ashley: pump up the jam, that will get you going friday morning, a festive seen in fox square, all lit up. good morning, everyone. it is 10:00 eastern. i'm ashley webster in today for stuart varney. let's get to your money. the markets are down because we had a good jobs report which means may be the fed won't be slowing as the fed rate increases. we shall see, that's the speculation. investors are selling, dow off 257 points, the s&p 1%, the high growth stocks on the nasdaq taking on the chin, the nasdaq down 1.4%, the 10 year treasury yield spiked and then took a collective sigh and it has come back down a little bit, 3.59%.

now basis point or two. look at the price of oil, oil has been on the way up and continue slightly today up 1% at $81.95 for a barrel of crude and bitcoin, lodged at 16,000 for so long, still dead, just under 17,000 at 16,950. now this. the governor of florida, ron desantis is weighing in on the publicans underwhelming performance in the midterms. >> don't think it is a question of being divided as a party. i think it is how do you run and win majorities? what we've done in florida is we have shown we have exercised leadership, we have not cowed out, we have been willing to take on big interests, producing results and that ends up attracting more people to want to be on your team so that was not something that was happening in the rest of the

country. ashley: he is very measured, isn't he? tammy bruce, do you think he is right? seems to be a leader even though he is very coy about it but pretty impressive. >> he isn't he has had local reporters, local environment, he knows it well, picks and chooses when he's doing this, he's not a constant target and it is when you are under extreme pressure we find out what people are made of, so far so good with him, good news when it comes to the talent bench of the republican party. what he's saying is interesting because it is true, with the midterms the republicans won the popular vote, they did better than democrats in the popular vote about the issue is these are local races, how are you organizing at the local level for each different state

to make sure your candidate wins? florida is going to be different than arizona, nevada, oklahoma and we've got to remember that. depends on the strength of the republican party. if you have national republican leadership that's not working against certain candidates where you have internal politics, it's not a divided party, mitch mcconnell doesn't like you. it is a matter of how to bring the party together to make sure people are working, that the party is working for the american people and not just their own sense of power. ashley: very good. i got this next one. president biden admitted he was given a list of reporters to follow during his meeting yesterday, watch this. >> president biden: who is the next question? on my list here? my turn to call on someone, right? how about it?

in br. tom o'keefe. >>'s turn. ashley: who shall i ask this question? tammy bruce is on this list, why can't biden decide himself who to call on? >> this is been the case from the beginning even during the campaign. my concern is that you've got a dynamic where the permanent washington establishment knows what is happening and doing nothing about it. beyond that it is embarrassing but the behavior of the president during certain ceremonies, the french president, they were standing together, president biden began to turn to look behind them and was almost about to seem to walk off when macron stopped him gently, told him to turn around, he was managing the president of the united states. it is not just embarrassing. xi of china is watching this.

the tyrant of north korea is watching this. iran is watching this. putin is watching this and they see the president of the united states having to be managed like he is in kindergarten and even his comments, this is why it becomes a national security issue and the fact the washington permanent bureaucracy is doing nothing should concern us because it will only get worse. ashley: the optics are terrible, you're absolutely right. thank you as always. thank you for joining us. the supreme court will rule on the cancellation plan while keeping the program locked for now. come back in, lauren. when will we make a decision? lauren: likely february and their ruling. term and the legality of student debt cancellation by summertime. that is convenient because the pause on the repayment is set

to expire at that point and borrowers have to repay their debts for the first time in 3 years so the congressional budget office says the plan to forgive student debt for millions of borrowers will cost $400 billion. this is such a closely watched case because the white house wants to burden taxpayers with that $400 billion without without the consent of congress. that is like being a king essentially. the constitution tried to prevent and this is happening now. ashley: exactly right. back to retail, shopper turn out in record highs over the holiday shopping weekend. hot larry chang joins me to talk about it. positive news but you say there is a significant caveat to those positive sales, what is it? >> if you look at the economic data, it is weak but if you look at holiday sales data it is strong. a paradox is the issue.

as you mentioned holiday sales are strong across the board, 196 million shoppers, 19% growth in retail, one hundred 12 million shoppers went into the store. all channels, cyber monday online, growth of 5%, black %, black friday was 3% so when you see shoppers coming out and spending more money across all channels, actually strong, when you look at the economic indicators it suggests consumer credit card debt is at its highest, you see auto loans getting to a 10 year high, 60% of households living paycheck to paycheck so the problem is more consumers are front loading there spending this holiday season, putting more of it on installment plans, more but on debt. as the economic situation and unemployment increases. ashley: are you expecting next year to be tough? we are seeing the debt load go up significantly, the housing

market is certainly very much cooled off now. now we have concerns about hiring freezes and job layoffs with a man i imagine pools in the pursestrings a little bit. is that a tough road for retailers next year? >> i expect it will be a tough road. on employment will go from 3. 7% to 4. 5% which% which means 1 million additional individuals added to the ranks of the unemployed, housing prices decline with mortgage rates increasing so that should weaken consumer balance sheets. i hope some of this when factored into the holidays this season the what i think you are seeing is a front loading of the holiday spends into sale periods like cyber monday. the holidays this year will be stronger in the first half, weaker in the second half and a more challenging time with consumer spending going forward into 2023. ashley: you could be right. we are out of time but thank you for sharing your thoughts with us today on the retail

scene, thank you very much. you are looking at some of the movers. let's begin with salesforce down 1.5%. lauren: doing better than they have been. they were cut, why am i telling you this? wolf was a bull for 10 years and finally clipped their wings on stock. they say new bookings at salesforce, software and small businesses are down 53% this year and then we have the cause of that arguably the ceo calling some workers back to the office. at least 3 days a week so you have that, intel, another dow stock with financial times reporting they are offering workers in ireland 3 months of unpaid leave, part of a $3 billion cost cutting plan. intel down 3.5%. cracker barrel cut in half. there costs went up, and the

retail store prices, stocks 12%, operating income in the corner down 45%. another company, restaurant. ashley: still love cracker barrel. lawmakers in washington holding onto crypto holdings despite the ftx collapse. who has crypto? lauren: 9 that we know of, one is republican senator pat toomey, a great example because he holds a couple thousand dollars worth, he says he's holding on for dear life even as he slammed the fallout of ftx and says it could have been mitigated if his fellow lawmakers got through a plan to regulate it. we know that one lawmaker sold their crypto holdings as congresswoman marie newman, volatility, and beyond capitol hill, hollywood. have you heard of michael key

this, former agent who runs the vc fund the reportedly got $300 million? had ties to the clintons, the kardashians and elon musk and agents of stars like madonna. the new york post is reporting he promoted ftx to his circle of rich friends. if any of them are found to have been paid illegitimately by ftx or alameda that could be the court looks into this finds clawbacks to give back to duke investors. so it is getting more juicy. ashley: it will go on and on. fascinating, thank you. president biden admits there are problems with the inflation reduction act after french president emmanuel macron complained about it. >> president biden: a massive piece of legislation has almost $368 billion, one of the

largest investments in climate change in all history. there is obviously going to be glitches in it. ashley: congressman buddy carter is on the house budget committee and i will ask what he makes of the president's admission. return of the mask. covid mandates could be back in one california city. will people listen this time around? we are on that story. one of the largest baby formula supplies expects the formula shortage to last until spring, this despite the white house's intervention. we will speak to one woman working around-the-clock to help parents feed their babies, that is next. ♪

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ashley: a little bit of j lo for you, looking into the sun with mountains in the background, if you like the music we play on the show make sure you follow us on spotif a mac. i will read this slowly, scan the qr code on your screen. i'm giving you time. hold the phone, click, there you go, you got us on spotif dagen:. let's check the markets. after that strong jobs report for november, we have a selloff but it is coming back ever so slightly, still down 230 points on the dow, half of 1%, s&p and

nasdaq down close to one% so that's where the markets are, could be positive by the end of the day. our top advisor is leaving the white house, do we know who? lauren: political reporting some ear officeseeley, director of economic council. this long process of trying to unclog the supply-chain, her resume is impressive and her role is going to be filled by two people, ronnie chatterg. ashley: one of the largest jb formula supplies expect the infant formula shortage to last until spring, that's not good news for parents. hannah crowl's creator of babyformula search and swap, she joins me now. great to see you. tell me about your group and

how you help parents get the formula they need, how does it work? >> the group i created is a national facebook exchange that allows parents to go outside of their local stores, their local targets and walmarts ncvss to search the country for formula, it started because i needed formal if my 10-month-old and my brother was able to help me find some formula from her friend of his in minnesota while i was based in new york, additionally we were offering, the extra formula they have would be reallocated to parents who needed it. many parents will end up having used to are 3 different formulas when starting out. ashley: very quickly, this was in the headlines for a long

time and then it just went away and most people fly we are back on track but you are telling me it is still, there's still a critical shortage. >> there's medical shortage since may, not as a critical shortage since february. it has never, there has never been a full shelf. myself and many others working on this shortage consider the shortage will be over not just when there is formula on the shelf but when there are no purchase limits. parents can only by 2 to 4 containers of formula at a time depending on the store and those rules. that last a family a week and a half, don't want to be the person that runs out of formula at 2:00 in the morning when your child is screaming. ashley: to that point what is the alternative, you can't find it what do you do?

>> there are resources that are similar enough that you can switch but parents whose children are on elemental formulas are hypoallergenic former those, right now those are the ones we are missing, the standard formulas are available, you can substitute one type for another if it is the standard but you can substitute, for example the two elemental formulas people know, a child can take elemental him and tram engine if they are standard but then they cannot take elementhim because of ingredients. ashley: it continues to be a big problem, we had no idea but thank you for coming in and giving us an update and thank you for your efforts to help parents.

>> parents in need can find us on the facebook group, we are on instagram, that nurse mom, we are expanding social media. one morning i would like to give parents is if it seems too good to be true when you are on social media it is probably too good to be true, one of the dangers of social media, parents have been facing a lot of scams. ashley: be careful. >> of pharmacy, may i say this, a pharmacy talked to me this morning from ohio, the only place in the country that actually has real formula. . of formula. you can find me and i will connect parents to social media. ashley: you are doing a great job in being a resource for parents frantically looking for formula. thank you for joining us this morning to tell us about it. the rising trend of using

prescription drugs for weight loss is causing shortages across the country. give me the details. ashley: you like everyone is talking about these diabetes drugs that are now popular for weight loss. are some of the names, all fda approved to treat obesity, 1/3 of americans are considered obese. the drug that elon musk has endorsed, there's a shortage but they hope to have more doses coming up soon and of course copycats are ramping up their own production, you have to be very very careful. it is a celebrity trend these days, drugs to slim down. ashley: there is a lot of talk about it. thank you very much, now this. major crisis is averted after the senate passes a bill to avoid a railroad strike but rail workers still not happy with the bipartisan bill, details on that coming up.

we added 263,000 jobs last month but still more than 10 million jobs open, can you believe it so what is preventing people from working? connell mcshane breaks it down for us next. ♪ as an independent financial advisor, i stand by these promises: i promise to be a careful steward of the things that matter to you most. i promise to bring you advice that fits your values. i promise our relationship will be one of trust and transparency. as a fiduciary, i promise to put your interests first, always. charles schwab is proud to support the independent financial advisors who are passionately

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ashley: let's take a look at these markets, the dell of 0. 6%, we were down more than 400 in the early going but now coming back a little bit. same story on the nasdaq. you are looking at other movers, let's start with the cheesecake factory. lauren: restaurants, down to neutral, they say november sales were slowing, that's continuing in december, holiday month and they are charging more but those higher menu prices are hurting traffic because people are deciding to not go. i wanted to show you these chinese makers, the market is

down 200 points on the dow, exxon is up 23% and a 7% gain for neo and lee, no reason that i can find but they are up. peloton is breaking out, a 3-month high, they are 13 and change, maybe it is a popular gift for the holidays, now you can get them on amazon, decent black friday numbers, this is a solid stock the last couple days. it is down sharply. lauren: or just take a diabetes drug. we will get into that later. thank you very much. now this. more than 10 million jobs still open across the united states, that despite the surge in major companies laying off workers. connell mcshane joins me, great to see you. where are all the workers?

>> reporter: they all moved to florida. i would say two things you have been talking about. first of all the wages as you were talking about earlier, wages are up a lot but laborforce participation is down so what it looks like is a lot of companies trying to get workers to come back to work and by paying them more but it is not working or it is not working across the board, 62. one% that number in the labor force, labor force is a percentage of the population, still a low number and moving in the, quote, wrong direction from last month and then look at average hourly earnings up by 5. one% from last year, also up month over month. you say that's not great given where we are with inflation but it is seen as a hot number, it is higher than economists expected so the take away is wages up, not enough workers coming back. the fed chairman warned us about all of this, higher wages and worker shortage the other day talking on the workers side a lot of it being just too many

people have retired and we've seen that. we've done stories on that the last couple years, more people deciding to just stop working than we would normally expect to see, aging out of the workforce. some blame health concerns for that but some come you get people that made a lot of money in the stock market with the housing market so they don't need to keep working and labor secretary marty walsh on this program with his own take last hour. >> different reasons people are not participating in the workforce and what we want to do is make sure as they come back into the workforce if they are looking for better opportunities for themselves, partnering with businesses, we are doing through workforce development, apprenticeships. >> he touched another factor that has come into play and that's immigration. he says the biggest threat to the economy as we don't have a strong immigration policy. interesting he was talking about that because jay powell has talked about it as well that we have a net decrease in

terms of net immigration and that leads to the fact that we have fewer workers, you put it all together and that's the situation we are in right now. ashley: not enough workers to go around. thank you very much, appreciate that, 263,000 jobs added during the month of november. it was higher than expected, unemployment sticking at 3.7%. anthony joins me now, what does this jobs report say about the economy. >> it tells you the economy stronger than the federal reserve would like because it is not that the federal reserve wants to crush the economy, they want to slow it down enough so wage pressures start to ease a bit and this number didn't show that, what the fed is thinking now, they are using a leash, designated forager

wawa on a pit bull and they are not controlling inflation pressures on the wage front and remember 2 thirds of the average cost of producing a good or service or wages, wages are stabilizing which they are but not using, that is a problem for the federal reserve. ashley: it is and the markets reflected that which means a strong job report from the fed's point of view, to cool it off which then leads to questions of a recession, do you see that, and will it be a deep recession or shallow one in your opinion? >> i was forecasting a recession as early as june of this year for 2,023. at that point, very excited with my forecast but now everybody including my pet chihuahuas are forecasting a recession so i'm getting along nervous but the economy is slowing, you see money supplies slowing, employment slowing.

believe it or not this employment number gave you the lowest payroll figure of the entire year. we are talking about it because it is strong relative to expectations and strong relative to what the fed would like to see but it is the weakest one we've seen this year and we are see also a movement or rotation away from that sector to the service sector. 15% of all jobs created were in goods and the other 70% were in services so a little bit of a shift. ashley: interesting stuff, thank you for giving us, breaking down the jobs report, we appreciate it. we will move on to the store, the trend of the four day work week apparently is gaining popularity is why not? how is it working out for the companies that have tried it? >> it's not longer days, it is

32 hours a week so it is not like you have to work an extra few hours a day to make 40 hours in four days, 30 companies were involved in a 6 month trial and they rated their experience 9/10, they said our revenues increased 8% during the 6 months and they said they were doing better financially and their employees were happier. so if workers said if you want us to come in for that fifth day, 70% say you will have to pay us to do it. between 10% and 15% to get back to 40 hours a week, they like a shorter work week. i feel like that's a no-brainer. everybody want -- >> don't mess with my 3-day weekend. we all love 3 day weekends so i get it. what is this about a small tax refund next year? lauren: the irs's morning if you are expecting some money back this year fine but it is probably not as much as you got last year. the biggest reason, no

government stimulus check. we saw $1400 in the prior tax year. it is difficult to claim deductions for charitable donations. if you have a problem with your return the irs has already hired 4000 new customer service agents, bad news more hirings might be coming because of the inflation reduction act. ashley: all right, thank you very much. back to tim cook. i love this piece of video. he ignored questions on his work in communist china from hello yvonne but she tried. >> reporter: is it problematic to do business with the communist chinese party when they suppress human rights? ashley: that is how the whole thing went. lots of questions, 0 responses, good job, hillary, we will break down apple's onslaught of

criticism on capitol hill. hard-working oil drillers in the us slamming president biden for returning to venezuela for oil. madison allworth is speaking to a company which drills 70% on federal land and they say the move just a slap in the face, that report is next. ♪ ♪ i got into debt in college and, no matter how much i paid, it followed me everywhere. so i consolidated it into a low-rate personal loan from sofi. get a personal loan with no fees, low fixed rates, and borrow up to $100k. sofi. get your money right.

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ashley: the biden administration claims there are 9000 unused drilling permits on federal lands but officials say that's not true. madison alworth is in new mexico this morning and you are speaking to mac energy corporation. what are they telling you?

>> reporter: they feel nervous about the future of drilling on federal land. new mexico drilling is on federal land. they are frustrated to see countries like venice will get the green light while domestic energy production is targeted. when the white house is pressed on domestic develop and they pointed to those 9,000 permits showing it is evidence of plenty of opportunity to drill in america but what i hear from companies like this, i want to bring in claire chase. acclaim to the audience why this is the first step at a permit doesn't mean drilling for oil at that site. >> we plan our drilling program 3 to 5 years in advance so we have those permits in hand. we might drilling that area. than we are not going to drill the rest of those permits that we have. it is misleading. >> reporter: tell me about access to a permit, you need to

access it. >> you need to access by right-of-way, talking about fermenting and environmental permits, they have been very slow as well so the timeline -- the timeline is longer and longer and difficult to plan. >> reporter: a permit is around 12,000, including what we see behind us. what about the current administration's policy makes you nervous about investing in federal drilling? >> when the biden administration says no more drilling it makes it difficult for us to invest the $3 million it costs. it is our family's money. why would we send that when every indication out of this administration is they don't want to stare at won't s continue in the future. >> reporter: i want to wrap with this thought. the point to permitting, the sale of lease land, how companies like mack energy

apply for a permit, they would do this every quarter for the entirety of the biden administered in's time in office, they've done one resale. ashley: that is an interesting perspective, very interesting stuff. madison, thank you. us oil companies want access to chevron's oil from venezuela. give me details on that. lauren: they want some business. they are eager to refine heavy venezuelan crude. if they can make arrangements to get it here in time for the warmer weather, companies like pbf interested in getting oil but not so easy. chevron has to prioritize its refineries, how would gavin newsom feel about that company

in his state, not refining california or any us oil but comes from venezuela? come en. cisco needs additional clearance because they are owned by venezuela. refiners are contacting chevron, and the vessel owners to get in line for the action. ashley: they want some of that. now this. megan markle pledge to reach 0 x 2030 so why is she traveling by private jet? the senate runoff race in georgia is four days away and senator rafael warnock is bringing in the big guns. will it be enough to sway voters? aishah hasnie will have the full report next. ♪

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so many people are overweight now ask your rheumatologist about and asking themselves, "why can't i lose weight?" for most, the reason is insulin resistance, and they don't even know they have it. conventional starvation diets don't address insulin resistance. that's why they don't work. now, there's golo. golo helps with insulin resistance, getting rid of sugar cravings, helps control stress and emotional eating, and losing weight. go to golo.com and see how golo can change your life. that's g-o-l-o.com. ashley: we are four days from the georgia senate runoff and do polls suggest the race is

neck in neck. aishah hasnie is in georgia with the latest. >> reporter: good morning to you from a chilly georgia at this hour where it is all about turnout turned out turned out. every vote matters in this runoff race. behind me at this polling location you see a steady stream of folks going in. the longest wait time we heard about is an hour long wait in the atlanta area. every vote counts in this runoff. i want to break down what we are looking at in terms of the most recent head to head polling between these candidates. this race still a tossup. according to a recent survey incumbent democratic senator rafael warnock has a slight lead, 51% to 47 over republican herschel walker. former president barack obama was here in the peach state last night to give warnock a

little bit of a final boost but raised some eyebrows when he tried to insult walker by comparing him to the average, quote, uncle joe. >> we all know some folks in our lives who we don't wish them ill will, they say crazy stuff, uncle joe, you know what happens to him. you know. it is okay. they are part of the family. but you don't give them serious responsibilities. >> reporter: very unclear who uncle joe might be. president joe biden is fundraising for warnock in boston, walker held a rally with senator lindsey graham in woodstock, georgia. he has been facing criticism for skipping crucial campaigning over the thanksgiving holiday weekend, got to win over those 200,000 georgians who split their

tickets last month but told sean hannity he's feeling good about his chances. >> they get nervous because they've got obama here again, bringing in his celebrities, that's where his money comes from. >> reporter: a lot of big names, a lot of big money being spent on this race. both candidates attacking each other's character through tv ads, warnock is outspending walker $25 million-$10 million but we are less than four days away and this is any man's race. back to you. ashley: fascinating to watch and i wonder who is uncle joe. thank you very much, good stuff. congressman buddy carter, republican from georgia, joins me now. what are you hearing from voters? i would be interested.

>> reporter: they are excited about herschel walker's candidacy. my wife waited 2 and a half hours in line to vote in early voting and if you look at the numbers, early voting numbers in the state of georgia breaking records. even in this runoff, just phenomenal and that is thanks to the georgia state legislature implementing the election integrity act which gave people confidence in our voting system again and we learned important lessons in this last senate runoff almost 2 years ago and that is if we don't get people out we are not going to win and both parties understand a runoff is nothing more than who can get their voters out and people are highly interested in this race, understand the stakes are high and what is at risk here. ashley: democrats already have control, republicans have control of the house, democrats have the senate. why is this race important? >> it is important to have a

50/50 split in the senate for a couple reasons, first of all as we witnessed for the last 2 years the committee assignments, having evenly divided committee is very important. secondly, ask yourself if you are a conservative who would you rather have calling the shots in the senate, chuck schumer or joe manchin? we have a chance with joe manchin. if we could have a 50/50 split and joe manchin carries weight and is a reasonable person we can work with. chuck schumer unfortunately is not. ashley: last one for you. president biden finally admitting problems with his inflation reduction act, i will get your thoughts. >> president biden: look, the united states makes no apology and i make no apology since i wrote it for the legislation you are talking about. but there are occasions when we write a massive piece of

legislation and that has almost 360 billion for the largest investment in climate change in all of history. obviously there's going to be glitches in it. ashley: at least he is admitting mistakes. >> there are plenty to admit in the inflation reduction act, not the least of which, being a pharmacist i have to mention the precip and drug portion of this was simply awful. cbos told us that portion of the bill would result in 15 fewer cures coming to market over the next 30 years as a result of this policy. hopefully we can turn that back in the next congress. it needs to be turned back. we need to have research and develop into but the inflation reduction act, inflation acceleration is what it is. ashley: great stuff as always, thank you very much for joining us. still ahead, thank you, arizona

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