sector, when it comes to restaurants, truck drivers, and inflation is slowing. we just got that data 30 minutes ago so i think the feds going to be an interesting data point to watch in two weeks from now when they meet and make their decision on interest rates. >> right. maria: what do you think, kenny? >> right. so i do agree and i think we are going into a recession i'm not calling for a deep long one but i am calling for a significant slowdown, right? one that's going to kind of shake the markets for a little bit, but i do think the second half of 2023 is going to start to turn around and the year will end higher so i'm long term bull ish, short-term cautious. maria: yeah, joe manchin was confident we're not going to see a disruption in the economy in markets. the debt ceiling will likely be raised but also quite practical in terms of identifying places to cut spending. >> cheryl: great interview, maria. >> that was perfect and i think he's right. maria: thanks, you guys cheryl casone, kenny polcari, we'll see you later "varney" & company begins now thanks for being with us, we'll see you tomorrow.

stu take it away. stuart: good morning, maria, and good morning, everyone. we have the latest inflation news and it is positive. inflation at the producer level, that's the cost of business, rising 6.2% in the last 12 months. perhaps more important, the rate month-over-month coming in at a minus 0.5%, so, the pace a price rises is absolutely slowing down how is the market responding to that? i'll tell you, on the right hand side we've got a little green, modest gains after that inflation report. the dow, s&p, dow is up 40, s&p 13, nasdaq nice gain, its been up for seven straight trading sessions up another 50 or 60 at the opening bell today. oil, well it keeps on going up. i'm looking at 81.30 per-barrel as of right now up over a buck. gas, that keeps going higher too , creeping up. regular average is 3.35 today, and that is up a full $0.03 overnight. politics, discord at the white

house. why was it the president's lawyers who checked classified documents and not the fbi? press secretary jean-pierre appears to have lost the press, the press corps, that is, intense sometimes hostile questioning, and there's this. the white house tried to persuade reporters oh, don't cover the document scandal. go after any deals kevin mccarthy made as in the speaker election that's a real distraction right there. europe and america on the brink of supplying more game-changing weapons to ukraine battle tanks, armored troop carriers, a half million artillery shells. there is a sense that the war is at a turning point. where a ukraine will is possible how about this? there's a shortage of ozempic, the diabetes treatment, you've seen the ads i'm sure turns out a lot of people are using it for weight reduction. is this a win over the woke mob? ham line university now says its decision to fire a teacher who displayed the image of the

profit mohammed was "floored." in hindsight they say the teacher is not islamophobic but she's going to carry that label for the rest of her career wednesday, january 18, 2023, "varney" & company is about to begin. here we go, one more time, everybodies feeling fine, here we go now ♪ stuart: all right let's get on with it shall we? we inventory latest read on producer prices, very important read on inflation. good morning, lauren. i think it was a positive report lauren: i'd agree with you. so these are the prices that businesses pay to stock their shelves, fell much more than expected last month, down half a percent from november. the core, take out food, take out energy. it did rise but just a tenth of 1%. good news for the fed, trying to combat inflation, downside surprise is a positive for the market. stuart: okay how about retail sales got those numbers as well.

lauren: this is a downside surprise also and it's not a positive. december spending fell a steep 1.1% in december. what i found so interesting is we spent less on gasoline, down 4.6% from november, and we also spent less online, that non- store retail category, amazon and other retailers, that fell 1.1%, so, the translation is we're pulling back across-the-board, we're not going out as much, or spending as much sitting home. stuart: i've got to take that as a recession indicator. a slowing of the economy. lauren: it could be. high prices and high rates are catching up. and december includes the all- important holiday season stuart: it does indeed. futures though, in the green all across-the-board. not much, dow up 27 for the dow but 60 for the nasdaq. look whose here now. eddie ghabour. all right, eddie. let's have it. inflation down. retail sales down. you are still not buying stock, are you? >> no, look.

this just another typical bear market bounce. we've saw plenty of them last year, that sucked investors in, and just as soon as they think the bull market starts again, we make new lows and that's what i think the setup is and in the near term these next two weeks are critical because we have a lot of earnings coming out from mega cap tech companies next week and then a fed meeting after that the following week so if the market stays resilient through that that'll be saying a lot but i don't think it will once we get through these next two weeks. stuart: don't you get a lot of clients saying to you, hey, come on, eddie, when am i going to get back in again here, i missed a few rallies and you are just about your position. you get a lot of pressure? >> no, you know what's interesting is? our client base is completely on board with our thinking, and they wonder why, they ask me why is everyone else so bullish when i'm seeing economy slowdown. i talk to business owners around the country, clients from all around the country and they are all saying the same thing and sometimes, things are so obvious

but you overthink it and you try to find a reason to be bullish. we just look at the data, and the consumer is getting weaker and weaker. this , in my opinion, is why we're going to see inflation also get lower and lower over the next several quarters because we're heading into an inflation. the cost of capital is crippling consumers. look at lines of credit, you're seeing delinquencies rise on credit cards, on auto loans, and this is with full employment, so what's going to happen when unemployment starts to rise with these debts? commercial debt, when they start refinancing those loans, how are they going to be able to carry and cash flow these properties when they have retailers that are probably going to be out of business? so the macro environment is extremely, it's getting worse, and until i see something different, i'm not going to be bullish. stuart: okay, eddie. you've made your case and you made it well as you usually do. we'll see you again next time. see if you change, you'll see. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: now, this.

the white house maintains there is no visitor log for president biden's home in delaware; however, an informal list of people who did have access to the house, that has been compiled. informal list. whose on it? lauren: by the way secret service also didn't keep a list or a log just so we know. stuart: that's incredible. lauren: it absolutely is, but look, we have some sort of list. stuart: everybody just walks up to the president of the united states knocks on the door and you're in? lauren: it seems so. that seems so. it's just scrolling and scroll ing this long list of people we know paid biden a house call senators chuck schumer and manchin, apparently went to his home, they wanted to talk build back better. steve roshetti, his counselor, hunter had unlimited access and he also listed this wilmington home as his permanent address on his credit card and on his driver's license. i mean, the home was the defacto campaign headquarters back in 2020 remember the basement? so managers going in and out everybody had access to this home. stuart: but you're telling me

the secret service didn't keep a list of people who walked into that house? must have been hundreds of people over the years and we don't know who they are? lauren: because it was a private residence. stuart: but he had secret service protection. he's the president of the united states. lauren: uh-huh, and remember jen psaki, oh, i wish she was press sebaceous again you might actually get answers but she said over and over again the president can work from anywhere, and often works from home, so one would think. stuart: on that subject, white house press secretary karine jean-pierre continuing to spar with reporter s over the document scandal. you better watch this , roll it. reporter: why shouldn't americans be upset about documents found in a garage? >> that's where the american people to decide. >> on friday, did you or did you not know about the additional -- >> i literally just answered that question. reporter: i missed it so is it yes or no? >> well you're not too far sitting next to her, so i was very clear. you guys can ask me this a hundred times, 200 times if you wish. i'm going to keep saying the

same thing. i hear your question. its been asked. its been answered. its been noted. stuart: okay, i think we need to bring in sean duffy and there he is thank goodness. all right, sean. this is to say the least an evolving story, are we anywhere near the bottom, do you think? >> yeah, it's evolving. no doubt, stuart. no, we haven't come close to the bottom of this story. can i make one quick point? with regard to the secret service, the conversation you and lauren just had, no doubt they don't have what's called a visitor log per say, but they have records of everyone who had contact with the president and the candidate biden and they could compile that information and turn it over and not call it a visitor log but there is documentation so just a quick note on that but i think it's rich that karine jean-pierre is basically saying listen, i've answered the question, don't ask it anymore, we aren't going back so they are like, but we don't know what the answer is so that means you actually haven't

answered the question and the press keeps asking the question because she refuses to answer it number one but i love this , stuart, in the sense i feel like i'm back two years in a donald trump press conference where the press is alive. they ask questions, they are engaged. for two years we haven't had that but finally on this , this liberal media at least comes and asks questions that the american people demand to know and want to know and deserve to know and thank goodness for that that the media is not completely dead and it's not just peter doocy out there asking questions of joe biden. stuart: thank goodness for that. speaker mccarthy says the house oversight committee should investigate the miss miss hand eling of classified documents and former president trump. watch this. >> the house, we have a constitutional responsibility to oversee the justice department and that also means overseeing the special counsel, so we will look into both situations. stuart: okay, sean, what do you say? investigate both?

>> well, so, again, i think it's what the speaker is saying there is listen, what did donald trump do with these classified documents? were they declassified? how is the fbi and the doj treating the trump investigation and by the way, how are they treating the biden investigation so this is about oversight over this whole operation and i think a lot of americans, especially conservatives, feel like there's two tiers of justice. one, this far more stringent for republicans or conservative s and one that's far more lenient for liberals and i think what the speaker is saying we're going to push for equity and justice under the law, equality under the law, and to do that we have to be involved in these investigations , and how they're run, and so with that, i agree. by the way, i think, i mean, joe biden is right to say listen, the doj didn't ask the fbi to come in and raid the homes. they actually were in agreement to say listen, we're going to let the biden lawyers go through

this classified information. it's absolutely unheard of, the congress needs to look at this and why it happened this way, stuart. can i make one last point, stuart before you let me go? stuart: sure. quick. >> why aren't we talking about bitcoin today, when bitcoin is down you want to talk about bitcoin but when it's up and there's a rally, there's a talking conversation with stuart you want to leave it alone. stuart: you got me. point taken bitcoin is at 21, 500. yes, sean, we will be watching your new show "the bottom line" with dagen which launches monday alt 6:00 p.m. eastern. thanks for being with us, shawn, always good. thanks a lot. futures are closing ever so slightly higher after a favorable inflation report earlier this morning. and then there's this. climate czar john kerry mocked for his davos speech. watch this. >> i mean, it's so almost extra terestrial to think about " saving the planet. if you said that to most people, most people they think you're just a crazy tree-hugging lefty

liberal. stuart: well i have nothing to add to that. we'll be back with more, i promise. ukraine's interior minister was among 18 killed in a helicopter crash near kyiv. no word on if the crash was an accident or related for war. we've got a report from kyiv, next. ♪ ♪ engineered to elevate the senses... touch, sight, sound, and scent. it's the electric that recharges you. the all new, all electric eqe sedan from mercedes-benz. to you, it may just be an elevator. here goes nothing. but for a young homeowner becoming their parents,

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stuart: a helicopter crash at a suburb of kyiv left at least 18 people dead including the interior minister of ukraine alex hogan is at the crash site. what's the latest? reporter: hi, stuart. we can still smell the smoke

from earlier this morning when part of this helicopter crashed into this kindergarten behind me officials are currently bringing some of those victims out of the school in body bags, and it was earlier this morning, take a look at this footage of essentially an inferno that was created in this entire area. the energy services of this emergency services chopper created this fire by clipping the roof of the school in what is believed to be a pilot error in initial investigations and could be a potential mechanical issue. all nine people who were on board have died and the interior minister and state secretary and all together more than a dozen are dead. three of them reportedly were children. at least 20 people have also been hospitalized. now, residents who live here tell me that they thought this was an [inaudible] -- stuart: i'm afraid our apology but the audio is breaking up but i think you get the sense of what just happened right in a

suburb of kyiv. helicopter crash, 18 dead. crashed into a kindergarten or school and the interior secretary in ukraine has died in that crash. former navy seal commander dave sea joins me now. dave thanks for being here this morning. we seem to be on the brink of supplying battle tanks and heavy weapons to ukraine. there's a sense that a win by ukraine is possible. what do you say to that? >> i'd like to know what they mean by a win. stuart: i'll tell you what. i'll say what i mean by a win. expelling all russian troops who are now occupying the 17% of ukraine, that they didn't occupy a year ago. that's a win to me. what do you say? >> no, that be really interesting but that's not a win to president zelenskyy so if you expel them back to the territor ies in donesk that they previously controlled de facto and you allow them to still control crimea as they did before, i agree with you, that's a win if that can be done, and

basically go back to the stalemate the original lines, but that's not what president zelenskyy in ukraine stands as. stuart: okay but if we give them these battle tanks, the challenger from britain, even an m-1 abrams from the united states, leopard tanks from germany, artillery shells a half million are going over there right now. if we do all of that can be achieve, we're not going to argue about a definition of a win but can we give a real boost to the ukrainians and set putin running back? >> i don't know that you can send him running back. his border is right there. he's mobilizing more troops, so russia has always been very famous for throwing mass, not talent, and great strategy at things but just pure mass at a problem for a long duration, so it's interesting as well that in this recent mobilization they are talking about we don't know it's completely factual yet but increasing the army up to

1.5 million troops, by 2026, this goes past the march 2024 elections in russia, so they are sort of indicating that we're in this for the long-haul and if you look at traditional russian tactics and strategy, they're in it for the long-haul. stuart: but, i keep going back to this. but if we supply them with these heavy weapons, don't we have a chance of pushing putin back? i don't know how far but just, you know, he doesn't win this winter. ukraine could, in a sense, win. are you in favor of that? >> i'm in favor of ukraine winning, absolutely, and pushing russia back to those lines if they are able to do it. i don't know that that ends the war though, so is it necessary to get a stalemate? stuart: it would bring a peace talk. if you push him back a certain degree, you can establish peace talks on that basis, because he's beaten. >> i think he looks at that as

a win. is he beaten, and can you do the peace talks be my big question. if zelenskyy is not willing to come to the table until all of ukraine, previous territories are there, then we have a problem. if, as you said, and i think if you supply them with these weapons the technology, the ins, it can be done, certainly back to those original territories. then can the u.s. and europe force both ukraine and russia to the peace talks, that be great. stuart: i think we both got leverage. sir, thanks for joining us this morning. touchy subject and a flowing situation but you handled right good, thanks a lot. appreciate it. all right, an afghan soldier has been in custody on our southern border since september. he had helped american troops try to cross the border illegally. he's now behind bars, but listen congresswoman sheila jackson lee is trying to help him. what's she doing? lauren: she wrote a letter to president biden asking him to pardon mr. abdul safi, because yes, he worked alongside

american troops in afghanistan and he fled when we left afghanistan and the taliban took over and started hunting for afghans who aided americans, so he is trying to reunite with his brother in the u.s. by seeking asylum at our southern border but he has been in custody since september 30. the feds have interviewed him. he's next due in court next month. she says pardon him. i would agree. stuart: got it. thanks very much lauren. check those futures again, please. inflation moves earlier this morning we're in the green. it's not a huge rally by any means but the nasdaq up seven trading sessions in a row and up again at the opening bell this morning. well the opening bell is next and we'll take you there. ♪ listen to the money talk ♪

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stuart: futures point higher, let's put it like that dow up 60 , nasdaq up 80. shah gilani is here. you think we're still in a bear market, i understand. well, answer me this one. what could get us out of this bear market? >> well, the dow is not in a bear market. its risen above bear market territory. nasdaq a positive stuart still in a bear market and the

institutional benchmark the s&p 500 is right at the border and could, i think, very easily break above what is the bear market trend, and turn positive, so that's where we are what could push us backwards? well there's a whole bunch of thins that could push us backwards. it's more important to me what can push us higher and that is the macro narratives are more positive now. i think investors are looking at okay we probably have a somewhat disappointing earnings season in the fourth quarter. probably have something of disappointing earnings season in the first quarter of 2023, but that means the fed will likely pause, and if the fed pauses in the spring, investors are trying to front-run that, get ahead of that buy stocks beaten up and we're at a point especially in the s&p we get a little bit higher we'll see a lot of money come off the sidelines and move the market probably considerably higher. stuart: you can make the case that the feds going to pause. today we got again, favorable inflation news. we got retail sales actually

falling in december. i would have thought that was fairly favorable to the fed and look on the left-hand side of the screen, we've got interest rates coming down. the yield on on the 10-year way down 3.38 is the yield: you can make a pretty strong case for a bull run fairly soon, can't you? >>u can, and one of the things that has investors worried, however, is the fact that the market has risen, and that means that it's easier financial conditions which the fed really doesn't want. everything else seems to be working. the economy seems to be slowing which is what the fed wants. looks like they could pull off a "soft landing" and so the markets think if that's the case, then yes, there's a lot of stocks, a lot of great companies on sale right now and a lot of money trillions of dollars on the sidelines, and that money could come in, and again, we could get past this fairly easily, have a soft landing. i don't think the fed is going to pivot and cut rates but they are going to pause. we know that because they talked about the lag effect. in other words, letting the interest rates do what they

do, and stop raising at some point to see what happens to the economy. they are going to have to allow that lag to somehow show up and i think maybe one or two more meetings they're done. stuart: okay, have you bought any big names recently that have dipped recently? >> i'm a little bit behind on the big tech companies so admittedly i need to catch up there but yeah i bought some energy companies yesterday, diamondback energy, simple a position in that, also, i like shippers but china opening up i think the shipping companies are going to do well, zim integrated is one, both of those have phenomenonal dividend yields, so i liked being paid to hold stock s that i think are going to appreciate. stuart: okay, we welcome a fed pause if and when it comes, shah gilani, you're all right thanks for being with us, talk to you again soon. the dow industrials, well i'm ahead of myself here. the market has just opened. it is 9:30 eastern time on this wednesday morning.

>> [opening bell ringing] stuart: and we've opened higher i think yeah, we've opened higher up just 27 points that's not a huge rally obviously by any means. i see quite a few stocks on the upside there. some have not yet opened, okay, look at the s&p 500 where are we we're up one-third of 1% and back above the 4,000 level. nasdaq composite up .63%, pretty solid, 11, 100. big tech all higher. amazon is up nearly 2%. alphabet $92 a share. apple, well just 136 but it's up slightly. microsoft 241 and meta is up a bit more than a half percentage point. staying on microsoft, they have just announced job cuts. you know, this is a big tech trend. lauren: yup, absolutely. 10,000 jobs will be cut at microsoft by fall. less than 5% of their overall staff. why? pc sales are down. businesses have cut back spending on software, but on the cloud, also that's a huge

money maker for microsoft but what is up and this is they have to be cost effective, because they're spending so much on artificial intelligence, remember chat gpt? microsoft already made a $1 billion investment, they want to make more. the ceo says he wants ai in every single product that microsoft makes. this comes at an expense so the message we're hearing from tech is do more with less, be efficient. so if you are a worker employed at one of these great big tech companies you always feel so secure. i think productivity paranoia is starting to sink in. if you don't go to the office maybe you start to show up. stuart: get them worried and make them work harder. lauren: in a way. stuart: amazon 18,000 layoffs this time is that right? lauren: yeah and they start getting notices unfortunately today. it is a lot of people. it's a fraction of the 1.5 million people that work at amazon. the cuts will be concentrated in retail. that's both online and also their brick-and-mortar and human resources. the stocks at 97. the march high was 170. stuart: the march high was 170

and now at 97 my goodness, me. bitcoin, that's had a strong run recently. today it's at 21, 400 has it made up for all of the ground it lost after the ftx collapse? lauren: yeah, so let's go back to november 2 and bitcoin was just over $20,000, so yes, it has recovered. it's up 26% this year and this year is young. volume is coming back. i think that is encouraging. blockchain.com tracks it and they say the dollar value of bitcoin trading volumes in the past week is the highest in two months. i think most people would agree it's too early to declare, you know, definitive reversal, but it's not just bitcoin. if you look at ether and its competitor solana, they are up 18% and 4% respectively in the past seven days. stuart: yes, my grandson has some etherium in his act. we're only down about 30%. lauren: that's it just 30? stuart: he can take it. lauren: he's got many years. stuart: the premier english league club manchester united i

didn't know this but it's up for sale so whose bidding? lauren: jim radcliff. stuart: what's he paying? lauren: i don't know the club is worth $4.5 billion so radcliff has been a fan since his boyhood, one of the richest men in britain. he owns a chemical company, not sure how much the bid is, but he did try to buy chelsea last year and he bid about $4 billion at the time and he didn't get it so we'll see. the deal is expected, according to reports, end of the season. stuart: that's good lauren. you're speaking with authority about soccer. lauren: i know. i'm trying. i did a lot of reading not watching but reading. stuart: you start watching it, it's fun. can you please put moderna on the screen, please? i know they just got results from the rsv vaccine. i guess it was effective. lauren: 84% in people over the age of 60. it is a late stage trial and it showed to prevent two or more symptoms like fever or cough and moderna says the intent to

submit this it's an mrna vaccine for rsv for regulatory approval by june. it's going to be a blockbuster if approved. i mean, cohen is putting the sales at $10 billion worldwide. stuart: assuming people will get this vaccine. lauren: yes, if the mrna technology once again. stuart: they are, ibm is down just a fraction, .01% who doesn't like time? lauren: morgan stanley they are worried about slowing revenue growth we're seeing that in basically every established tech company, ibm be considered old tech right? but established. they take the price target to 148 and cut them to equal weight in the process. stuart: all right got it now let's get back to the overall market. check that big board. we're on the upside in the dow industrials 63 points higher. look at that level. right on the cusp of 34,000 for the dow industrials. the winners list, dow ink, home depot is up there, apple nice gains over 1% back to $137 a

share, visa 224 per share, not bad, s&p 500 moderna is at the top there, with the rsv success for their trial run their vaccine. seagate technology there was, moderna top of the nasdaq oh, look at tesla up nearly four bucks reaching 135. you know, about a week ago or so, 10 days that was $102 a share. lauren: i know. stuart: trying to do the math rapidly that's a gain of about 30% or something loo ic that in the last 10 days, that's not bad pinduoduo is up, kla tencor is up, there is the nasdaq winners for you. how about interest rates down today. will you look at that? the yield on the 10-year treasury all the way down to 3.39%. i don't remember when the high was, but the high was over 4%, so you've seen a significant drop for that crucial 10-year treasury yield. you know, it might be that we'll see even lower mortgage rates, because the 10-year treasury

yield is the basis for mortgage rates we might drop further below 7%. lauren: i think we already have. stuart: yes, i know we have but further below. lauren: yeah and that be great news for homebuilder sentiment. we'll get that number in a few moments. stuart: favorable news on inflation so what's happening with gold? well progressing moving higher nothing to do with the inflation rate, 1,926 on gold. bitcoin, we showed you earlier, show you again. 21, 400. oil up today $81, nearly almost $82 a barrel. nat gas still in the doldrums because its been relatively warm in the northeast. gasoline 3.35 that's up $0.03 overnight. diesel is 4.60. here is what's coming up for you , senate minority leader mitch mcconnell may have had bad blood with trump over the last couple of years but yesterday he stuck up for the former president. roll it. >> i think the important thing with regard to documents is that both these guys ought to be treated exactly the same way. exactly the same way. stuart: okay, that's biden and

trump with the documents treated the same way. okay. take a look at this headline. technology does not displace humans. it creates new higher-paying jobs to replace those it destroy s. peter maurici wrote that and he will justify it right after this ♪

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stuart: we're still seeing green , dow is up 80, nasdaq is up 70, and there's this. hundred of billions of dollars being invested in the semiconductor industry, to increase chip production here in america. jeff flock in philadelphia. will this surge in investment

prevent another chip shortage, jeff? reporter: i sure hope so. i certainly don't want to be in a situation like they were before. i've got tom hessert of hessert chevrolet in philadelphia. you finally got cars back in the showroom. you're pretty thrilled about that. >> we sure are. with all of the issues the last couple years it was thin with inventory. stuart: $210 billion in lost sales because of chips. >> yeah, you know, the chips issues were led to big production problems, through the pandemic but then luckily recently general motors had been producing a lot of vehicles and we're in good shape right now. reporter: and stuart it's not just about cars. it's about pretty much everything. pat gelsinger the ceo of intel was on with maria. here is how he put it. >> it's becoming more digital and everything digital runs on semiconductors, so this is critical to every aspect of human existence and where the oil reserves are define geo

politics for the last five decades. where the technology supply chains and semiconductors are located will define geopolitics for the next five. it's that important. >> great, thank you. reporter: and stuart take a look at the map. this is where some of the investment is going to take place. intel, for their part opening a plant spending $20 billion in ohio, taiwan semiconductors two plants in arizona, micron has got one in upstate new york underway, in clay, new york and in all it's 40 separate projects $200 billion in investment, 40,000 jobs they think. maybe that means there will be enough people making money to buy the cars that have the chips that, well, you know how that works, stuart. stuart: jeff as i understand it, the average car has 100 chips in it. i think that's accurate. that's why we need a lot more. reporter: no, i think you're wrong. the average car i think is it 14 or 1,500 chips, how many? >> it's more than we can count.

it's pretty much everything the electricity touches is affected by a chip. reporter: and i think some of the electrics, stuart, have like 3,000 chips. this is why this is such a problem. stuart: well thanks for bringing me up to speed, jeff. it's a valuable contribution to the show. thank you very much, sir. wow. reporter: finally, i contributed something. stuart: no, no, no, don't do yourself down, you're all right jeff, see you again soon. lauren: also a problem when something goes wrong though in your car, you have to get the computer of the car fixed. stuart: that's right the gentlemen on the right hand side of the screen is none other than professor peter morici. long time no see , professor. welcome back. >> nice to see you, stu, everyone here again. stuart: more jobs are becoming automated robots with all these chips will they deplace humans? >> well they are doing it right now. the latest one is narrators, that new, you know, artificial intelligence bot that microsoft is pedaling. that will replace narrators but overall, yes. it makes the people that remain

much more productive. we can pay them much higher salaries. if three insurance adjustors become one because of artificial intelligence, that makes them much more productive. they get paid more, and in turn, all of these things require to segway or to lean back on the last segment, chips. lots of them. investments in those factories and so forth. the people that say that jobs are going to go away with were the same folks that said we shouldn't have wheels and pull everything around on sleds and things of that nature because this has been going on since the invention of the wheel. stuart: but you've got to raise the skill level of new automation workers. >> that's right. we have to stop sending so many people to college and be angry at their parents. the trick here is to go back to vocational education, but not machine and so fourth but technical skills to feed the software industry. we're moving in that direction, but the private sector is doing

it. not the educational system. people like google and so forth. they are educating people now. stuart: you're an economist. are we going into a recession and if we are going into a recession how bad do you think it's going to be? >> not bad. it really is immaterial whether we have a recession or not. you know, whether we go along at 5% negative growth or 2% positive growth, we're having a slowdown and that's going to put the skids on price increases in some measure. the trick here is to stay with it, not try to res resurrect the economy we did too quickly and we didn't stay with it long enough and inflation came back but yet even stronger but this is not deep if we have it, and the economy is not going to be robust if we miss it. we're going to be hovering around zero. stuart: that means possibly a stock market rally, because the fed will stop raising rates aggressively. are you with me on that? >> yeah, i'm looking to the second half of the year on that, though calling stock market as

everyone knows is a fool's journey, but my feeling is the stocks are going to recover simply because we'll stop raising interest rates sometime later in the year and we'll stay at about 5%. now, 5% is not a nightmare. let's remember that the stock market did very well at higher interest rates before all this , you know, zero money. we're basically going through a one-time adjust the. i'm very optimistic that the u.s. economy is going to do very well with this new technology age. we're going to make the hardware , we're going to write the software, and we're going to do very well, and when you have the carrier industries doing well, they pull everyone else along, so if semiconductors are the new oil, then the new saudi arabia maybe some place in upstate new york or in a warm spot in arizona. stuart: [laughter] good thinking. peter morici, welcome back. it was good to see you again. i know we'll see you again soon, thank you, peter. >> take care. stuart: you got it, man. now this the energy department rushing to secure funds for its green initiatives.

lauren? they're looking for a ton of money aren't they? lauren: like 400 billion. stuart: did you say billion? lauren: billion. 394 billion to be exact as you're reading on the screen at the bottom there, so, the department of energy guarantees loans for certain energy projects. think green projects. it's called the loan program office. hey, it gave tesla secured a loan for $400 million back in 2010 and salindra, was half a trillion dollars. now it's working to give out 394 billion as fast as they can to commercialize green, while president biden is still in office. what can go wrong? stuart: well they are picking winners. they think the government can predict and pick winners, and they often cannot do that. lauren: companies apply and they determine whose worthy of money. stuart: the worst thing possible thanks, lauren. coming up, don't forget to send in your friday feedback, e-mail your questions, comments critiques

to "varney"viewers@fox.com. mayors across the country are in d.c. dealing with out of control crime, migrants, fentanyl, you name it. they want help from the federal government. they want a lot of money. hillary vaughn reports, next. ♪ meet me half way, right at the border that's where i'm going to wait for you ♪ there are some things that go better...together. burger and fries...soup and salad. like your workplace benefits and retirement savings. with voya, considering all your financial choices together can help you make smarter decisions. voya. well planned. well invested. well protected. new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. when you sponsor a job, you immediately get your shortlist of quality candidates, whose resumes on indeed match your job criteria. visit indeed.com/hire and get started today.

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stuart: today, mayors from all across the country are meeting and converging on washington d.c. hillary vaughn is there. all right, hillary. apart from the fact that they want money from the feds, a lot of it, what else is on the agenda? reporter: stuart, a big topic here today is going to be how cities are trying to deal with this influx of migrants that they are seeing in their towns whether or not they're a border town or inner city. new york city mayor eric adams is here in d.c. he just is fresh off a trip from the border where he expressed frustration with how washington, the administration, is not handling the migrant crisis at the border. >> i knew it was time for me not to try to handle this

problem from the city, but to come and to interact with the mayors across the country. this has fallen on our cities and i am now going to coordinate my mayors across the entire country to say how do we respond to this directly. reporter: but it's not just border town mayors that are being faced with issues at the border. it's also inner city mayors who are dealing with picking up the price tag for housing and caring for all the migrants that being are dumped off in their towns. >> greatly. it's, you know, we had over 4,200 almost 4,300 people arrive in our city in 30 days and so i don't know what any city could handle that and to be okay with it so its been great. it's a huge resource drain, very expensive. reporter: and mayor eric adams says he wants fema to essentially handle everything to do with migrants and asylum

seekers, caring for them, housing for them. he wants one coordinator in charge of basically the entire country but the bottom line is if fema were in charge they be picking up the price tag for all of this so cities wouldn't have to deal with the financial burden of it. stuart? stuart: got that. all right, hillary, thanks very much indeed. check those markets we've been in business for 25 minutes on this wednesday morning. dow is up, nasdaq is up, and still ahead, liz peek, arizona congressman david schweickert, will cain and shannon brean, the 10:00 hour is next. ♪

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stuart: good morning. it is 10:00 eastern. straight to the money this wednesday morning bring. a modest rally, stocks, dowse up 50, nasdaq up 100 points. the 10