rates up up to over the 5% level. bad news for your adjustable rate mortgage if it's set for a reset. this afternoon we'll see what the fed is thinking about rate hikes. that could really move the market. war news. more atrocities revealed in bucha. more aggressive sanctions probably coming soon from the u.s. and europe. hunter, he's back in the headlines and a very bad time for his father, president biden. fox news digital reveals that joe biden helped the son of a

chinese executive who did business with hunter. the president has said he never discussed business ventures with his son. we do have something positive. tiger woods says he can win the masters which starts tomorrow. you can bet on him. the odds at the moment are 75 to 1 that he wins. there you have it. wednesday, april 6th, 022. very -- 2022. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ it hit the ground, i hit the ground running -- stuart: that's augusta. that's where the masters is played. it starts tomorrow. i don't know why we're playing that particular song, hit the ground running. oh, okay. the masters starts tomorrow. let's get serious. elon musk's involvement moving twitter stock bigtime, up about 50% this week.

it's down slightly today. lauren, do we know how much money musk actually spent buying twitter stock? lauren: $2.6 billion. stuart: now, 2.3, now it's 2.6 -- lauren: 2.64, to be exact. he's been steadily buying since the end of january, building his stake that has just been refiled as active. that's a flip. and so is this, this is what twitter says. yes, we've been working on it since last year. no, we didn't get the idea from a poll. look, i think this story's just so cool because we're seeing history being made. all of the influence that elon musk is having. he's transforming society. the humanitarian efforts with the satellite in ukraine, he's getting buzz for it. people are hoping he brings free speech back to the big tech platforms. we'll see if that happens on twitter, and that's one of the reasons, in my opinion, twitter was the most traded stock among

fidelity customers yesterday. stuart: he's fascinating. he is the richest person in the world, he's using his money, and he's making an e enormous splash in all kinds of industries. lauren: we're talking about it. it's going to be in history books. i think that's cool. stuart: yes. the slap lasted a week. musk will be there tomorrow -- lauren: exactly. good parallel. stuart: check out the futures market, let's see how we're going to open up this morning. on the downside all across the board. dow's down 200, nasdaq's down 200, and the yield on the so-year treasury -- 10-year treasury at 2.63%. we need shah gilani. inflation is rampant, and the word recession is everywhere. is this the right time to put fresh money into stocks? >> no,st it's not the right time, stuart. i think with the backdrop of rising rates and now we're viewing that through a prism of faster rising rates, when the

influence changes, that's the problem for the markets. and now analysts -- and we're going to probably get a little clarity at 2:00 when we get the minutes from this last if fed meeting can -- the 50 basis point hike that was never on the table now seems to be on the table, and there may be multiples of those ahead. that means a faster rate of change, higher bond yields, and that's not good for the stock market. this is not a time to start applying capital. this is a time to be cautious and pick your spots on any downdrafts, and i think we might get ahead of us because rates are the issue. stuart: i keep hearing talk about recession. it's on everybody's lips these days. what's your forecast? are we going to get to a real recession this year? >> no, i don't see that. i see that as a remote possibility. i don't think the fed is going to falter such a way that they're going to plunge the economy into recession. it doesn't serve anybody, certainly doesn't serve the fed's interest to do that. i think they're going to be more cautious than analysts expect

and most investors expect, and i don't see a recession. i think the economy is moving along very nicely, and i think it's going to continue to do well. i think we're going to continue to see inflation, i think persistent inflation, but i think we're going to be growing in the backdrop. so i don't see a recession unless the fed makes a fundamental mistake, raises rates far too quickly. then, yeah, that's going to be on the table. stuart: just out of interest, would you consider buying twitter stock now? >> no. in the tos -- 30s it was looking decent in terms of consolidates and technically looked like maybe there was going to be an opportunity. this big jump is, i think, overwrought, and i don't think the stock can maintain at this level. i'm not inclined to buy a stock that's been around a long time, a company that's been around a long time that loses men with a a negative profit margin. -- loses money. let's hope musk maybe makes some changes, then i think at some point it's going to be an interesting company, but not

right now for me. stuart: for 123 years shah -- 12 years shahgy land areny was the guy who said buy that dip. now he's turned cautious. we wait for you to turn around and start telling me to buy all over again. we look forward to those those days. thanks, shah. >> so do i. stuart: now this, big oil should simply produce more oil, democrats say. sounds simple to me. will cain is here. he visited a family-run oil field in texas. all right. tell me, will, why aren't they, the people in texas, why are they not producing more oil? >> reporter: well, they're trying, stuart. having grown up in texas, i grew up around, you know, a landscape full of pump jacks. but last week i got to go to midland odessa, texas, and and really see the heart of america's energy. and that is the permian basin where so much oil and gas comes from that fuels our electricity, our plastics and, of course, the

gasoline that drives our cars. here's what i didn't know growing up, stuart, is all of the infrastructure. i always appreciated the risk, the wildcatting nature, the tolerance and the entrepreneurialism behind digging a hole in the ground. but what i didn't really have my mind around was the infrastructure needed to take that oil from 8,000 feet under your feet to, essentially, your pump. all the pipelines, all the storage tanks and all the potential government regulations and is even rhetoric that can impact, for example, the financing of getting that gasoline, getting that oil to the place where we use it. and so i ask, this is an independent energy company that i spoke with, stuart. as close as we get to modern day wildcatters as there is. id asked what do you need and what is the government doing to hinder you producing oil and gas. here's what they had to say is. >> we're producing over 5 million barrels a day in the

perm if january basin of oil -- permian basin, and it's been led by the independent oil producer. >> reporter: if we're setting records in production, why are gasoline prices so high? >> we have an administration that really is anti-fossil fuels. they put on this facade of, you know, we're not trying to hinder the american oil and gas producers, but yet they clear -- the facts sew they clearly are. -- show they clearly are. if i can drill and get the oil out of the ground and i don't have anywhere to send it because there's not enough capacity on the pipeline to send it to a refinery, what do i do with it? it sits in the tank and gets shut in. stuart: that's a good explanation. >> reporter: yeah. and and there you see, stuart, i got to climb up on a rig, i got to look down into the hole, i got to see all the pipeline that makes it so it moves to market. and you come away with so much respect.

from the guys you can see there whose hands are covered in black to the guys putting green on the line, you know, you just have so much respect for this entire industry that truly is responsible, stuart, for the greatest advancement in human history. i mean, if you want to pinpoint one industry that has brought us forward as a modern civilization, it's that one that you're look at right there. dirty and real. stuart: you've got respect for the drillers, and i don't think the administration has respect for the drillers, period. that's the way it is. >> reporter: yeah. stuart: will, you're all right. great report. you really told us what that's all about. we appreciate that. see you again soon. >> reporter: thanks so much. stuart: you good it -- got it. big oil is going to be testifying on capitol hill for a second day. what's this got to do with -- lauren: according to the chair of the house democratic caucus, hakeem jeffries, everything. listen. >> i think it's important for american corporations as we've seen others do to show some peat

rottism. at minimum -- patriotism. at the minimum, it should involve perhaps there's some relief that consumers and everyday americans experience in in the form of lower gas prices given the incredible record profits that a oil and gas companies are making right now. lauren: patriotism would have been not killing keystone, but he ends there, given the incredible profits. you're going to hear a lot about that. and returning back that profit to consumers as rebate checks today. it'll tax any gain above, let's say, $66 a barrel. that's the wrong answer. those profits should be encouraged to be invested and put back in the ground. that's the solution to higher prices, because you can drill more and, yeah, make a profit from it. you can drill more. it's not a band-aid. by the way, just wanted to bring this to your attention. aaa tells fox business that the

profit on gasoline is only 2-4 cents per gallon for the operator of the gas station, so they're probably making more selling a cup of coffee than a gallon of gas. stuart: i think hakeem jeffries displayed willful economic ignorance. that may sound strong, but if you don't understand what it takes to create oil and get it into your tank, you have no business regulating -- lauren: you can't just turn it on. each well requires, like, a hundred vendors. you can't just line hem up. and then you immediate the financing, as will pointed out -- need the financing. stuart: good enough stuff -- good stuff, lauren. now this. one california city rolling out universal basic income, that is free money, based solely on gender identity. there's no strings attached. caitlin jenner's going to be here. she will take that on later in the show. the white house includes an extra $100 million in military aid to ukraine.

some on the ground say they're still waiting for the last ship. . -- shipment. watch this. >> what we're seeing from our perspective is most of it has not made it to the front lines. i've yet to find anyone who has said to me they're getting humanitarian aid or weapons from the united states government. stuart: we'll get an update on in this after this. ♪ you can't buy love. happiness. or confidence. but you can invest in them. at t. rowe price our strategic investing approach can help you build the future you imagine. this is what real food looks like ♪ ♪ fresh real meat and veggies. the food dogs where built to eat. the farmer's dog is changing the way we feed our pets.

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anti-tank missiles to ukraine. alex hogan is with us. what's the latest on that, alex? >> reporter: stuart, ukrainian officials say that likely there is more to be seen and that this is just the tip of the iceberg for some of the cities that are still urn occupation. and we do have -- under occupation. and we do have new footage of people who were burned, one appears just to be a while. these are images so graphic we won't even show them on air. >> horrible. one was shot -- knock foxx. >> reporter: russian forces retreating from the north preparing to double down on the east. the prime minister says new forces remain in the eastern city of mariupol where humanitarian aid and evacuations were once again blocked yesterday. long lines are also forming in

ukraine's second largestty of kharkiv as people wait on any supplies, medical supplies, food or drinkable water. president volodymyr zelenskyy is accusing russia of using hunger as a weapon of war. more than 6 million people across this country are now displaced after being forcedded to east evacuate their homes or being out of a home entirely, and 4 million people have fled to nearby countries. this as more people are heading here to the western city of lviv hoping they'll find some semblance of safety. and here today we visited a field hospital where doctors are standing by. because z this field hospital is underground, it doubles as a bunker. so even if sirens go off, procedures and operations can still carry on. >> a lot of injuries as today try to flee. we had a patient who broke his leg on his way out running, so he had to run through the woods for three days with a broken leg. >> reporter: there's also new if fear of the potential of the war to shift to a chemical

weapons strategy after an attack that you can see in this image targeted a tank filled with toxic nitrogen dioxide gas. a u.s. government official tells fox that if this was intentional, it might be considered a chemical weapons attack. now that attack that you can see took place on the eastern side of the country in the lieu habiting region which is part of the donbas, the highly contested part of ukraine. meanwhile, on the western side while it has been relatively calm here in comparison, there were attacks last night taking place around 11 p.m. more sirens that we've heard day after day. stuart? stuart: alex hogan, great report. thank you very much. let's bring in an army vet who's in ukraine and has been there for some time. brett, have you been an eyewitness to these war crimes? >> we have, unfortunately. and, stuart, i have countless videos and photos, and i'll

share those with anyone out there who will listen and expose the truth about what's happening here on the ground in ukraine. we have ed of ambulances being shot up, abductions, torture of civilians in multiple cities that have been documented at great risk to all. russian troops have been abducting mayors, they torture journalists and continue to demoralize the populace. this is a massive list of evidence of war crimes. there's looting of property, we're seeing summary executions and rape, and discoveries are increasing daily. putin is a war criminal can, plain and simple. it's what we've been saying for weeks now. this is why i plead with people out there for help, trying to get others to understand the truth about what's going on here. this is just the beginning, by the way, of journalists discovering and documenting these war crimes. now they're going to see more evidence of this this because russians are in retreat, journalists are able to get into the areas safely where these atrocities are up close and personal, and this has been

happening behind the world's eyes as putin tries to cover it up. stuart: are the weapons getting true? you were on our show last week saying, look, it didn't -- you didn't have the weapons that were promised. have they gotten through yet? >> look, some weapons are getting in, be, but again we're talking about these switchblade drones. these switchblade drones, from my understanding, are still stuck in toland, and they'll probably be there for a little bit. and sadly, the at -- the outside support isn't coming from the u.s. government, it's coming from everyday people, private donors and u.s. businesses, many who don't want to be named, send ising my team here, truckloads of medical supplies. there's some aid, yes, trickling in from the u.s. government, but every time i talk to a u.s. government representative, they're telling me about some problem at the polish-ukrainian border, and it just doesn't make sense because i haven'ted had

any issue. many times is court the aid myself. the ukrainians are begging for this stuff. they're coming together in ways you wouldn't even believe to help the war effort, so these people telling me how they're allegedly getting stop at the border in carrying this u.s. government aid, they're either full of it, or they're just completely incompetent. let's talk about the economy for a second, right? look, the world here from what i'm seeing is going to feel some economic loss from the war in ukraine. forget about even these declines in agriculture and wheat production. the ministry of the economy just said ukraine's economy slunk by 16% between january and april this year. they're projecting a 40% decline by the end of 2022. the prime minister even said economic loss -- stuart: i'm out of -- >> one trillion. stuart: i hear you, brett9, and we'll get the word out. thanks for being on the show, great information. all right. quick check of the markets.

we're about, what, 6 or 7 minutes away. we're going to be down at the open, down 200 on the dow, 220 on the nasdaq. the opening bell is next. ♪ ♪ what if you were a gigantic snack food maker?

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♪ stuart: we need some market commentary on a day like this. the yield on the 10-year treasury going up to 2.64%, and stocks look like heir going to open sharply lower. the stock watcher of the day, david left wits returns. all right, interest rates are rising, i think quite sharply. inflation is rampant. there's talk of resession everywhere. why should i put my money, or fresh money, into the stock market right now? >> yeah, stuart, i think there are a couple of reasons. yeah, look, i think there's a lot of pessimism out there, so that's part of the reason why we've seen this rally over the last couple of weeks. people got really concerned. i also think we're going to see some of the inflation numbers begin to get better, right? if you think about what's been driving inflation, i think i would put it into three buckets. it's the pandemic-related effects, production disruptions, lack of labor. all that stuff should be getting better as the pandemic begins to

wind down. the other bucket is oil. oil prices a year ago were $50 or so a barrel, they're much highered to. they're not going to be rising at the same rate, so the rate of change in oil prices is probably going to improve. and then the third bucket is labor, right? and that's what i think thed the fed's most worried about is that we have seen wages rising pretty aggressively, but they're still only rising 5, 6%. businesses can get productivity of a couple percent a year, so maybe the underlying inflation rate is more like 3, 4, and i think that's what we're going to see it come down to. stuart: i'll give you a forty bucket -- fourth bucket, food prices. >> yeah. stuart: i'm a little skeptical that the rate of inflation are come down -- >> yep. stuart: -- in the fall, but you're not, so you're sticking with your prediction of 4700 on the s&p by the end of the year? >> yeah. we're looking for more of a reining-bound market from here, stuart -- range-bound.

i think until this inflation question is more definitively answered in investors' minds, it's going to be a choppy market. that thatting being said, i think we're going to get a pretty good first quarter earnings season. i don't think we're going to see a big change in the outlook for most companies. argument stuart and that's the baseline for the stock market, profits. you're ticking to your guns a -- guns, lad, well done. it's 9:30 precisely. we're expecting quite a eloff at the opening bell -- selloff. the dow right now is down 280 points, and almost a all of the dow 30 stocks are in the red. 25 down, 5 up. the s&p is down almost 1%. you're down 40 points right there. and the nasdaq composite, ah, there's the big loss, down almost 1.5%, 200 points. you're back to almost exactly 14,000. now, because of this sharp rise in interest rates, and i'm talking about the yield on the

10-year treasury, that's what's hurting big tech big withtime. microsoft is down nearly $5 again following a big loss yesterday. apple, alphabet, amazon, meta platforms all on the town side. we need the big picture, and for that, we turn to susan li. susan: good morning. stuart: i keep hearing the word recession. that's got me worried. susan: that's right. and you had deutsche bank yesterday saying a recession's going to happen. recession is two quarters of back to back negative if growth, contraction in the economy, and that's going to happen within the next two years or so. still you have goldman sachs, the other big wall street brand, still predicting, what, 38% probability of a recession this year. so there's risk right now of a policy mistake. and you heard fed governor there bill braynard talk a faster runoff of the fed's $8 billion -- lael brainard. so 260 on the 10-year yield this

morning, and if that's why this is the curving part, wall street is now predicting the fastest jump in interest rates in almost 30 years. you have to go back to 199 4 when you last saw interest rates shoot up 2.5%, and investors are concerned. look at cathie wood, she says europe and china are in trouble, the fed seems to be playing with fire. stuart: sitting right next to you is david left wits who was saying he's not worried about recession. right, david? >> no recession year but, look, i do hi -- can yeah, inflation is the key question and how high fed goes. susan: i think david had a point when you talk about corporates and earnings season because wall street continues to reward these companies that continue to make a ton of money and be able to raise prices in a high inflationary environment, so watch out for the apples. big tech, of course, always a been fishery. stuart: it's two weeks from now that we start the earningsings

season. let's move on to twitter and musk, of course. susan: of course. stuart: twitter confirms they are testing out a new ed edit button. do we know what else musk wants to change? susan: well, look, in that filing, this is no surprise, active, not a passive investor in twitter. he's been buying since january. so the twitter management has had a heads up on this 9% stake purchase was it's been accumulated over three months, and he's promising significant improvements. yesterday he started with that edit button poll, and he tweeted out asking do you want one. of course, three-quarters, 74%, said yes. and twitter confirming -- again, by the way, because they confirmed it four days ago, but when elon missing steps in, it becomes a much bigger story. so twitter's been working on an edit button for a year. i don't know why it takes a year, but they said they want to get it right. when it comes to free speech -- stuart: what's it do? susan: if you send out a tweet

and you change your mind and you want to change the actual tweet itself, you can go back in and actually change the text -- stuart: before the other person gets it? susan: no, it's already out there, but you can go back in and change it. right now you can't except if you have a twitter blue account which you have to pay a month ifly fee for. the stock itself has had its best three-day run since its 2013 ipo. it's up 30%. so elon musk, i feel like, lines his own pockets as well. you know, he's been building the stakes since january. he could have made an announcement before then, but i feel like this many some ways once he has that, he spent $2.5 billion, then he makes a billion off of that in four sessions, isn't that incredible? stuart: pretty soon you're talking real money. susan: i still think it's not charity the, obviously, because he does make money off of his holdings and cash, but i think it's also because so influential on the platform, when you have

80 million and you strive the conversation, why should you get a cut of action? stuart: one of these days, there'll be a day we don't have elon miss income a headline. susan: that's going to be a long time. stuart: let's switch to jetblue. spirit was supposed to merge with front if tier, both stocks down -- frontier. susan: yeah. that deal was announced in february. what jetblue's trying to do, they're trying to steal spirit. it's pretty if lucrative. $33 a share, 40% more than what frontier is offering, and jetblue wants to grow its fleet. you know you have to get bigger in order to attract travelers. and if you're competing with american, united, delta which we know there's been a lot of consolidation in the airlines space, i don't think jetblue wants to get smaller. stuart: one last one. rivian, on track to, what, are they going to produce 25,000 vehicles this year? are they on track for that? susan: apparently so.

you have to remember this stock was decimated because they said in their last earnings they weren't going to be able to make that 25,000-vehicle number, and they were only going to make 50% of that because of supply chain issues. so the fact that they said, yep, we're going to come through with that 25,000 production level, i think that's pretty bullish. also, by the way, they came out with production if numbers first quarter with, 2500 vehicles. and don't forget, this is a company that was valued at $100 billion on 920 cars being delivered last year. also noting, by the way, we have cyber rodeo taking place at the austin gigafactory tomorrow. i won't be there to see it, i'm disappointed, but that also means austin's coming online for tesla. so, yes, we will be talking about elon musk for a long, long time. stuart: i want you to talk to me about, what is it, this is tilray. largest cannabis company in the

world. what are they doing with whole foods? if that's a potential -- susan: i think it is. there's a lot of natural stuff involved. [laughter] so they announced a deal with whole foods to sell hemp powders that they make. and this is from their harvest sub subsidiary in manitoba. tillray had a fantastic quarter. they came out with a profit, they made money instead of losing money. revenues were a bit light, and you talked about it, you know, we're looking at a possible federal-level approval of marijuana. that that passed the house. the fact that this conversation is happening and all there's all this consolidation, it's positive. stuart: i just don't understand why you can't make a profit in the cannabis business. lines around the block. susan: that's true. production, taxes. think of that. [laughter] stuart: great stuff, susan, thank you. coming up, former president obama's return to the white house brought with it a lot of laughs. roll tape.

>> vice president biden, vice president -- [laughter] that was a joke. that was all set up. stuart: not much substance at that meeting. no mention of inflation or ukraine. but then again, why should they? some apple employees say they'd rather quit than return to the office. i've heard that before, by the way. even on a hybrid schedule they'll quit if they have to go back to the office. and then there's this, there's no free lunch. what about free college? if the president once again freezing student loan repayments leaving many on the right furious. what about those who have already paid? they're not happy east. we'll be -- either. we'll be back. ♪

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stuart: oil executives will be of testifying again in front of the house, house of

representatives this morning. hillary vaughn's there. all right, hillary, is this just going to be another blame game by the democrats, more demagoguery? >> reporter: stuart, that's exactly the case that house democrats have been making this week as they gear up for this big hearing today with oil and gas executives from some of the top companies. they're saying that they are the villain in all of this. it's big oil that is raising prices at the pump, hurting americans so they can take advantage of the profits for themselves. house democrats will get a chance to face off with top executives from shell, exxon, bp, chevron and others today as they ask them about price gouging. but today big oil is not tiptoeing around the issue. in their opening statements, all five executives denied price gouging. the ceo of chevron will tell house lawmakers, quote: i want to be absolutely clear, we do not control the market price of crude oil or natural gas, nor of

refined products like gasoline and diesel fuel, and we have no tolerance for price gouging. several of them will also make the point that that they don't own or operate most of the gas stations in the country. a lot of them are mom and and pop operations. the president of shell saying this: shell does not set or control the price consumers pay. indeed, it would be illegal for shell to do so because nearly all shell-branded retail stations in the u.s. are owned by independent operators who set their own prices in the marketplace. now, aa a a estimates that gas stations are only making about 2-4 cents of profit off of every gallon they sell. their spokesperson telling fox business that these gas stations, stuart, are probably making more money off of a cup of coffee that they sell at the convenience store at the gas station than they do off of a gallon of gas. stuart. stuart: fascinating. thanks, hillary. andy puzder is with us now. all right, ann ity, will president biden's policies bring inflation down?

what do you say? >> no, they will just exacerbate inflation. he can't bring it down. he can't politically bring it down. he could bring it down if we inspired businesses to increase supply so that supply would meet demand by maybe cutting regulations, cutting taxes, focusing on domestic energy production. that would help. or if he stopped this, the government largess, the government handing all all -- out all these daughters -- dollars. but now he he wants to even forgive student debt which larry summers said would put $100 billion into the economy which the9 exactly the wrong policy. we're in for inflation for quite a while. stuart: inflation at, what, roughly 7% at the consumer level now. could it get to 10%, do you think? >> it's already at 10% at the wholesale level. 9.7% last year with. yeah, the producer price index, and in january and february -- that was a record, 9.7. this 10% was january and february producer price index.

so wholesale prices already up 10, that's a pretty good indicator of where retail prices are going to go. stuart: so do you see stagflation in the future? inflation and a slowing of the economy at the same time? >> yeah, we're going to have a slowing of the i economy. look, the fed's got to increase interest rates, probably above the rate of inflation to have a real impact. so if inflation itself doesn't stall the economy out, then the fed's going to have to step in, and i think we're -- we're many for a tough time if we don't start you are pursuing some policies that address the supply side problems we're facing. you know, the problem with inflation isn't just that there's great demand. if supply is meeting demand, then you don't have inflation. supply is not meeting demand, so we can either increase supply which isn't painful of decrease demand which is painful, and the biden policies are putting us in a position where our only alternative is to decrease demand. stuart: oh, dear.

that's not a very bright outlook, but there you go. can i just -- >> it's honest. stuart: you're in the restaurant business with. that was your career. the restaurant that i go into are packed. can i assume that the restaurant industry has recovered? >> well, there are fewer restaurants than there were before the pandemic, so the ones that have survived should be doing better. i was in new york just a few days ago, and all my favorite restaurants were packed when i went many them -- in them, and people were enthusiastic. they're still having problems with labor and food costs. but, look, people coming this many through the door, that -- through the door, that solves a lot of problem. we need to accelerate it, but it's started. stuart: got it. andy puzder, always good. see you again soon. >> thanks, stu. stuart: the administration is again extending the pause in student loan repayment, extending it until when? lauren: the end of august. so it's well over two years now

that some student borrowers have not paid any of their debt. senator cotton tweeted this: president biden's perpetual moratorium is an insult to every american who responsibly bays -- pays debt. this reckless move puts taxpayers on the hook for billions. stuart: i think they'll do it again. august 31stings right before the midterms, they're going to make people pay right before the mid 'ems? not going to happen. they'll external it beyond. lauren: i agree. but then democrats wrote a letter and urged the white house to freeze the payments because of all the other problems that have made inflation skyrocket. so that acknowledges the squeeze with americans are in right now. stuart: yes. lauren: so you have to extend this moratorium because they can't afford food, they can't afford to fill up their gas tanks. stuart: yeah. and that's put -- larry summers pointed out, that's not the right things to do. suspending these repayments has put $200 billion into the

economy. that's inflation their if added to all the other spending as well. lauren: these are younger americans, final point, and there are a lot of jobs they could get right now, so the message should be go get one of these jobs. work hard, pay your debt. that's the american way. stuart: that's not the message. lauren: no. unfortunately not. stuart: coming up, supreme court justice amy coney barrett offers a lesson in shutting down hecklers. watch this. >> [inaudible] >> as a mother of seven, i am used to distractions. [laughter] and sometimes even outbursts. stuart: that was good. nice response. kennedy will be here to react as well. businesses flock into the sun belt not just for the good weather. grady trimble joins us from arizona in a moment with the full story. ♪ ♪ -- sunny day. ♪ good day, sunshine. ♪ good day, sunshine. ♪ good day, sunshine ♪♪

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the population growing right there? >> reporter: about 90,000 people are coming to arizona every single year, and you mentioned before the break, stu, the weather certainly helps. but there are plentiful jobs in this area too. we're at a company called footprint. they make these biodegradable containers to replace single-use plastics. relatively new company. started in 2018, so why'd you choose this area to start and grow the business? >> yeah. well, so as a manufacturer of new technologies, both material science and process technologies, we needed a strong foundation that had employees that were trained in material sciences, engineering as well as all the way down the chain into our manufacturing. we found arizona had a great pull because of the educational facilities and and institutions and just a great employee base to begin with. >> reporter: and then on top of that there are excellent tax incentives. you worked with the greater phoenix economic council, they helped you kind of start up a

huge factory like this. >> absolutely. so those early costs of start-up, you know, getting the job training credits and the property tax negotiated into those deals and those, expense plans was really critical. and if we found that both arizona and the specific city that we're in had one of the best packages we found. >> reporter: and if you look at the businesses east relocating to here or who are growing here, it's a wide array of businesses from tech companies to manufacturing. the semiconductor industry is huge here. and go all over this area, all you see is houses being built. >> yeah. and, you know, you may not know it, but to build requires a lot of the same process innovation that you'd use in semiconductors. so we leverage a lot of that talent around the valley as well to help us. >> reporter: so what you see here in the phoenix area, stuart, you're seeing all across the sun belt. you mentioned the weather's good, the tax incentives are there, and it is certainly a business-friendly part of the

country. stuart: grady, was the gentleman you were interviewing, was he wearing a beard mask? was that it? >> reporter: yes, he was wearing a beard net, and i'm wearing a hair innocent which is why i have the ball -- hair net which is why i have the ball cap on. stuart: grady, you're all right. see you again soon. all right, still ahead. jam packed. indiana senator mike braun, caitlin jenner, martha maccallum and brian kill need -- brian kilmeade. the 10:00 hour is next. ♪ ♪ you can't buy love. happiness. or confidence. but you can invest in them. at t. rowe price

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stuart: what? rain on me? is that the song? lauren: lady gaga. stuart: that is 6th ave. new york, raining cats and dogs. it is raining big time. >> you just defended the cats. they will raid the spiders. of the it is 10:00 eastern time. straight to the money. you are not going to like this.

a huge selloff on nasdaq. another big one. it is down 2.4%, 320 points. thou industrial down 253. a lesser percentage loss. this is why the nasdaq is selling off so much. the 10 year treasury yield has gone all the way up to 2. 60 one%. a rapid increase in rates. big tech selling off across the board. how about oil, there's talk of new sanctions from the europeans, possibly involving something to do with oil and gas. oil down today, $101 a barrel. now this. china threatens taiwan, russia invade ukraine. you would think at a time like this we would be ramping up the military. we are not. we are running it down. biden's military spending goes up 2% but that is less than the rate of inflation. it is a defense spending cut.

the navy will build tween 9 new ships but retired 24. the navy will actually shrink. biden shows again he is late to the game, failing to act when the challenge is obvious. caved to the left. bernie sanders, aoc, the 100 strong progressive caucus, the squad, all dead set against the military. bernie, the socialist, who chairs the senate budget committee, he wants less military spending. they made sure we can't drill, they got biden to reverse policies from taxes to the wall. one crisis after another. the price we are paying, as of

today, wednesday, april 6th, on tuesday, november 8th. the second hour of varney just getting started. we've got a selloff on wall street but i want to get to this. president obama, former president obama visited the white house for the first time since leaving office and instead of talking issues, ukraine, inflation, they were cracking jokes. >> vice president biden, vice president -- [applause] >> that was a joke. secret service agents have to wear aviator glasses now. the navy metz has been replaced by a baskin-robbins. >> my name is joe biden, i am barack obama's vice president. i am jill biden's husband.

we won what was all that about? todd biro joins us this morning. why was former president obama at the white house? >> lipstick on a pig. i'm not talking anybody is a pig about the situation our country is in and obama was there because there's no better communicator in our political system still van barack obama. i would hazard an opinion but he is better than donald trump because he is able to appeal to more people through his rhetoric. what he says half the time is covering up for a far leftist agenda and that is what he was doing yesterday. stuart: it is not doing president biden any good. he looks kind of like in the shade so to speak. coming on real strong. president biden is not doing much. >> it backfired. i was looking at dana perino

saying barack obama never takes a bad picture and that is accurate. when you have him out there projecting presidency, projecting an image of presidency and president biden wandering around aimlessly quite frankly i think you create a problem for this white house which is trying to say we have a good story to tell for the midterms. that wasn't a good story about president biden and i think when you look at the details that obama was able to cover up a lot in his presidency the details aren't going to be covered up by president biden. stuart: 215 days to the november elections. you think president biden will make any significant policy changes to get back in voters good looks? >> he knows it is bad. they are not doing much to change other than petroleum reserve, we know that is a bunch of bs the won't lower gas prices. if they haven't done anything by now what leads you to do they will do anything to q they will get shellacked. stuart: like i said at the top

of the our the left won't let him drill for our own oil or close the border a build up military spending. he's held in check by his own left-wing. >> thick of the numbers, the left doesn't have the numbers on their side. that's not what americans want but to your point they are able to convince you to do the stupid and that is what he does. stuart: what were you doing on a montana ranch? >> when you look at the guy from verona, new jersey and sent into a ranch in montana the only reason he was center was to use his expense report to get free stakes. i went there to do a story about inflation because we are going to buy beef, with the summer barbecue season and you are thinking why is this so expensive? these guys at these ranches must be making a killing, not so. they are getting squeezed so we went to montana. find out how. >> you cannot get a more american seen them this.

how worried are you this scene will go away? >> no question this scene will go away if you don't the past several years with american ranchers not receiving cost a prediction for the market itself. they will not survive. >> we are paying record prices for our beef. they are squeezed with higher prices for everything and not getting paid by the media conglomerates to cover their end of it. you will see more of these businesses going out of business. stuart: those are our viewers. thank you very much. let me get back to the meeting yesterday, with president obama. president biden literally wandering around during the visit. how did this happen? he looks apart from everything. lauren: the crowd is showing

adoration for president obama, he looked aimless, just wandering but he had to know that was going to happen because of the popularity of barack obama. if you watch the late-night shows colbert had fun with this. they locked the doors to keep obama in and there might be some truth to that and you were discussing this. what did we hear other than a little bit of a roast, praising the affordable care act. did we hear a new strategy for democrats in the midterms? stuart: i don't think that visit does any good for president biden, when he is wandering around not addressing any issues. >> he was hoping the popularity would wear off on him and it showed the contrast instead. stuart: thank you very much. look who is here. none other than eddie gabor.

young man, you are the one who has been right about this market for the past three or four months and you told us there's a big drop in the second quarter. the second quarter has begun. is this what you are forecasting. >> this is the start of it. this is a problematic quarter and based on what the fed said yesterday, if they plan to raise rates. this could get ugly in a hurry. get calls from around the country every week with investors, i'm shocked at the amount of folks who feel the same way we do about the direction of the economy but haven't done anything to their portfolios. this bear market bounce is a golden opportunity to start playing defense. the macro set up for stocks is one of the worst we've seen since 2008. that's what this time period remind me of.

we have bubbles after bubbles forming in the fed is coming in with both barrels blazing trying to slow things down at an accelerated rate. with interest rates doing what they are doing one sector we were hanging are had on his real estate, 30 are mortgage over 5% is very problematic economically. we expect things to get worse before they get better. stuart: you want to make a forecast how far down we are going, the dow is at 13,800. where is it going? >> i believe we will see a minimum of a 20% drop in the s&p 500. possibly 30 because i believe now the fed based on what they are saying they are willing to put us into a recession and willing to let the markets drop, rather than paying inflation. that is a dangerous place to be, but that's the position they put us in by delaying this

crisis. i believe 20% is what we told our clients is the minimum this drawdown is going to be. it's not all bad. the utilities we have, staples we have and healthcare. all three sectors were in the green and before i sat down they are in the green again on a bad day so playing defense doesn't mean you can't make money. you have to be in the right sectors during this massive slow down. stuart: you have been right for the past three or four months. we hope you are wrong about your forecast for the immediate future but come back again soon. we've got some movers like apple for example down 2%. lauren: this is good news we would think would turn the stock. piper sandler said i found adoption among teenagers is near an all-time high at a quarter high at 1/4 of them plan to upgrade soon. that's the demographic and they would move the stock.

stuart: it killed the iphone story. uber, they are down 6%. >> they plan to add on business travel bookings in the uk. it is a seamless journey. and economic slowdowns. bluebirds wrapped up in a bigger story. accidental petroleum is up 2.5%. >> people going to 84. up 45%. stuart: what a turnaround that would be. oil will go to 120-130. lauren: don't tell them when they are in dc today. oil executives drilled on capitol hill. they could be more profitable.

stuart: newly released emails show president biden wrote a college recommendation letter for the sun of hunter biden's chinese business partner. we will take that on. poland's government publishes a guidebook to prepare people for a potential russian invasion. we've got a report out of warsaw on that. the state department launches an invention debate investigation of ukrainian camp is reportedly bombed by russian forces. is that chemical warfare? former state department official christian whitein answers the question next. that was quick. and rewarding. i earn 3% cash back at drugstores with chase freedom unlimited. that means i earn on my bug spray and my sunscreen. you ready to go fishing? i got the bait. i also earn 5% on travel purchased through chase on this rental car. that lake is calling my name! don't you get seasick? we'll find out! come on. and i earn 3% on dining including takeout.

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stuart: the headline is a selloff on the nasdaq. interest rates up sharply. that hurts the tech stocks. they are listed on nasdaq and down goes the nasdaq 2. 3%. that is a selloff and 1/2. fox news learned the state department is investigating a report of a potential chemical weapons attack by russia in ukraine. what do we know about this? go through this. >> details are sparse but there are couple different allegations, one being that a plant that makes a form of acid is destroyed, both sides blaming each other for who did the destruction. was it retreating ukrainian forces or actual russian forces that did that. they destroyed its large soviet era stockpiles but using chemical weapons in small

circumstances in the past including polonium or radioactive systems to kill a dissident, from a spy service, these things are quite alarming when they crop up. be one you don't know if it is propaganda from one side or the other. in the fog of war it is difficult to know facts are facts we try to dig through the mess. how can president biden encourage peace stocks after zelenskyy's un >> these continuing atrocities being discovered in bucha. how can you push peace with that as the backdrop? >> impossible to do. very difficult. this is a problem. of calling putin a killer and war criminal saying he should be put on trial nuremberg style because ultimately either you win this war lose this war or reach into go sheeted settlement and for the settlement you will need putin, he doesn't have to be sitting on the other side of the table or sent is longtime foreign

minister sergei lavrov but it is uncommon to have actions like eisenhower sitting across the table from herman goering and negotiating us meal to world war ii. we had a plan for unconditional victory but we don't have one. this talk while it may be justified seeing these civilian casualties killed by russians, the rhetoric is counterproductive if you want a negotiated settlement. stuart: from your experience, you know a lot about this, how do you see the ukraine situation playing out? >> i think russia will regroup somewhat, it's move on kyiv from the north, from belarus was a sense to shock ukraine into surrender, they have withdrawn the army and will swing around to the east and breakout more from donbas.

they already control all of the see of azov, it could pros -- turn into a frozen conflict where russia controls 1/5 or quarter of ukrainian territory which is the part it wants. it is hard to tell. seems like the war will go on longer than a lot of people expected and it is easier for russia to hold territory than gain territory. stuart: general milley says the war lasts for years, a long, grinding slog. that's an unfortunate forecast. last word to you. >> it is possible. a lot of these wars, the spanish civil war, the precursor to world war ii, people thought it would be over fast. world war i was supposed to be over by christmas 1914 and dragged on for years and years, hundreds of thousands dead. this is against the backdrop of europe increasing its energy costs, talk of a ban of coal,

russian imported coal, half of what the you buddy deb imports comes from russia. europe paying a lot more for energy while people like india and brazil and china get good deals. stuart: thanks, i know we will see you again soon. the us just announced the success of a hypersonic missile launch. this happened reportedly last month. why are we only acknowledging it now? >> to not provoke president putin of russia to escalate the war and because president biden was traveling to europe but the administration kept our hypersonic missile launch secret for two weeks, to not carry a warhead traveling 5 times the speed of sound. they could evade antimissile systems. the point is china and russia are developing these weapons, testing these weapons and we need to keep up and are working with the uk and australia.

stuart: for the first time ever poland's government published a guidebook to prepare its people for potential invasion. aishah hasnie has the story. tell me more. >> reporter: good morning. i have a guidebook right here titled be ready, a guidebook to war. this is a first for poland, they never put out something like this. you have 34 pages of dos and don'ts on how to act if there happens to be a war and we've seen lists of what to pack if polls have to flee. where to hide if there is a nuclear attack, even how to behave if you are taken hostage. you should follow your captors instructions, don't argue and maintain eye contact.

the crisis manual in the works prior to a range of things but when russia invaded ukraine the polish government pivoted to this survival guide. >> to move to another place. this must be done, with appropriate preparation, appropriate instruments and tools for survival. they are tied to our place of residence, it will be a place where it is dangerous and our safety is the most important thing. >> poland purchased 250 abrams tanks from the us to deter russian aggression. polish russian officials tell me this is not meant to create panic, they want people in poland to read this book and be

prepared for anything that might happen. they don't want to create panic but it tells you how serious the polls are taking office. stuart: it certainly does. thank you very much. it is being called the country's woke income stream. palm strings will pay you $900 a month for two years if you identify as transgender or non-binary. free money. what happens in seattle is not staying in seattle, the city's crime surge is pretty rapidly across washington state. will change washington state's politics? i ask jason rands next? ♪♪

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simplified access to crypto and decentralized technologies through a single investment. defi technologies. stuart: this is what happens when the nasdaq is selling off big time. big tech sells off big time. apple is down 2%, better than 2% loss, apple same story. amazon is down $114 a share. microsoft just at the $300 level and meta down $8 so put it all together and you've got

a selloff in big tech and the nasdaq. show me pfizer please. understudy out of his real shows of fourth pfizer jab protect against omicron but that protection wanes after four weeks and almost disappears after twee 8 weeks. pfizer at 52 a share. mortgage demand is down because of surging interest rates. where are we now? >> 5.375% and it is one reason mortgage volume down 41% compared to last year. i spoke to the senior vice president at cross-country mortgage, the third finance market is gone and harder to do business today than it was yesterday because rates are changing. recession came within two years. recession ends when the fed starts increasing interest rates because it has to. there is no falls landing here.

stuart: they started to raise rates before the stock. seattle's crime surge spreads state wide thanks to democrats progressive policies. jason rands join me now. crime in seattle. does that change washington state politics. >> it should. it hasn't yet. we are heading into the midterm's where there is a belief republicans will take back the house or the senate. the last couple years republicans have no power. democrats completely reimagine policing, to the point we are seeing a skyrocketing surge. and and 2 other half months, we

are not going in the right direction, into took, south of seattle, their homicide rate is just as bad with robberies at 219 through the middle of last month, it is at 83. bellingham, 300% increase in car theft, spoke a is seeing similar problems and two cops were murdered on the job by criminal suspects. we are clearly heading in the wrong direction and i hope what ends up happening is voters understand their vote in the past, there are severe consequences. stuart: let's see. i have another one for you. palm springs, residents eligible to receive universal basic income up to $900 a month but there is a catch. it's not for all residents. it is only for those who identify as transgender or non-binary. what do you make of that?

>> a plan that much like the people is supposed to help identifies as a smart move but it is not really a smart move. we see this data for guarantee basic income which is pushed by a group called neighbors for guaranteed income. we've seen this push nationwide. he spent too much money on social services. it would be better if we give the money directly to the people we are supposed to help and they claim the data backs up but the data doesn't back it up. the biggest case is stocks in california couldn't track 40% of the money because it was given out as cash or converted to cash from a debit card. they couldn't trace it. the people who are analyzing all the data are the ones who want actual policy. to give objective overviews. this is dubious to say the least.

you are clearly discriminating against people who are not transgender, don't know how to prove you are non-binary meaning you don't have a gender, i would be curious how they do the application in that case but we have seen some of these schemes, in to, they wanted to do it on the basis of race but that was not done through government funding. stuart: all right, we hear you, thanks very much, see you soon. there is one state following florida's lead. about social orientation or gender identity. >> republican state lawmakers are proposing a bill vote would prohibit teaching sexual and gender identity to 5 to 9-year-olds. the bill goes further, it is not age-appropriate but is very vague and vague on purpose. those are the lawmakers who introduced the bill.

they are talking about all of these new concepts, there's this course correction that goes overboard according to a lot of people, after the george floyd protest a lot of groups, and the power parents, we need to course correct the overcorrection. stuart: related story, the administration has announced a sixth extension to the student loan repayment pause. some democrats want biden to go even further than this pause. >> they are calling for cancellation from the likes of

bernie sanders and alexandria ocasio cortez, $1.6 trillion in federal student loans, they want that wiped off the table, a huge cost to the government. elizabeth warren, $50,000 per borrower costing the government $1 trillion if that were to move forward but we have this pause on repayments. we are rescheduled to start in may but this extension will delay repayment until the end of august. president biden issued a statement this morning that reads, quote, if loan payments were to resume on schedule, millions of student loan borrowers would face significant economic hardship and dealing with these and defaults could threaten america's financial stability. that begs the question why. there are record number of jobs open in this country any, wages are on the rise, there are more than enough jobs for every person who needs one. this is drawing criticism from

conservatives concerned about the ballooning deficit and rampant inflation. senator tom cotton called the move an insult to americans who pay their debt saying, quote, there is no free lunch, this reckless move puts taxpayers on the hook for billions. a committee responsible for a federal budget offices people who benefit from this have college degrees, a new doctor with the average debt load of $48,000. a new lawyer owing $20,000. that group also estimates the pause for two years has cost the government $100 billion this additional four months tacking on another 15 to $20 billion because we are not collecting on interest rates. stuart: it is called buying votes in my personal opinion. anybody want to disagree with me go ahead. florida's parental rights law has been met with fierce opposition. should we really be teaching young children about gender

identity? i wonder what caitlin jenner thinks about this. she's here next hour. elon musk's influence making waves at twitter. can the billionaire bring free-speech back to that platform and what about lifting donald trump's suspension from twitter. we have the full story after this. ♪♪ ♪♪

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you'll enjoy many extras, including wi-fi, cultural enrichment from ship to shore and engaging excursions. viking - voted number one river cruise line by condé nast readers. learn more at viking.com. stuart: still in selloff mode. markets are down across the board. microsoft, home depot, goldman sachs and nike all dow stocks and bleeding the dow selloff.

taken together those stocks account for 107 points down for the dow industrials. the nasdaq down 330 plus. big tech taking on the chin big time. elon musk is now twitter's largest shareholder. he has a seat on the board. ashley webster, come on in. haven't seen you yet this morning. musk reached out to the babylon be before buying into twitter. what is that about? ashley: interesting. the babylon be is a conservative christian news satire website that recently had its twitter account suspended for engaging in, quote, hateful conduct, a government official rachel levine, the title of man of the year. babylon ceo seth dillon said elon musk reached out to confirm babylon had been suspended. there is mr. dylan's tweet with musk saying he may have to buy twitter

after hearing of that. listen to what he has to say. >> i was not expecting this movement, this type of possible solution to the problem of free speech, we might wait for congress or the courts to get involved, twitter said it is the employees themselves who control the terms of service, not the board. and get a little bit more aggressive and what he's trying to do. ashley: we will see what happens but dylan says the greatest accomplishment on twitter is not going viral or building a huge following or getting verified. he says it is getting band for saying something true, tongue in cheek. stuart: twitter stock has surged since musk revealed his steak and twitter. he is a board member, the extent of his influence remains up in the air.

kelly o'grady has the story. elon took a poll asking of twitter users, you want an edit button, 70% said yes. do you think twitter will add an edit button to the program? >> i personally love it since i could use the feature. they will be testing it soon as part of the twitter blue subscription service. he pulled his users this week, it was not where the idea came from. with the board seat is level of influence remains up in the air. users think it is about. some users committed to leaving the platform altogether while conservative sentiment can be summed up in a tweet since the news broke many are hailing musk as the answer to big tech censorship, to reinstate band public figures but that could be tough. the board's reaction has been optically welcoming. one of 11, former ceo jack dorsey leads next month.

digitally the board has the power to approve mergers. in a statement to fox business at twitter spokesman affirmed, quote, our policy decisions are not determined by the board, our board plays an important advisory and feedback roll. our day-to-day operations are made by twitter management and employees. not only will musk not receive a free pass for his tweets but can't snap his finger said reinstate donald trump. wall street thinks he can impact change with his high-profile status and 80 million followers, stock is up 30% since the by and again the board seat. musk is known as a dramatic actor but remains to be seen how quickly he could make change happen. he is known's known as a defender of free speech but i am curious to hear his perspective on moderating russian propaganda. where will he draw the line? stuart: you have to draw the line somewhere if you take over that thing. now this.

he is back. tiger woods making his highly anticipated return to golf just in time for the masters. he will play apparently. the odds against him winning, 75-1. the mayor of new york city trying to lure floridians back to the big apple but a new poll shows most new yorkers feel their family would have a better future if they left the city for good. brian kilmeade on that next. aren't we all just looking for the hottest stocks? (fisher investments) nope. we use diversified strategies to position our client's portfolios for their long-term goals. (other money manager) but you still sell investments that generate high commissions for you, right? (fisher investments) no, we don't sell commission products. we're a fiduciary, obligated to act in our client's best interest. (other money manager) so when do you make more money, only when your clients make more money? (fisher investments) yep. we do better when our clients do better. at fisher investments, we're clearly different. 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

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stuart: this is what is really moving the nasdaq stock market. this is moving big tech stocks down. the yield on the 10 year treasury up to 2. 60 one% as we one% as we speak. it had been higher earlier this morning, bitcoin taking on the chin down 4%, $44,300 a coin. this is 10:51 and kilmeade miraculously appears on your screen. welcome back to the show. i want to talk about mayor eric adams. toddlers are being kept in masks. the mayor is asking people to leave florida and come back to new york. i think this mayor is off to a strange start. >> i love his intensity and he is saying no cash bail is a problem and crime is going through the roof and trying to

address it but it is absolutely erratic the things he's doing. a press conference, come back to new york because we allow kindergartners to talk about gender identity and they don't in florida, come back to new york where taxes are high and crime is increasing, come back to new york where taxes will take a bigger bigger bite out of your wallet so i understand he's addressing the problem, so many high earners of left and other people have gone. she wants them back but this is no plan. that's a sign that governor desantis mocked. as for the toddlers are you kidding? i had a mom in tears telling me they have to tell their 3 and 4-year-old to wear a mask again when no one else is wearing masks, nobody else. 0.05% of positive cases are toddlers under 5 and something

like 10% of the population of new york and they still are leaving them in masks. it is cruelty. stuart: very sad to see this poll that shows a large number of new yorkers feel the majority of new yorkers, 59%, that is huge, feel their family would have a better future if they left the city permanently, leave it for good. that's an awful poll. >> he has to reverse that because the city has been really bad. and has been really really good. as tours come back and people come back they are dealing with a situation where the homeless overrun the city like los angeles or chicago or charlotte and various cities. they are in the city and not so much the encampment which he is trying to clean up a radically but you have a violent homeless population and drug addled. you can't get them into shelters anymore.

59% of the people said their life would be significant better if they left the state, left the city. stuart: left the city permanently, not just an escape, permanently. let me ask about the masters. tiger woods thinks he can win 1/6 green jacket. he thinks he can win. odds against tomorrow 75 to 1. what is your view of tiger at the masters? >> this is what i say. we talked to jeff benedict, his biographer, studied him for 5 years, just had him on three minutes ago. tiger when asked in the tournament can he when it says yes, the same exact way. it's not boastful or arrogant, it is factor. i will say this. the fact that fred couples played with him it is a legendary golfer and the ball -- he has seen no sign of problems, if he gets through the cut it is one of great sports stories of the year.

little-known being in contention, this is the exact adrenaline, shot of adrenaline golf needs lose they thought the young generation would be uplifted, the young generation warships tiger, the older generation wants him back. it's a good time. we both follow the sport and tiger was thought of as almost villain eyes so no one could catch him and people are rooting for him. including jack nicholas who has 18 majors and tiger has 15 but see if he can get another one. unbelievable if he goes one tournament after two years and winzip that would be almost impossible. stuart: that would be a sensation at half, i will be watching to see if it happens. we will see you again soon. stuart: blazer? the green jacket maybe he is talking about. caitlin jenner, mike braun, martha maccallum. we should have been able to pass judgment when the hunter

biden scandal broke in the new york post before the 2020 election but the rest of the media wouldn't reported and twitter band the story, they did so biden was shield from bad news and now it is breaking wide open. that is a breaking story and we've got it for you. "my take" next. ♪♪ this is remington. he's a member of the family, for sure. we always fed him kibble it just seemed like the thing to do. but he was getting picky, and we started noticing some allergy symptoms. we heard about the farmer's dog and it was a complete transformation. his allergies were going away and he just had amazing energy. it's a no-brainer that remi should have the best nutritious and delicious food possible.

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>> who is a war criminal, this is just the beginning of journalists discovering a document in the war crimes happening all across if putin tries to cover it up. >> they have to increase them above the rate of inflation to have a real impact. they address the supply-side problem. and this is not a time, >> this is a problem. this is a golden opportunity.

stuart: mk tio. it was that. is that a group or single person. >> silence on the tip. stuart: don't know anything about it. those markets are in selloff mode. nasdaq in particular is down 2.5% below the 14,000 level. the yield on the 10 year treasury is why there is a big selloff. the yield is up to 2.62%, the highest level in three years. searching bond yields not good for big tech, stocks on the screen, microsoft, apple, alphabet, amazon, meta platforms down 2% or 3%.

now this. when our wartime president is surrounded by crises it may seem inappropriate or even unpatriotic to bring up the scandal surrounding his son hunter but the scandal has come back in the middle of the ukraine war and china's threat against taiwan. in 2017 president biden wrote a college recommendation letter, the son of the chinese executive who did business with hunter. doesn't sound like much but president biden has repeatedly denied discussing business deals with his son. a piece help the chinese executive he is discussing and involved in a chinese business deal. why was hunter with his dad and ukraine in china doing business deals and why did the vice president allow in their in the first place and most importantly what does china have on the man who is now the president of the united states. the story broke in the new york

post before the 2,020 election, the rest of the media wouldn't report it and twitter band the story. they did it so biden was shielded from bad news. they hated trump, helped biden win and now the story is breaking wide open. third hour of varney starts right now. martha mccallum joins me now. president biden repeatedly said he's not held any business discussions with his son. that appears not to be true. where is it going from here? >> peter doocy asked that. he never discusses any of those things with his son but that is coming to light. it is unpatriotic to bring up the business dealings, the last

excuse was it wasn't good timing because it was right before an election. at some point the president needs to address what he knows and what he doesn't know about these transactions and is he indeed the big guy? i go back to tony bobalinsky, who said based on his experience he said he was referred to that way by his son. you have one source on that and he gave all those over to the fbi for partisan investigation. then you've got what is happening in delaware which is a grand jury. they are questioning witnesses saying what does this mean? there are a number of ways this will be pushed forward and the fact that there could be an indictment, that's what the grand jury process is, a lot of

news outlets are saying scrambling in front of this and write about the story because we might have egg on her face. stuart: i don't want to delve into this story big time, don't want to plaster this story all over this 3 hour show because at this point we have a wartime president and we are digging up a scandal from way back when. >> which involves the country -- issues -- stuart: what annoys me is the media sat on it. they knew this was a story, they would not put it out there because they didn't want trump to win the election. they messed around with the election. >> it is incredible and we've seen time and again where they held the rest of the american complex don't look at this. why would any curious journalists say there's nothing to see here before you dug in and figured it out, the news is not the salacious stuff. the salacious stuff all over

the laptop, he had addiction, that's clear. a lot of families deal with those things, someone in that situation who is also dealing with chinese government entities connected to the military and the government, that is where you have potential problems and blackmail a lot of things coming up and this poll where you can write him a letter. what is the quid pro quo their? stuart: the questions keep coming. i want to talk about your fox nation special called red alert, china versus taiwan. role it. >> china is attacking our democracy and a democracies and the whole notion of democracy itself and we cannot allow the communist party to absorb any democracy. stuart: china versus taiwan. what conclusions do you draw? >> i go back to history and talk about the beginnings of world war ii. you have the war in europe and

the war in the pacific, there was huge resistance in this country to getting involved in europe. it was a way to say we will get these weapons to you, you can use them, we are not involved. is that familiar? you have a situation, china has said all along we are not like ukraine and russia, taiwan is part of us. okay? don't even think about it was the message in that february 4th missive of putin and xi. we have to watch this, we've been down this road before and want to prevent it happening again. stuart: they certainly do. great stuff. watching you on the story at 3:00 pm eastern on fox news. got to get back to the markets because there's a lot of action today. a lot of red ink, looking at

the nasdaq in particular down 2.5%, big time selloff. jonathan honing with us. rates are rising, inflation is rampant, the word recession is just about everywhere. how do you invest in an environment like this? >> the rates story alone is big news. we are seeing rates rise dramatically. short-term race at the beginning of the year, 2.5%. we have the rate at which inflation is going and rates are rising, has to shudder and the fact that it is affecting high-tech companies the most. sometimes interest rates seem a little wonky but in effect that is the number on which all business decisions especially long-term are created so the fact that inflation is growing and government is doing nothing about it is fueling the fire with more intervention and spending is one reason this is a cautious time to put new money to work.

stuart: last time you were with us, not looking at stocks, but commodities, ways you can get into the commodity market for the ordinary every day investor. you are looking at wheat and copper and corn and sunflower oil and all that stuff. >> a rising tide lifts all boats and think back to the 90s, everything technology worked for period of time and the moves are made over the big creative time over the next 5 and 10 years commodities are the place to the. it doesn't mean you bet the farm or put the money in for one day or every day stocks or bonds go down commodities outperform but 5 or 10 years out these are stronger places to be than your average run-of-the-mill index fund or long-term government bond or short-term government bond, strange to see a return on government bond in 3 or 4

months, down 8%, that is what inflation is doing to fixed income investment. stuart: i always think of you as a libertarian and try to figure out what you think of twitter. i think twitter is a censorship platform. that's the way i think of it. what do you think? >> or mistaken. censorship is what goes on in russia. you say something and russia the government doesn't like they jail you, they find you, they beat you up. that is censorship. twitter is bad management. what is their policy about who is on and off? where is the integration of crypto? bears their management? where is innovation writ large? that is a matter of bad management. in a free society the owners decide. thankfully elon musk who was a smart guy who made millions of people millionaires themselves is a big owner and already made some changes and got to compete. twitter doesn't have a monopoly now, you have tiktok, instagram

and all these other players. he's not there just to make money but to save it and its shareholders are the ones who will pay. stuart: not censorship, just bad management. interesting angle. glad you are on the show. lauren is looking at the movers and i see the airlines are down. lauren: they are big for united, southwest, delta, two pieces of news. jet fuel costs more and fares are going up and commentary from the transport association says airlines are passing cost to flyers and the jetblue proposal. stuart: i want to break in, i booked a ticket from newark to florida yesterday. down in a couple weeks time, the price i paid for the round-trip ticket was double what it was the same route, the same airline, doubled. >> i had the same issue.

it is like you have to go on the are days to go on the our days and look at the calendar and pick my days according to the airfare because that is what it has been hyped. there's more consolidation in the industry and put prices up even more. jetblue is proposing to buy spirit and to merge with frontier, this got jetblue a downgrade for raymond james, they don't think any deal gets done in the end, jetblue is down 540%. let's look at roku. there's a growth deceleration ahead, stocks at 116 cut the price target $558, are we streaming less? that is their prediction and you pull up the data and we watched 15 million years worth of content like when you look at billions of hours, i don't

see american streaming less. stuart: more and more pundits and analysts and stock market people slowing down. inflation is heating up and economy slowing down. you hear it all over. lauren: you can trim down to three streaming services. stuart: what is what with marathon digital. >> they are down in a big way, ether, bitcoin and marathon digital selling off along with crypto currencies on higher rate concerns. stuart: senator jon tester is the latest to criticize the president's border policy, ending title 42 would undermine national security. we have the story. the us will announce sanctions against russia today is another major tech company suspends operations in russia. 4 million refugees left ukraine. thousands of children are now enrolling in schools in poland.

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stuart: let me run through the markets. a lot of news about reading and selloff. we start with stocks, dow is down 280, nasdaq down 350, that's 2. 5%. the price of oil is one hundred one dollars a barrel. one hundred dollars as we speak but look at gasoline. not coming down very much. the national average for regular is holding at $4.16.

diesel holding at $5.14 as we speak. show me intel. they suspended operations in russia, intel employs 1200 employees over there suspended operations. more than 75,000 ukrainian students registered in the polish education system since the war began. alexis mc adams in poland, an inside look at one of the schools, how are ukrainian students adjusting. >> good morning. we talked to those ukrainian refugees who tell me it is a time they can finally focus on their studies and take their mind off the horrors they have seen as those attacks have continued in ukraine. this is the video from inside that school. you can see those kids in the classroom. this school has dozens of ukrainian refugees and rolled, 75,000 ukrainian refugees now enrolled in the polish school

system after they raced across the border to poland to escape the shelling and bombing by russian troops. they hope it will be temporary. that school near the border the head master tells us the students are dealing with severe emotional trauma, hiring more teachers and counselors to make sure the refugees have the resources they need. it seems like a bad dream, take a listen. >> they are also -- i hope so much that one day i will just go to school like i used to. i hope that one day i will count my school.

>> reporter: those students are being as resilient as they can but they have seen horrific things and try to concentrate on their studies in poland. they can't focus when they see images out of mariupol and bucha that are horrific. new video we are just getting out of ukraine to the death and destruction, these streets that used to be quiet neighborhoods are in ruins, ukraine calling for criminal charges against russian president vladimir putin for what they say are obvious war crimes. students tell me they are not sure when they will go home. >> i hope it is a little incident. are we strong? our people are strong and like nothing more in history. >> reporter: officials here and the head master at that school tell me they are depending on the polish government to step up further and give them more

funding to get as many resources as possible to these ukrainian refugees now enrolled in polish schools. stuart: thank you for being with us. the us is set to announce a new round of sanctions against russia today. ashley: soon we will know. we can expect the new sweeping package that will impose significant costs on russia. and the new sanctions reported the ban, and and sanction russian government officials and their family members, sanctions can apply to vladimir putin's adult children as well. when sanctions are unprecedented they've done little to cut off.

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stuart: that is the empire state building and it is new york city, raining. you may have noticed, he was a teen popstar in the 1960s and regret to report he has died from pneumonia right before what would have been his 80th birthday. bobby riddell from way back when.

we have a selloff if you're watching this show. the dow is down 270 but the nasdaq way down 335 points down. look at big tech because they are part of the nasdaq and they are all down major, 2%, 3 percentage points down for every single one of them. microsoft at $100 a share down $10 today. apple announced it plans, announced plans for returning to the office and employees are not happy about it. ashley, are some of them threatening to quit? ashley: yes, some are. some have already left and are simply complaining loudly. there are many employees who say they don't want to go back to the office, sit in traffic for two hours and hire people to take care of their children and check out apple's financial performance hasn't been hurt by remote workers posting strong corley revenue throughout the

pandemic but despite those arguments apple says employees are required back in the office at least once a week by april 11th, twice a week by the end of the month and on mondays, tuesdays and thursdays by may 23rd. apple is also pushing for at office work to protect its culture of secrecy, that's a strong culture which is easier to maintain when everyone is in the same physical space. by comparison meta allowing permanent remote work for those not engineering hardware. amazon leaving that individual decisions within the company. some of those apple folks are mighty comfortable working in their pjs and bunny slippers. stuart: does the location of work change forever? i suspect we are doing fat. i want to bring kennedy into this. are we ever going to go back to the office? >> we are on tv! stuart: what are you talking

about? you are looking at the monitor. i am the anchor. lauren: confidence without snobbery. i was thinking i love watching your show, i watch you all the time and there may be those who are not market experts, you break things down with such confidence, i am doing whatever he says. so many cover business, not on this network but the greatest of all business networks in history of business networks, confidence about snobbery brought to you by stuart varney. we want why are you flattering me? you can come on the show anytime you like. >> i have a bird book outside. stuart: are we ever going to go back to the office full-time, 9-to-5, like the good old days? >> i think for some people, younger generations again more power stuff like this is going to become the norm absolutely and they figure as long as we are productive we should get paid the same if we are doing

the work from home. big companies, in silicon valley rather limited housing saying if you are going to work in another part of the country we are not going to give you the same salary. that's the trade-off but if they are able to offer the same product and the same services and essentially achieve the same bottom line i don't have a problem with it, but you are complaining and threatening to quit because you are going back to a job doing what you've always on the way you always have done it that makes you a baby. we have been here. when we have been in the building we have been in the building and when we worked remotely we still worked but once they set all hands on deck let's get back to it we were here. stuart: we are back and i am pleased to be back, i like working in a studio with cameras and lights. >> i like people give me amo and blow and put the spackle on me because i'm not good at doing that myself, my hair and makeup.

stuart: what is spackle? >> makeup. stuart: let's change the subject. this one is for you because i like this lady's style. justice amy kony barrett shuts down heckler. >> as a mother of 7 i am used to distractions and sometimes even outbursts. stuart: sometimes even outbursts. that is how you put it down. >> she is unflappable and incredibly accomplished even if you disagree with her decisions and judicial philosophy you don't mess with mama 7. in the words of my friend, the cast of mom, a far savvy mom. stuart: i wanted to get to this, the most interesting subject for you and i today,

there's a good chance that marijuana is going to be legalized at the federal level. there's a chance of this. are you in favor? >> i'm in favor of that because 47 states including the district of columbia have some form of legal marijuana, 68%, people who responded to a recent gallup poll this is independents, republican, democrat said that marijuana should be federally legal. we are at an odd crossroads because still scheduled as one of the harshest jobs but to sell cannabis products you don't have access to banking get that you would another sectors, people should have access and be able to make choices on their own and adults if that is something they want to consume they should be able to do that instead of having a massive black market which gets people killed. stuart: i don't think the sky has fallen in those states with

for recreational marijuana. you go to colorado it doesn't seem that different to me. >> colorado is a nice place. colorado was the first laboratory of democracy that recreationally legalized cannabis. the problem of california isn't that people are able to procure weed but taxes are so high they have forced most marijuana into the black market and that is where the problem in the crime are and they are over taxing everyone in our state not just with cannabis but people can't get enough you halls to go to nevada, texas and arizona. stuart: if you have six guys walking down the street towards you and they are drunk you get out of the way. you have six guys walking down the street toward you and they are stoned. >> where is the party? i would not say that because that is irresponsible. i am allergic to thc. of the when you are allergic to thc?

>> makes me hallucinate and barf. that's a true story. i am sticking with bourbon. stuart: at the end of the entire interview. >> that's why you are so good. >> smile, it works wonders. we are watching you, i promise i will watch you at 7:00 eastern on fox business cover the name of the show is kennedy. come back and please. what is this about black lives matter, implementing what social media platforms do and do not censor. you have an answer? ashley: according to the new yorker magazine black lives matter leaders use their influence to social media platforms to censor reporting on the organization's financial activities. i wonder why. the report claims internal communications from a group chat called blm security hub appear to show the foundation's efforts to use its connections

to push social media networks to remove negative content about the group. that has been a slew of reports questioning blm's finances over the last two years. washington and california band the group from fundraising state wide after reports show know what was in charge of the nonprofit's $60 million bankroll, since may of last year. other reports say the organization has purchased millions of dollars worth of houses including a $6 million mansion. blm doesn't like the attention and destroying to get social media to get them off their back. i don't think it is working. stuart: i don't think it is at all. thanks. 30-year-old billionaire who made his money in crypto says he has no interest in being rich. she want you wants to give away 99% of his money. we will have the story. palm springs, california, giving money away, the latest

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stuart: a 30-year-old crypto guy who says he's got a major league fortune plans to give away most of that fortune, that would be giving away billions of dollars. why is he doing this? >> i sent him my address and bank deals. i hope to get a reply. x ceo sam bankman freed is cofounder of a crypto currency exchange.

's current net worth is $24 billion. he recently told bloomberg, quickly went out a ways to make yourself happier by spending money saying he doesn't want to buy a yacht or stuff like that but instead says he will keep 1% of his earnings each year, one hundred thousand dollars, every other dollar or bitcoin will be given away under what he calls the philosophy of affective all truism and earning to give. last year he gave away $50 million including funds for pandemic relief in india, climate initiatives, in 2020 he contributed over $5 million to a super pac supporting president biden. maybe he should have bought the yacht instead. stuart: 5 million. no further comment from me on that one. residents in palm springs,

california eligible to receive universal basic income, up to $900 a month in cash just for being transgender or non-binary. caitlin jenner joins me now. you are now a fox news contributor. i want to welcome you to the fox family and fox business in particular. >> thank you very much. a pleasure to be on your show, looking forward to the future, fox news is a great platform and we have to make some changes in this country right now and i hope to be part of it. stuart: do you think palm springs is doing the right thing giving money to trans people? >> no. there are unemployment signs all over the state. help wanted signs. you can get a job. it is another program especially out here by the radical left out here in california to get people not to

work. the trans community is being used here. there is only $200,000 in this program and they will get $900 a month. it shows you how small the trans and non-binary community is in palm springs and i love palm springs and it is unfortunate, the entire state that way. opened up for scams, how will they prove these things? walk into the office with address on, i am transgender, you got to give me $900. even the mayor, lisa middleton and she is trans is not in favor of this program. just another california -- introduced by the radical left and it is unfortunate.

stuart: did florida do the right thing banning the teaching of gender identity to very young children? >> absolutely. i'm a big supporter of ron desantis and what he is doing. i am a parent. i have a large family, raised a large family, a lot of grandkids and i have been in control of my children's dustin i and what they are going to learn in school, not some math teacher teaching my kids about gender identity. i can teach those lessons. i am in support of ron desantis and what he has done. i am disappointed in the backlash he has gotten especially from disney. this is a legislation that supports parents and the parents are the ones that are paying disney to go to disneyland and it is unfortunate to see them react to it this way. of the one a couple days ago,

california used to be the state of the future but now the state of the future is florida. what do you say to that? >> i absolutely agree with you 100%. 45 years ago i was in my 63 vw bug and i remember driving to california to live here, i came to the sign in california and california, the golden state and is it not the golden state any longer. high taxes, high unemployment. we lost 18,000 companies, lost a congressional seat because we have less people living here. b1 would you ever leave? >> everybody is moving to florida. stuart: would you? >> everybody is moving to florida and i can't blame them. you have a common sense smart governor, desantis, he is doing

the right thing from covid to the way he's treating for public to masks and everybody wants to go there. we are the highest paid state in taxes at 13.3% and taxes in florida are so low. he's doing it right, california is not. i would move out of here. stuart: it is great to have you on the show. welcome to fox, you have a great future here as have we all. caitlin jenner, thank you very much. back to the markets. sorry to have to do this because it is a selloff and a big one. dow is down 250, nasdaq is down 350, that is a selloff. some twitter users are calling for more free-speech as elon musk joins the twitter board. senator mike braun has been fighting censorship in big tech for a long time. in a moment he's on the show and we will find out what he

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stuart: that is the shape of you. you may wonder why we are playing that song and there's a very good reason. we are playing it because the singer just won the copyright lawsuit over that song. another artist claimed he plagiarized, a judge disagree. ed shearon wins. let's get to twitter and elon musk and bring in senator mike braun, republican from the great state of indiana. mr. senator, are you happy to see musk invest in twitter and change it? and bring back free-speech? >> i'm really liking that he is now the major owner of twitter. he's always been a guy for free-speech, get rid of censorship, jack dorsey started twitter, kind of the voice

among social media. you look at the other ones, meta, zuckerberg, different story. if you look at the profile on twitter, black rock and vanguard are the largest donors currently. glad to see him do it. anyone who has got on his bucket list going to mars someday can't be too bad. stuart: let's see if he can do it. montana senator jon tester the latest democrat to oppose lifting title 42. senator mitch mcconnell calling for a vote on title 42. do you want to see of vote? an open vote in the senate could be defeated. >> it will go deeper than jon tester. maggie hassan of new hampshire come both senators from arizona, other he races, warren huck in georgia. they all get hurt because title 42 and at least put a little

bit of impediment in front of a full-fledged assault across the border. i and 17 of the republican senators were there a year ago when it was going 50,000 record lows, to 70, eighty thousand. now you look at the facts between apprehension and got aways it was close to 300,000 and some predicted could get 50% above that. it is a big midterm election issue. if they insist on doing it which they announced, could be done in 6 weeks, digging the hole deeper for biden and he will take a bunch of senators with him. stuart: it is looking bad for the midterms, one crisis after another whether it is the border or inflation, interest rates, ukraine, you name it. i don't think i've ever seen a sitting president go into a midterm election in such bad political shape.

have you? >> inflation would be number one, cuts across all spectrums, offsets all the wages that were going up when government got too involved. pre-covid, raising wages among minorities. a way that was done through the free enterprise content, not government gone wild. that has been the biden administration, all these are binary decisions, they made bad choices in 6 or 7 areas we should pay the price for. stuart: senator mike braun, senator indiana, thanks for joining us. 11:55, the wednesday trivia question. how much of the earth's surface is the pacific, 25, 30, 40%.

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stuart: here we go. how much of the earth's surface does the pacific ocean cover? ashley, we got time for you to make a guess. >> i would say a lot. 30 to 40%. i think it is in there. i will go with 30%. stuart: yeah i said 40% but i think that is a bit too much. i will go with you. yes, there you go, ash, we were right. that is a surface area of 60 million area miles.

the ocean basin is larger than the land mass of all the continents combined. now you know. everybody, we're bringing back fan friday this week. send us your videos. all you you have to do take a vo of yourself tell us your name, where you're from, this is important, you have to say you're watching varney and company. you never know, you might be on television. fan friday is back. neil, it's yours. >> stuart, this is neil cavuto. i live in new jersey, i have to wait for friday, right? got it. good luck on that. thank you, stuart, very, very much. let take a look at oil prices, shall we? they are slipping a little bit even as oil executives are grilled. something interesting, the oil reserves we had announced today were a little higher than thought. now we're getting a better idea who is going to be tapping those reserves. we're learning that iea members, international energy association members, are going to