>> cheryl: i'm for "the big buzz" of the morning. a lost kitten finds her way home after five months on the run. minka the kitten jumped out of her family's car back in july when they took a napping break on a connecticut highway. animal control found mika at the rest stop, returned her to her family in time for christmas. adam? she actually was lured in initially by sardines and tuna. >> [laughter] if i were a cat i'd go to sardin es and tuna, i might even do that as a human by the way. >> cheryl: david i think the internet was created for cat s because everybody loves cat videos, including me, but not david apparently. maybe ashley webster is into animals, i'm not really sure but he's hosting "varney" & company. ash? ashley: of course animals, we did three hours of cat videos. we've seen the ratings go

through the roof. you can't go wrong. cats playing pianos. cheryl, thank you very much. good morning, everybody, i'm ashley webster in for stuary varney. no cat videos unfortunately, but there is this story. it stays in place for now. the supreme court blocks the white house from ending trump's title 42 but it's only a temporary fix. the biden administration a few more months to get a plan in place to deal with the migrant crisis that is simply overwhelming our border. we'll get into that. meanwhile the chaos continues for southwest out of the nearly 4,200 flight cancellations today , more than 2,500 of those are on southwest airlines. we will press the airline for answers as is everyone else. it was a smooth flight though for president biden as he kicked off his vacation in st. croix, how nice. the white house calls it a " working vacation" for the president. there's absolutely nothing on his schedule. working on his tan, perhaps, or

his surfing skills. let's take a look at the markets right now. mildly higher. the dow, the s&p, and nasdaq showing, well, the nasdaq flat but the dow and the s&p slightly higher in the pre-market. take a look at the 10-year treasury yield coming down just a little bit down nearly two basis points at 3.83% on the 10- year. now this new york congressman- elect george santos tells fox he needs to "face his mistakes" and he's trying to spin his lies by comparing them to lies joe biden has told. will that work? we're going to talk about it, you know that. it is wednesday, december 28. "varney" & company is about to begin. ♪ staying alive, staying alive ♪

ashley: what a way to kickoff the morning, "staying alive" as we look at midtown manhattan, on this wednesday morning. pretty quiet in the city. good morning, everyone. now, to this story. the supreme court, yes, is keeping title 42 in place. good morning, lauren simonetti. when does this order expire? lauren: ashley, good to see you. so the high court will hear oral arguments on the case in february, final decision coming in june. listen. >> the court is not going to decide until june apparently and in the meantime we have to enforce it but i think it's overdue. lauren: so admittedly, ash, title 42 is a band aid but it has helped to mitigate this uncontrollable flow of migrants at the border, denying access to nearly 2.5 million since its been in place. now, the white house will keep telling you the border is not open, and deflect any responsibility saying in part, and i quote, "today's order

gives republicans and congress plenty of time to move past political finger pointing in joining their democratic colleagues in solving the challenge at our border." what's the democrat solution at the border, ashley? if the president wants to be that transformational president, put a deal on the table, that democrats can get behind and republicans can't refuse. what is the plan? i don't know what they are going to do in the meantime and i don't think they do either. ashley: i don't think they do. lauren, thank you very much. todd piro joining us this morning. great to see you, todd. todd: thank you, sir. ashley: congress and white house actually, they say, creating a plan to address the border before title 42 expires again i don't think they have a plan b , let alone a plan a. todd: i think you're right. the only sort of hope i'm grasping on to here ashley is every republican congress-person we've had on our program has said we're going to act by controlling the power of the

purse which is what we can do when we, as house republicans , take control. so helpfully, there are mechanisms by which they can utilize the power of the purse to force the democrats hand but we do have to remember, obviously dems control the white house and obviously democrats control the senate. that said, there are a number of democratic senators would seem like they want something done. i'm looking at your joe manchins , looking at your former democrats like kyrsten sinema. how much can they push the issue on this? we will see. ashley: you know what, todd? there are more than 1.5 million people waiting for their asylum claims to be heard. those that actually show up for these hearings. now that title 42 is in place can we start processing more or is the system just simply overwhelmed? todd: every guest that we talk to says we're setup to handle x number and it's always some exponential number beyond that they are forced to handle. now the biden administration has asked for a lot more money to

process these people and that's one of their complaints against republicans. republicans don't want to give us money but at the end of the day they want the money. the democrats, that is, to process these individuals more quickly and then shove them into the interior, where you don't have the optics problems like we show day in and day out on the border. the biden administration doesn't like that optics problem but it's one that they've caused. they just want to sort of put another band aid on it besides title 42 they don't want to get these individuals in the interior that nobody will talk about yet these individuals potentially 5 million in 2023, will be sucking our social services in a country right now that is struggling for the citizens themselves, much less adding five, 6 million more people on top of that like that but don't speak the language, that are very need y in terms of what they are going to require from social services once they get here. ashley: and you know what, todd? i think you bring up a good point. we don't talk about it much but what about the strain on the hospitals, on the schools, all the social services, the

people who end up at hospitals in the united states clearly can't pay the hospitals have to essentially eat those costs. we end up paying more in our premiums. it's just a snowball getting worse and worse. todd: and you hear from these border hospitals in particular, ash. they're struggling especially right now when you have the tripledemic, flu, covid and rsv hitting really hard throughout our country you have little kids, american kids, citizens, moms and dads who can't help their children because all of these resources are going to the migrants, and that's a tough thing for you to, for americans to have to deal with right now and it's kind of sad. ashley: it's a crisis all around for sure. todd, thank you very much and good news is you're sticking around for a full hour. we've locked the studio door again. all right now this. officials in the justice department are reportedly looking into how hundreds of millions of dollars are disappeared after ftx declared

bankruptcy. lauren, do we know exactly how much went missing? lauren: well, bloomberg is reporting that the feds are investigating this possible cyber cyber crime that drained here is the number, $372 million just after-hours after it filed for bankruptcy, so the doj has launched a criminal probe separate from the fraud case against sam bankman-fried. a charge could be in connection to computers fraud. that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail. meanwhile, the bankman-fried family reportedly shelling out $10,000 a week to have private security patrol their home which is right near stanford university. that's where both of sam bankman-fried's parents work. the university has barricaded both ends of the block with security details as well because its become like a tourist attraction. people come by and say oh, that's where sbf is under house arrest and where his parents live and it's the attraction, the attention that they don't

want. ashley: this is a guy who just spent millions and millions if not billions of other people's money. i'm not surprised he needs security, todd. todd: of course and people love a story like this. they love when somebody is as hated as sbf and that's why you have the "money ball" author michael lewis having a meeting with sbf to find out more about his saga, life story. he's been following him for a while but now obviously under a different cloak, if you will, so at the end of the day people lost a lot of money, potentially lost their life savings, potentially lost retirement. that's what i come back to, the sadness of that. ashley: yes, and how many more sbf's are out there. todd: especially in the crypto world. ashley: all right, yes. thank you. let's take a look at these pre- market futures. it's modestly higher. the very picture of modest. the dow, the s&p and nasdaq just slightly higher. let's bring in michael lee to talk about this. michael, let me ask you this.

are we heading for smooth sailing next year or is it going to be a continued bumpy road for investors? >> you know, i'd imagine the first two to three quarters of next year will be pretty ugly just the nature of the beast. we have a massively decelerating economy going into what i think is an in ever itable recession against a tightening fiscal situation where the fed is hiking interest rates probably another 50-100 basis points to go from where we are right here. most of the rate hikes haven't really hit the economy yet. it takes six-to-12 months before they really kick into gear and it was only in august when we started going up by 75 basis points so you really haven't even begun to feel the aggressive tightening, just as the economy is decelerating massively. i mean the homebuilder confidence index went from the mid 80s to the low-30s and every time you get collapses in home prices, housing starts, it's a precursor for a recession

10 times out of 10. ashley: so that said, michael, are there any sectors you like, or is cash king right now? >> yeah, so at some point, inflation is going to be dead from this recession, and once the market, once the fed actually does pivot, the entire market is going to take off into another bull market because remember, stocks take off far in advance of the overall economy, unemployment peaked in march of 2010 where stocks turn around in march of 2009, so where you want to be right now is you can't be 100% cash because picking that exact moment is a near impossiblity so what i own for my clients right now are the defensive sectors, xlp, xlu, xlv, energy has reduced that position greatly throughout the fourth quarter and then i also own some long duration which is tlt, it's

a 30-year treasury. i think long term bonds should start to rally. we saw a little bit of a rally over the last month or so, we're giving some of that back. i think that works and what i'm looking to buy, the individual name i really like for a multi-- year-old is amazon. the stock price same price where it was in march of 2020, the covid lows have doubled their revenue even though their net has come down, as an overall percentage but i think it's something you start buying here, will acquire over the next year and hold for many years you'll do extremely well. ashley: very good. a somewhat cautious michael lee but still good ideas for investors. michael, thank you very much as we take a look at the futures which are moving slightly higher yesterday was a very mixed session, the dow finished higher , s&p and nasdaq down but higher in the early going. coming up, here is a question for you. should prisoners make minimum wage? one washington lawmaker who was previously incarcerated herself says absolutely. we've got the latest on her

efforts. vladimir putin is fighting back against countries who imposed a price cap on oil. russia now banning oil exports to those countries. we have that report, next. ♪ ♪ what will you do? will you make something better? create something new? our dell technologies advisors can provide you with the tools and expertise you need to bring out the innovator in you.

then i got the dexcom g6. i just glance at my phone, and there's my glucose number. wow. my a1c has dropped over 2 points to 7.2. that's a huge victory. hi, i'm jason and i've lost 202 pounds on golo. when you have to get wheeled through the airport because you're too heavy to make it and you have extreme pain, you have to make a change. golo enabled me to make that change. golo is real and it changes your life.

as a business owner, your bottom line is always top of mind. so start saving by switching to the mobile service designed for small business: comcast business mobile. flexible data plans mean you can get unlimited data or pay by the gig. all on the most reliable 5g network. with no line activation fees or term contracts. saving you up to 60% a year. and it's only available to comcast business internet customers. so boost your bottom line by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities.

(announcer) enough with the calorie counting, carb cutting, diet fatigue, and stress. just taking one golo release capsule with three balanced meals a day has been clinically proven to repair metabolism, optimize insulin levels, and balance the hormones that make weight loss easy. release works with your body, not against it, so you can put dieting behind you and go live your life. head to golo.com now to join the over 2 million people who have found the right way to lose weight and get healthier with golo. ♪ ashley: beautiful picture, clear water beach, florida, where it is currently somewhat of a ni ppy 53 degrees heading to a

high today of nearly 70 not bad for december 28. all right, let's move on. russia is banning sales of oil to western countries that have imposed a price cap. lauren? tell us what's going on here? lauren: we finally get putin's response, and he is saying he will ban the sale of oil from february until july so five months, to any country, that abides by the $60 price cap and that is more or less what russian oil is trading at now, so these countries include the u.s. and canada, the eu, japan, the uk, and australia, separately the eu also banned imports by sea of russian oil. does this have an impact? you're looking at the price of oil. it's not moving much down just about a quarter right now. analysts do say banning oil to countries that do abide by the $ 60 price cap be a miscalculation by putin because he's assuming he will get higher prices but from how many countries? so we'll see if this back fires on him.

so far it hasn't. ashley: interesting, thank you, lauren. oil guy dan eberhart is joining us this morning. dan, how much are we going to feel, if anything, from this russian ban? would it hit our wallets eventually? >> i don't think it would hit our wallets at all really. look, i think this is a big nothing tuesday burger and putin playing semantics. ashley: [laughter] that's great. in the end to lauren's point it could end up hurting russia more than us, right? >> no, i think it will hurt russia, but really, what's going on here is the price cap of 60 was really set at a level the west didn't think would push up prices too much and the eastern europeans really wanted a much, much steeper price cap of around 30 but what really matters to russia, what really matters to russia is that china, india and south africa keep buying their oil and i don't think this effects that.

ashley: yeah, the average cost for a gallon of regular gas is right now around $3.13. there are warnings out there that say we could see it go back above $4. do you see that happening, maybe in the spring next year? >> i do see it going higher as long as the economy holds up, but that's really more of a supply issue here in the u.s. and in the middle east and really not related so much to the russian issue. the administration has really got a chilling policy on drill ing for more oil in the u.s.. ashley: does that mean we've gone from energy independence to relying on what opec wants to do when it gets together every so often and decides its production output. we're back to those days, are we not? >> absolutely. for that last kind of 10 or 15% that's really the swing demand and swing supply and what really drives the price, absolutely. we moved from being energy independent under the trump administration to begging

venezuela and opec, particularly saudi arabia, for more oil here in 2022 as we roll into 2023. ashley: so frustrating, and we're trying, you know, we've been watching china, reverse some of its covid policies and that's kind of renewed hopes that the economy, the world's second biggest economy can really start firing up again and with that, the demand on oil goes up. do you expect that? >> i do. one of the stories that really hasn't gotten much attention this year is chinese demand for oil is down about 12% year-over-year and the price is still at what 86-ish a barrel for brent and $80 a barrel for wti, so if china demand comes back, i think you're going to see prices move well-higher as we roll into 2023, ashley. ashley: very interesting. certainly a story to follow. dan eberhart, thanks very much for joining us this morning. >> thank you. ashley: great information as always, thank you. now, some key advisors to vladimir putin are trying to predict what happens next year.

good luck with that. come in, todd. give me the rundown on what's going to happen next year according to the kremlin. todd: pretty big name is making these oddball predictions. a chief advisor to russian president vladimir putin making a series of bizarre predictions for the new year claiming the u.s. would enter into a civil war and elon musk would come out on top. i'm talking about demetri medreviv, the former russian head and advisory security council tweet ing california and texas would become independent states as a result of the civil war and that musk will "win the presidential election in a number of states which after the new civil wars end will have been given to the gop." did you digest all that? also said that the uk will rejoin the eu which will lead to its collapse and disappearance of the euro. a lot has to happen in 2023 for the bingo card to win out but we'll see. ashley: what was he smoking?

we'll have to leave it right there. todd, thank you very much. fascinating stuff. let's check the futures pointing to a slightly-higher open as we get this wednesday session underway and guess what? there you have it, very slightly we'll see whether that pans out, because the opening bell is next don't go away. ♪ laughing all the way to the bank , because it all just seems so funny ♪

i can't believe it. here we are at the let us do good village. first community like this in america. a hundred families together that lost their loved ones. the kids that lost their mom or dad protecting us. and today is the day that we're going to deliver the first beautiful home to the thornton family. some wonderful people donated. a bunch of land in land o' lakes. to let us do good village. having stood here on this same property with a shovel and now seeing a home where a family is going to move in. built all of our roads, all of our infrastructure is here. we've got several homes are under construction. and this is absolutely amazing to me. it's going to have a pool gym, rec center, beautiful facility, a movie theater

where the folks, again, can live and heal and grow together. to see it completely done, to see it fully furnished, it's a blessing to be able to get a home like this. my children struggle a lot, but i feel like this community will bring a closeness with other children that are struggling with the same thing that they are. this is going to be my home. if you look around, can you just imagine the families like minded folks? that's going to be here. here at the let us do good village, we can bring all those folks together. this is something that america is missing. people seeing these things happen inspire others to do good. we need to take care of our gold star families. tunnel to towers does that. this is a foundation that you should be a part of because not just helping me, but there's so many people like me that need help. this time next year, we hope to have another dozen houses done with another dozen families in. it's a way to say thank you to the americans that paid

and made the ultimate sacrifice. every inch of this community has meaning.

ashley: all right let's take a look at these futures ahead of the opening bell in about what, three, four minutes from now. the dow on the upside but the s&p and nasdaq just slightly lower. ray wang is here today. ray of course is our tech guy. good morning to you. i want to talk about tesla heading for its worst month year -on-record. this stock is down 6% year-to-date. when does it stop tanking, ray, what's going on? >> great question, happy holidays. bunch of things are happening with tesla. one is the fact the china reopen market did not pan out the way it should. at first it was really about zero covid. now it's about let it rip covid

and basically the demand for ev 's in china is starting to drop. a lot of it is based on subsid ies that end at the end of december and also, the fact that the reopen has not gone the way it should. a lot of factories are closed. they should down factories in factories and tesla for the end of the year and most people believe they aren't going to hit the 1.4 million vehicle delivery number they were promising and that's lying on it and of course , a number of people feel that elon might be distracted with the twitter purchase. ashley: yeah, i think, i mean, and with good reason, would you not agree, ray? while, you know, he's fiddling with the twitter saga, tesla continues to burn a little bit. i mean, should he find someone else to take over at twitter and get back to what he does best? >> ashley, you're absolutely right. normally elon comes in. he basically fixes the problem. brings a bunch of lieutenants in place, in stalls them so they

actually run the operations and he can work on strategy. he's in the middle of trying to do that but going to have a tough time finding a ceo for twitter at the moment. the other factor is he's also taken $39 billion out of tesla stock and investors are not happy with that overall, so those are a couple factors that are driving that but you know, with the twitter side it's a different game. ashley: it certainly is. i guess, ray, let's kind of pullback a little bit. what tech stocks are you considering as perhaps buys right now? >> yeah, so that's interesting. the matona set of stocks, microsoft, apple, tesla, amazon, nvidia and alphabet have been battered the most mostly because of interest rates but when i think about what's happened in the larger market the trends we're seeing enterprises are looking at analytics, automation , ai, and the cloud and those are areas where i'd continue to invest because there are a lot of good deals and the chip stocks for example, tsm c is one of the chip stocks i'd look at there's a

$40 billion investment in u.s. plants going on that will actually create opportunities. i like the cloud companies like the ones at microsoft, amazon and google. they have still been growing at 20-30% clip and of course cybersecurity stocks, you know crowdstrike, palo alto networks are doing well and of course enterprise tech clouds, adobe, salesforce, workday, these are companies that have been doing well, service now that actually have, you know, strong growth and also fit that analytics, automation, ai and cloud. >> [opening bell ringing] ashley: ray wang, great information as always, ray, thank you very much. we're getting ready for another day's trading on wall street. we think we're going to start slightly higher there the dow futures up 27 points, the bells are ringing and we're going to get underway. here we go. we are off and running. by the way, the nasdaq just out of interest is down nearly 34% this year, ouch. all right let's take a look at the dow shall we right out of

the opening bell. merck is up, united health group , coca cola, on the upside, downside chevron, goldman sachs the dow up about a tenth of a percent up 45 points in the very early going. let's take a look at the s&p that's an index down nearly 20% on the year but just ever so slightly higher at the opening bell today. the s&p at 3,831 and the nasdaq again very marginally just very small amount lower down five points at 10, 344. we always like to take a look at those big tech names, microsoft and meta very modestly on the upside. alphabet down, apple down one- third of a percent and amazon also down three-quarters of a per senator cotton at -- percent at 8,240. a number of ceo's of these companies have been taking a beating as far as their net worth goes i'm sure it's pretty brutal. how much did they lose, lauren? lauren: together, $433 billion,

okay? tesla's elon musk has seen his net worth dive the most, 132 billion evaporated as tesla stock is doing worse than bitcoin this year. it's down 69%, okay? jeff bezos, he lost $84 billion, amazon shares cut in half, mark zuckerberg lost 81 billion, meta down by two-thirds, far behind but still losing money this year google founders sergi brennan and larry page lost about $40 billion each , microsoft's bill gates and steve balmer about 20 billion or so each but microsoft shares are only, ashley, down 29% this year and that's looking good compared to the rest of the bunch. ashley: only 29% and you know what, lauren? i want to get back to elon musk. more bad news for him, right? lauren: i'm going to quote dan ives and he says the tesla plane is crashing and musk is focused on salted or unsalted pretzels. tesla is the worst performer in

the s&p 500 this year that for the first time in two years it's no longer in the top 10 u.s. companies looking at market capitalization. its cap now is 345 billion. do you remember when it was at a trillion dollars and we celebrated that not too long ago its been an amazing freefall. ray was talking about a lot of these issues but investors are worried about the reported production suspension in shanghai, and the disintegration of the brand that is tesla, because of the twitter noise. it's happening here in the u.s. and abroad. citi kind of looked at insurance registrations in china so what is demand for new teslas it's down on the monthly basis by 45%. ashley: ouch. lauren: yup. ashley: things go from bad to worse. lauren: china has a lot of expensive ev's so maybe the answer for tesla in china is a cheaper ev? ashley: yeah, and greater volume let's talk about southwest,

talking about from bad-to-worse. they have been plagued as we know by delays and cancellations any sign that this is going to ease up sooner rather than later lauren: and she laughs, but really what a tragic story for so many people this holiday season. so, southwest will operate about one-third of its schedule through at least tomorrow. it canceled 64% of its flights on tuesday, yesterday. so far, what, 9:30 in the morning already 2,500 canceled today. i looked out for tomorrow. they are already canceling flights and this is just so we can stabilize its systems. the i.t. there is outdated. they can't even match where the plane is with a crew that can fly it. you have the southwest ceo apologizing telling reuters we'll reimburse customers for their travel-related costs but look, ashley so many people missed christmas. they might miss new years. there's no money that makes up for that and on top of all this

the senate is going to investigate so it won't happen again but it already happened. ashley: let's hope. i feel so sorry for those people what an absolute nightmare. all right, the stock itself southwest down nearly 3%. let's talk about generac, the power people. whose bullish on this company? lauren: finally, jamie montgomery scott starts at $160 price target which means the stock is going back to basically where it started the year a gain of 75%. its been annihilated this year. this is what the analyst says. the core residential home stand by generator business is in the early stages of a downturn so it's going to get bad but the stock has already factored that into the share price. this is your worst performer for the year in the s&p 500. ashley: interesting logic. all right let's move on. let's take a look at lyft, the people who, you know, you can call and they will take you somewhere. not a good year for them right? lauren: they are under $10, right? they went public right before

the pandemic in 2019 at $72 a share, but even back then, i took a look right before they ipo'd. they revealed they lost close to a billion dollars, in the prior-year, 2018, so come on what has really changed in these years since? now, they are under $10 so they are on watch, obviously. ashley: they are indeed. all right, lauren thank you very much, great run-through. let's take a look at the 10-year treasury yield. the higher this goes the harder it is on the big growth stocks, especially in the nasdaq of course. the yield down slightly, the yield now on the 10-year at 3.83%. let's take a look at gold. we don't talk about gold that much these days. it's down 10 bucks at $1,812 per troy ounce, down half a percent. what about bitcoin that too up a whopping $16 at 16, 706 take a look at the price of oil we've been talking about oil this

morning it's down half a percent at $79.06 a barrel. what about natural gas as we're in the middle of the winter here of course, natural gas also down 9% or more, down about $0.50 at $4.79. by the way the average price for a gallon of regular we mentioned this earlier $3.13 ink across country, and for a gallon of diesel, not so nice. it's $4.67. it really does add up especially for those big 18 wheelers that are traveling ink across country very expensive diesel. coming up, the white house promises to comply with the high court's order to keep title 42 in place, but they're blaming republicans, of course for the chaos at the border. how? i wonder what republican congressman andy biggs makes of that? i'm going to ask him. also, are you a gen z or millennial with a deathly fear of talking on the phone? well the quote "phone lady" has a solution for you, but it will cost you.

we've got the details, and then there's this. disgraced ftx boss sam bankman-fried already appears to be turning his crypto saga into a blockbuster. sbf met with big short writer michael lewis during his house arrest and we'll bring you the very latest, next. ♪ get refunds.com powered by innovation refunds can help your business get a payroll tax refund, even if you got ppp and it only takes eight minutes to qualify. i went on their website, uploaded everything,

and i was blown away by what they could do. getrefunds.com has helped businesses get over a billion dollars and we can help your business too. qualify your business for a big refund in eight minutes. go to getrefunds.com to get started. powered by innovation refunds.

-hey there. -hey. -hi. hey there. how are you? i'm with disabled american veterans. i was wondering if you had a quick minute to thank america's veterans for their service and sacrifices -of course, why not? -oh, sure. -absolutely. -sure. all right. well, come on in here. i'm just going to hit record on this. i would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart. i can't even think of the words of how grateful i am. i want to tell you guys how much, how much we appreciate. but most importantly, i want to thank you for your courage and bravery. wow. thank you.

someone here who'd like to say something to you? oh god, you guys are awesome! someone has something they want to say to you. oh my goodness! how's it going? awe! so i will let you know how much appreciate it. how much we appreciate it! just feel honored, for everything you've done. thank you for myself, thank you for everybody. i get to live every day, you know, in peace because of yo a lot of people thank us, but we want to take the time to thank you honestly, for giving back. and when you gave to dav, you are supporting veterans like dave and myself. so thank you so much. thank you, you guys are amazing. thank you. thank you. you can say thank you to our nation's heroes, by calling the number on your screen right now, and giving your monthly support of only $19. say thank you by going to helpdav.org right now,

and give just $19 a month. when you do, we will give you this dav blanket as a thank you and a reminder that you support those who served please call or go online to helpdav.org right now. your support says thank you to our nation's disabled american veterans ashley: all right, let's take a look at these markets quickly. we are on the up about four- tenths of a percent across-the-board for the dow, s&p and the nasdaq. all right, now this. president biden is giving federal employees a raise. how much more are they getting? that is the question and lauren has the answer. lauren: i do. by executive order of the

president 2.1 million federal employees will get a pay raise of on average 4.6%, starting next week. president biden championing the move, so government workers can keep up with inflation, although they are not. they are still behind it, and so the government can retain qualified staff, so here, ashley , the federal sector is feeling the same labor pains as the private sector but no private sector ceo has the power of the presidential pen to give everyone a raise without any sort of consequence. so, you have a raise and look, i think everyone should get a race i'm not against it. it's just not that easy in the real-world. ashley: it really isn't. you're absolutely right. todd? let me ask you, is this pay raise for the federal employees a good move? what do you think? todd: for oprah winfrey here is giving out raises to everybody, you get a raise, and i'm talking about lauren simonetti. it is. ashley: [laughter] lauren: i've been called worse. todd: the opinion of the federal

bureaucracy is wildly over bloated. i don't think we need the number of people to do the jobs we do but for those people who are essential, inflation is hitting everybody, and if you can negotiate a raise whether privately or public publicly, with the public sector unions go for it or just the biden administration giving it to you. ashley: why not? they give anything away apparently. all right, thank you, guys. now, this. the average holiday debt saw 24% from last year to 1,550 bucks that's the average debt load. we need an economist and john lonski is here. john? that, by the way, that number is an eight-year high for holiday debt. why are people just spending and spending despite not having the money? caution to the wind almost. >> well, i think they still believe they have a lot of money in their bank account. they have a lot of cash on hand but unfortunately, that's not the case for most americans. last week, we had an article in the "wall street journal" that

said a major source of consumer loans has reduced its lending to what you call near-prime borrowers. those are consumers with a credit score of between 620-659 points. they reduced lending to that group by 50%, because they have detected a reduction in their cash holdings as well as this drop in personal savings. listen, when you add to this , this increase in debt, sky-high heating bills that are likely to start showing up in the mailbox come this january, i'd be braced for quite a slowdown by consumer spending in the early months of 2023. ashley: and as we look ahead, john, i was just making a list. we have a rise in inflation, higher interest rates, we know we have a softening housing market, supply chain issues are not completely fixed, declining capital investments and escalat ing costs for wages and

energy. put all of that together. it's going to be a tough road ahead would you not say for next year? >> you are correct. you know, we're going to be paying the price. we're going to have sort of like this economic hangover from the excesses we had in terms of fiscal and monetary stimulus 2020 and 2021. you're talking about housing. it's shocking that according to case schiller, the home price index has now declined for three consecutive months after setting a record high back in june, i believe so we're going to be in some trouble when we begin to notice that we're not as wealthy as we were six-to-nine months ago. ashley: very quickly, john. i see economists on average predicting maybe gdp gaining for the entire year next year about 0.7%. do you agree with that? >> a little bit too high. i think it's going to be more

like 0.5% and i believe the shocker is going to be that we're not going to do much better in 2024. i think we'll slowdown 0.2%. i'll add to this with this type of economic slowdown with an increase in the unemployment rate that federal funds rate right now at 4.38% will be a percentage point lower this time next year. i also see the 10-year treasury yield heading down to about 3.2% interest rates currently are just too high, too steep for this weakening economy to shoulder. ashley: very good. right. john lonski, a fountain of information this morning, john, thank you very much. i wanted to get to this story. we've been following the massive layoffs in big tech this year, thousands and thousands of workers but todd? are these workers staying out of the job market for long? that's the big question. todd: no. mostly tech workers are finding jobs shortly after beginning their searches. employers continue to scoop up workers in this tight labor market. about 79% workers recently hired

after a tech company lay off or termination landed their new job within three months of starting their search that's not bad according to a zip recruiter survey of new hires that was just below the 83% share of all laid off workers reemployed in the same timeframe. nearly four-in-10 previously laid off tech workers found jobs less than a month after they began searching so lack i don't think 2023 is going to be great for hiring for jobs but that is a good sign so hopefully the tech industry is a harbinger of things to come. ashley: if you got tech skills you can certainly, you know, you'll be in demand no doubt. todd thank you very much. all right now this coming up what's next for the goat? tom brady is talking about his next step. listen to this. >> i think next time i decide to retire, that's it for me, so whatever that day comes we'll figure it out. ashley: he said that before, hasn't he? we'll get into that. thousands of people are still stranded ink across country

after flight cancellations and delays. the flight frustrations now forcing the federal government to step in, but are they doing enough? we've got a report on that, right after this. ♪ (lighthearted music) - "best thing i've ever done." that's what freddie told me. - a person like me needed to get a reverse mortgage to change my life. it was the best thing i've ever done. - really? - yes, without doubt! - [tom selleck] joanne said just about the same thing. - it absolutely is the best thing i ever did. - jack put it a different way. to him, it was about having his grandkids over. - you want to have the kids over, you want to have the grandkids over. - yeah. - you want to have the family over. you want to say, "this is my place." - great people, different people. that's for sure. and all of them had different reasons

for getting a reverse mortgage. but you know what? they all felt the same about two things. they all loved their home, and they all wanted to stay in that home. - [announcer] if you are 62 or older and own your home, find out how you could access your home's equity to give you cash now. and when you need it in the future. a reverse mortgage could put more money in your pocket by eliminating your monthly mortgage payments. it could also pay off higher interest credit cards, medical costs, and give you some extra cash to help your retirement lifestyle. - i don't have any anxiety about money anymore. - it allowed me to live in my home and not have to make payments. - a whole lot of families have gotten tax free cash from a reverse mortgage loan for a better retirement. - i don't have to worry about a mortgage payment every month. - it's a good thing. - [announcer] call right now to receive your free, no obligation info kit. the kit will show you how you may get the cash you need using your home's equity as a reverse mortgage from aag.

- call the number on your screen. - look, why don't you call aag and find out what a reverse mortgage can mean for you? - [announcer] call aag, the country's number one reverse mortgage lender. - call the number on your screen. it's official, america. xfinity mobile is the fastest mobile service. and gives you unmatched savings with the best price for two lines of unlimited. only $30 a line per month. that means you could save hundreds a year over t-mobile, at&t and verizon. the fastest mobile service and major savings? can't argue with the facts. no wonder xfinity mobile is one of the fastest growing mobile services, now with over 5 million customers and counting.

get in on the savings and switch today. first psoriasis, then psoriatic arthritis. even walking was tough. i had to do something. i started cosentyx®. cosentyx can help you move, look, and feel better... by treating the multiple symptoms of psoriatic arthritis. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting...get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections some serious... and the lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms... or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. tell your doctor if your crohn's disease symptoms...

develop or worsen. serious allergic reactions may occur. watch me. ashley: southwest flights still being canceled ink across country following the holiday weekend leaving of course thousands of travelers stranded. lydia hu has joins me this morning and has the very latest and how is southwest continuing to respond to this all? reporter: hi there, ashley. good to see you. southwest responded last night with a video apology from the ceo bob jordan. watch here. >> please, also hear that i'm truly sorry. here is why this giant puzzle is taking us several days to solve. clearly, we need to double down on our already-existing plans to upgrade systems for these extreme circumstances so that we never again face what's happening right now. reporter: more than 2,500 southwest flights are canceled

for today. that's 62% of the airline's scheduled flights and of course it's following the cancellations from yesterday. now, as the holiday travel this nightmare continues for thousands, questions are raised on how a company that received more than $7 billion in covid relief could be so fragile the union representing southwest flight attendants blames an aggressive schedule, an outdated operations and technology. >> this is an issue that only the executives of southwest airlines can cure and fix by choosing to invest in the appropriate systems and frankly, i'm not quite sure when we are going to crawl out of this. reporter: now, ashley, as other airlines have recovered from the winter storm, it seems southwest situation perhaps is getting worse, passengers continue to face thousands of cancellations. the airline will only operate about one-third of its flights in the coming days. the stock price took a dive

yesterday and some say the reputation may take an even bigger blow. one analyst telling me this is one of the most damaging events to southwest's brand in more than 50 years of business. ashley. ashley: yeah, i'm not surprised. lydia hu, thank you very much. i have time to bring in todd here. you know what strikes me about this story, todd, is that we knew this big storm was coming. the forecasters were talking about it for at least a week ahead saying by the time it gets to the east coast, it's going to be this bomb cyclone and yet here is an airline that says well, we just, we were caught unaware. the excuses so far just don't seem to hit the right cord for me. todd: i agree and i understand they have a different system of approaching flights than all other airlines. the spoke-and-hub-type deal versus whatever they do but that said you're putting out a product to the american people they can buy for the holiday season. you need to be able to deliver on that product regardless of

the inconveniences that are provided. you're supposed to plan for that and to that point you heard in that piece, $7 billion to deal with staff shortages and the like. you should be better able to deal with this especially around the holidays when people want to see their families. ashley: well, i know you haven't flown commercial for many years and your private jet is warming up as we speak. todd, thank you so much for joining us for the hour today. we always have a lot of fun. thanks so much. quick check of the markets as we head towards the end of the hour as you can see the dow, the s&p and the nasal moving ever so modestly higher. all right, still ahead, arizona congressman andy biggs, jason ra ntz out in seattle, rob smith and kim strassel. great lineup. the 10 a.m. hour of "varney" & company is next. ♪

good luck. .. nna, this position is all over the place, help! hey professor, subscriptions are down but that's only an estimated 15% of their valuation. do you think the market is overreacting? how'd you know that? the company profile tool, in thinkorswim®. yes, i love you!! please ignore that. td ameritrade. award-winning customer service that has your back. then i got the dexcom g6. i just glance at my phone, and there's my glucose number. wow. my a1c has dropped over 2 points to 7.2. that's a huge victory.