>> this is just like the august rally and you need the economy to bottom before we're going to go to a bull market. every time we have a rally i get asked is this the start of a bull market and unfortunately right now i don't think that it is. >> we have ascends out of the bear market. just look at the market, and we are in an up-trend.

the trend is your friend. we can see records by the end of maybe the spring or even before you could miss a tremendous value that could last all year. >> joe biden had a really difficult task last night, which was to present the state of the union as strong. when your agenda is not working what do you do? you lie about it and unfortunately, that's what he did last night. >> it's politics 101. blame the other party for everything that's wrong. the house republicans have to lead and we have to find a way over, under, or through the administration to get real things done. ♪ ashley: then the morning comes courtesy of "smash mouth" taking a look at the white house this morning in all its splendor in the sunshine it's 11 a.m. on the east coast on this wednesday , february 8. yes, i'm ashley webster in today for stuary varney.

let's take a look at the markets we had a nice surge yesterday. it was a pretty volatile session yesterday. today we've been down since the opening bell. modestly so, the dow off 112 points just down one-third of a percent although nasdaq starting to sell-off a little more down 1.25%. take a look at big tech speaking of. microsoft the gainer and that's starting to lose a little bit of steam but apple, amazon, meta and alphabet, all lower. meta down 3.5%, alphabet down nearly 8%. let's take a look at the 10-year treasury. wonder if this will give us any clues it's now starting to rise but essentially flat, though up .1 of a basis point at 3.68% on the 10-year treasury. mark tepper joins me now. mark, good morning to you. you know, yesterday's session was interesting. we get jay powell talking about disinflationary process has begun. everyone got so excited. maybe he's going to pivot, but not really. you believe there's a ways to go

, right? >> yeah, and you know what's interesting? so yesterday, jay powell, he acknowledges disinflation and ashley, it's the same exact thing we've been talking about for months now, which is we are past peak inflation. same exact concept. he just worded it differently and the market got, you know, all excited and rallied yesterday, which is just pretty crazy if you ask me, but no, i think things are going to continue to deteriorate. i feel like inflation was last year's story. this year's story is the coming recession and investors, unfortunately, are out of position for it right now. ashley: you know, you pointed out too, which is very telling, is the core pce still at 4.4% which is more than twice the level that the fed wants it at, so that should give people a clue as to we've got a ways to go, right? >> we have a long ways to go,

and when you think about it, i mean, in order for the fed to really win the war on inflation they have to break the labor market because wages are sticky inflation so we have to combat that and wage growth cannot slow as long as there's two jobs for every one person whose unemployed. as long as weekly jobless claims continue to come in under 200,000, and we added 500,000 jobs in a month, although there was a big seasonal adjustment, so we are not winning the war against wage growth, so you know the fed has to stay their course look, i think higher for longer is real. i think there's going to be several more hikes. maybe three? maybe four more. ashley: wow. so given that, what do you like in this market? everyone's being told to be patient. do your homework. we should do it anyway but is there anything in particular you like right now? >> yeah, so look. in investing we have to play the game that's in front of us. stop trying to make it fit your

game. the market doesn't work like that and you've got to skate to where the puck is going, don't skate to where it's at now, skate to where it's going and when we look at the macro landscape, growth is slowing, inflation is slowing, yes, it's still high but it's slowing, and monetary policy is becoming more and more restrictive by the way. the unemployment rate at a 50- year low. it has to start going up, so in that environment, the winners tend to be defensive sectors like healthcare and staples those are the two best- performing sectors in this environment, but they're the two worst performing sectors this year, because the rally has been all fomo-based . the investors believe that the fed is going to pivot and prophetless tech all of a sudden is going to work again. in my opinion this is the perfect opportunity to get repositioned into the sector s that are going to be winners. ashley: great stuff as always, mark tepper. mark, thank you very much. let's bring lauren back in. lauren? you have some movers for us

let's begin with capri holdings. thank you, mark. lauren: your sales and their profit forecast. they blame the slowdown at the department stores who order their expensive bags and clothes and this suggests that it's younger customer who like to splurge on expensive items is cutting back. chipotle also down, they missed fourth quarter estimates for earnings for revenue and same-store sales stock down 5%. customers pulled back on expensive food delivery orders, and traffic stalled in december, although they came out and said in january, it looked much better. wall street is not convinced right now. rare miss for chipotle. fort net that is a cybersecurity company here is your winner today up 13% at number one on the s&p. stronger earnings, better forecast and i'd say a rising tide lifts all boats here because palo alto,z-scaler, crowdstrike all those names are searching right there as you can see ashley. ashley: yes they are impressive ly so.

all right lauren, thank you very much. we've also got more layoffs in the tech industry. take us through those details. lauren: it's the trend, and now you have zoom, a pandemic winner , cutting 1,300 employees that's 15% of their staff. their ceo taking a 98% pay cut, top executives a 20% cut, no bonuses. it's the back-to-reality moment, right? if you look at zoom specifically , in two years time they tripled in size and i just got i have a call setup for later this after than and they suggested a zoom and i said can we just do a phone call like a good old fashion phone call? i just didn't want to be on a zoom. ashley: yeah. you know what, lauren? we've had a lot of market observers talk about the tech industry and someone there, i think it was lou basenese said earlier the tech should be celebrated not fears because they over-hired tremendously during the pandemic so we

shouldn't be surprised what we're seeing now. lauren: but the numbers are huge it matters which estimate you look at but if you look at say 100,000 layoffs so far this year , the year is young. more than half of them are happening in the tech sector. so, you know, and those are the jobs artificial intelligence and the way oft lauren thank yoy much. let's get back to last night's state of the union, where president biden said jobs and pride are coming back. take a listen. >> we're building an economy where no ones left behind. jobs are coming back. pride is coming back because choices we made in the last several years. you know, this is my view of blue collar blueprint to rebuild america and make a real difference in your lives at home ashley: martha maccallum joins us now. great to see you, martha. >> thank you very much. ashley: it appears based o in

what the president said last night there's a big disconnect between the president's view the state of our on yonkers and what polls say. many people are concerned about where this country is headed. >> yeah, you know, often with president biden, it feels like he's pushing a narrative very hard and that the people are sort of out of sync with that narrative and i think that during the mid-term elections we thought that that was going to redound to a very different scenario with a lot more republican wins but it didn't so the question becomes now as you head towards 2024 will it make a difference and the numbers we're seeing you've got 37% saying that they feel like they are economically better off than they were when president biden started his tenure as president, so you know, that's a number that is out of sync with what he was just saying last night, and we do see some good jobs numbers and i think those are understandable that he would want to highlight them, but when you see people feeling like everything is more expensive, that they are making life decisions whether it's buying a

house or buying a new car, buying a new dishwasher in different ways, they are pulling back because of the inflationary environment that we're in, and then you see this huge list of additional spending programs that were rolled out last night, which can only be seen, i think, by the fed and most economists, assading to the inflation a picture you just have to wonder how he gets from point a to point b. ashley: yeah, how do you think he did, martha? there are those , of course his supporters say he really needed to deliver to the moderate and independent voters and last night, he did that. what do you think? >> you know, i think there's a couple ways to look at the speech. one is it was really, i think, sort of a typical joe biden speech. he talked about the moon shot cancer program, he talked about things like fentanyl. he talked about wanting to succeed education-wise which we could get into because we have a

very out of sync message going on on that front. the other side of it is his age, which we saw potently described by sarah huckabee sanders when she said, you know, we don't have a lot in common, me and joe biden. i'm 40 the youngest governor in the country and he's 80 and as britt pointed out there were a lot of moments in this speech, some parts felt like his speech was rushed and he was sort of skipping over words, so i think when you're making a speech on the national stage like this whether you're appealing to democrats or moderates, everybody is sort of making an assessment about whether or not this current president is suited to yet another term at his age and that's an open question that voters will have to decide. ashley: and you know, martha, the governor of arkansas, sarah huckabee sanders, she gave the republican response last night. listen to what she had to say in part and i'll get your comments. >> president biden and i don't have a lot in common. i'm for freedom.

he's for government control. at 40, i'm the youngest governor in the country and at 80, he's the oldest president in american history. i'm the first woman to lead my state and he's the first man to surrender his presidency to a woke mob that can't even tell you what a woman is. ashley: and you know what, martha? she mentioned the age gap but i thought she was pretty spot-on on many of her points. >> yeah, you know, it's often a thankless task to do this rebuttal. you're in an empty room. there aren't people standing up and clapping but i think most by accounts, sarah huckabee sanders the new governor of arkansas really hit it out of the park. it was very focused, at times moving speech she gave. she talked about leaving her family at christmas and flying in the middle of the night with the president to see and spend time with our soldiers in iraq. very moving there, so she's arguing for a new generation of

leadership and she did it sort of weaving that thread, because we know that the only proclaimed declared i should say candidate for the republican side is the former president donald trump and the current president joe biden but she talked about need for younger leadership in the country, which i felt was very interesting and i do think that it's an idea that is very appealing to people whether or not that's what the we get in terms of these two candidates remains to be seen. ashley: terrific job last night, you and brett. martha, thank you, all for taking the time to speak with us this morning. great stuff. martha, thank you. >> thank you. ashley: we'll be watching your interview with speaker mccarthy on the story at 3:00 p.m. eastern on fox news, martha maccallum. thank you. lauren? now this. disney accused of censoring the simpsons? is that right? they just scrubbed an episode in hong kong that may have upset the chinese government. we're going to get on that, lauren, after the break.

climate warrior bill gates says he's not a hypocrite for flying his private jets all over the world. really? let him explain that one and the media is fawning over the president's state of the union. roll the tape. >> president biden's superpower is that he's a regular person. >> it was delivered with a lot of energy and a lot of pace. >> he was as sharp as he could be. ashley: a lot of energy? all right, media guy brent bozell, well he has a very different perspective on the speech and he joins me 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,

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♪ i believe it's time for me to fly ♪ ashley: taking a look at st. louis lambert nation airport, time to fly, it's 42 degrees right now in st. louis right there at the airport. we're showing you that, because climate warrior himself, bill gates, is defending his use of private jets. all right, lauren come back in. don't those jets spew out tons of carbon emissions? lauren: of course they do. transportation is the third- largest source of pollution but bill gates reject ed accusations of hypocrisy. this is what he told the bbc. "i'm comfortable with the idea that not only am i not part of the problem by paying for the offsets but also, through the billions that might breakthrough income group is spending that i am part of the

solution" mainly because he has the money he can just fund companies that sell carbon removal and take private jets all he wants. nothing to see here, folks. ashley: uh-huh. nothing to see. move along thank you very much all right lauren thank you very much. the media gushed over what they call a vigorous state of the union speech from president biden. listen to this. >> president biden's superpower is that he's a regular person. >> but it was delivered with a lot of energy and a lot of pace. >> biden comes across as someone whose enjoying himself and who has the energy to be in this job for another, you know, until he's well into his 80s. >> he was as sharp tonight as he could be and he did a great job. >> president biden does seem in viega o rated -- in viega o rated from the address. ashley: well into his 80s he's already there. brent bozell joins me now. brent? did that speech invigorate you?

>> well, you know, invigorated is code word for not senile. that means that the defibrillator worked, he's alive. look, i want to talk about style for a second, because i think it's important. ashley: yeah. >> on the campaign trail, ronald regan oftentimes read a script that was always was like barack obama read that was orato rical. bill clinton might not read a speech but the bushes read a speech, weren't oratorical but at the end of the day, they all had one thing in common. when they came to a state of the union address, they were in the people's house. they were giving a report to the american people. they were always, all of them, donald trump included, they were always statesman-like in giving that address. what i saw last night was an

oratorical catastrophe. what i saw was a man who said i'm going to run for president tonight and i'm going to show the american people that i'm not so old that it is possible for me to run for president in 2024. he used the people's house. he used this very solemn moment to give a campaign speech. that left me -- i don't care how well he did as a campaign speech. that's irrelevant. what's important was he used the people's house to run for a political office. ashley: all right well now we know where you stand. another one for you, brent. the hearing on twitter's handl ing of the hunter biden laptop story underway today, but guess what? the major networks are not cover ing it. are we surprised about that? >> not at all. not at all. they haven't covered this story. look, we have to remember this story. this number 45% of biden's voter s never heard of a hunter

biden laptop. national surveys show. had they known 9.4% would not have voted for him, donald trump would have won 317 electoral votes, would have won an absolute landslide. this is dine -- dynamite for the democrats so no they aren't going to cover it look we're already learning now joe biden's name is in that e-mail. now hunter biden is even admitting yes it is my laptop. this is a catastrophe for them, the democrats. now i'm not surprised at all. ashley: you know what's interesting you just mentioned that 45% of democrats hadn't even heard of the hunter biden laptop. do you think he connected last night with those moderates and independents that people claim is going to make the difference and the speech last night was for them and if that's the case did he reach them? >> i think he connected on some

levels of campaign speech but as things sink in, as you think more and more about it, when you look at him, he is your crazy old uncle joe who should really maybe stay in that basement. no. i don't think it connects. he showed no gravitas. ashley: yeah, that's a good word to use to your point about previous presidents and the state of the union. brent bozell, as always, brent, great stuff. great insight. appreciate your time this morning. next one. >> thank you. ashley: thank you, always a pleasure. disney plus recently removed one specific simpsons episode from its platform. lauren: yup. ashley: in hong kong. now we'll get to this story which episode and exactly why was it removed? lauren: it was removed from hong kong because it referred to china's labor camps. watch here. >> the whole, the wonders of china, bitcoin minds, forced labor camps where children have

smartphones. lauren: yeah, so it was censored hong kong used to enjoy more civil freedoms but beijing has clamped down. they introduced that national security law in 2020 to criminal ize acts in hong kong, they saying undermine the government or perhaps defending the ccp, they have to censor it now in hong kong too. ashley: yeah, it's such a shame. hong kong disappearing before our very eyes. lauren, thank you very much. take a quick look at these markets now. we were down right from the opening bell and we've stayed there, but not really in any dramatic fashion. the dow off about 150 points, the nasdaq down now nearly 200 points, and there's more selling going on on the tech-heavy exchange down 1.5% and the s&p also now down right around 1%. so perhaps, gaining a little downward momentum. all right, now this. an nfl rookie taking home an extra half a million dollars this year. he got the money from playing a

game but it wasn't football. interesting. we'll have the story. the president wants to have the best educated workforce in the world. roll tape. >> let's finish the job. >> [applause] >> by providing access to preschool for three and four- year-olds. let's give public school teacher s a raise. >> [applause] ashley: all right, so the question is, how is he going to do that? well, by spending more of your taxpayer money. erica donalds is a school choice advocate and she joins me next. ♪

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♪ ashley: well, stevie wonder. you're looking at austin beings texas through the haze, it's 46 degrees right now, in austin. taking a look at the markets moving lower and perhaps gaining some downward momentum as i

mentioned. the nasdaq down more than 1.5% let's bring in susan li back in looking at some of the movers. let's begin with the "varney" favorite microsoft. >> yes, stu's favorite microsoft. so yes there's a lot of hype ai hype and tailwind behind the stock but here is a problem this morning that $69 billion- plus activision blizzard acquisition, that deal is on life support. now the market doesn't think it's going to go through because activision is trading $20 less than microsoft's offer price of $95. that tells you that wall street has a lot of doubts about whether or not microsoft will be able to buy activision. the uk competition watchdog this morning says that this deal will harm gamers, and it'll give microsoft even more control over cloud gaming, since they already own xbox. the ftc already sued on anti- trust grounds but pat least here in the u.s. you can appeal that decision. not the case in the uk where that decision is final so maybe a reason why you've seen

activision ceo bobby kodek making the media rounds once again this week. that deal unlikely to go through according to wall street analysts out there. bed, bath and beyond though found a white knight a save your , hudson's bay raised $ 1 billion, bed, bath did and a quarter is coming from hudson's bay. meme stocks are back, retail volumes are 25% of the market even higher than during the gamestop meme hype in january 2021 and options have been their main tool so they have been pushing up the likes of carvana which has tripled so far this year, that troubled online reseller and coinbase has so far doubled in 2023 it's only six weeks in and finally this is a story that caught a lot of people's attention. beyonce gets a lot of concert tickets. she can't seem to sell a lot of athletic gear so the adidas line called ivy park , not selling that well according to the "wall street journal" and sales were down significantly, came in very

short of the estimates so adidas expected to sell 250 million. her ivy park line only sold 50 million last year, and adidas pays beyonce $20 million a year plus commissions for that ivy park line, and it's kind of surprising given how well kanye 's sold. that was multi-billion dollar in sales and if you think you have like a huge celebrity on hand, that could push merchandise, not always the case. ashley: not always the case. that's really interesting. susan, thank you very much. let's get back to the state of the union. president biden made his case to have the best educated workforce listen to this. >> folks, we all know 12 years of education is not enough to win the economic competition of the 21st century. >> [applause] >> we want to have the best educated workforce, let's finish the job. >> [applause] >> by providing access to preschool, for three and four-

year-olds. let's give public school teacher s a raise. >> [applause] ashley: all right, joining me now, school choice advocate erica donalds. good morning to you, erica. look the president wants universal pre-k student debt relief and raises for teachers. my question to you is that the best way to spend the education budget? >> well, i certainly don't believe that the federal government should have an education budget since it's not in the u.s. constitution for them to do so, but it is exciting to see the democrats and president biden adopt the florida agenda. florida has had free pre-k for every single student for about a decade now and governor desantis just gave teachers a raise over the past couple of years. we certainly don't know if that college debt relief is even constitutional either, but we need to leave education to the states where it belongs. ashley: all right, next one for you. arkansas governor sarah huckabee sanders delivered a fiery

rebuttal if you like to the state of the union last night. listen to this. >> and while you reap the consequences of their failures, the biden administration seems more interested in woke fantasies than the hard reality americans face everyday. most americans simply want to live their lives in freedom and peace but we are under attack in a left wing culture war we didn't start and never wanted to fight. ashley: well she really laid it on the line. erica, what do you make of that rebuttal and to follow-up, are we in a woke culture war? >> well, governor sanders did an excellent job with the rebuttal last night. you know, president biden is totally out of touch with the american people and especially parents. around the country we see cries for school choice and cries for wokism to get out of our schools. we've seen governorships flip. we've seen state legislators flip on this very issue, and he has no mention of school choice

or the battle within our schools for our culture and our values. sarah huckabee sanders hit it right on the head. parents have risen up, demanding both school choice and wokism out of public education. ashley: and do you get the sense that that ground swell, if you want to call it that, is gaining we're seeing more of the parental rights message being heard across the country? >> oh, absolutely, and we're seeing it manifest in legislatures across the country as well, where dozens of states are considering expansion of school choice in their upcoming sessions, including here in florida, a possible universal expansion of education scholarship accounts following arizona, iowa, virginia, west virginia, all doing the same, so we are going to continue to see this employee and and we're looking at approval ratings and polls of 75% and 80% for parents supporting universal school choice. ashley: wow. very interesting indeed and i know erica, you are a big

advocate so whatever you're doing it's working. thank you so much for joining us this morning. we really appreciate it. erica donalds talking about education. >> thank you for having me. ashley: always a pleasure. i want to check google. lauren? where is that stock? is it down 8.5%, why? lauren: at 98, ashley, well in this battle over the bots, and everything that google can do to prevent you from switching to microsoft's bing, where you might be able to use chatgpt, they are really pushing out their bart chat bot fast, or as fast as they can, maybe before it's ready for primetime, and they posted this short video of bard in action, and it got a lot of answers wrong. so this could be one of the reasons why the stock is down so much, and i'm just scratching my head, because there are going to be complexities and issues with all of these chat bots. i don't think anyone will

completely rely on the answers in the first place but if you're big tech spending billions on ai , you've got to be ready for primetime when you launch your stuff but they are battling over eyeballs and advertising dollars based on who can integrate it into all of their devices best. i know the critique with chatgpt ashley, is that it stops its answers in 2021, the information that it has. obviously they can fix that and make it more recent, but i think the user knows you can't completely rely on this stuff. ashley: you can't, but boy, google getting hit because of those wrong answers for sure. lauren thank you very much. now this. disgraced ftx founder sam bankman-fried due back in court tomorrow. prosecutors want to tighten his bail conditions and block him from using encrypted apps. we'll have the very latest on the sbf case and this is interesting, the furniture store owner who bets millions on

sporting events says legalizing sports betting. say what? going to hear his explanation next. you've got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away ♪

ashley: lawyers for accused crypto-crook sam bankman-fried are trying to block the release of his bail backers. kelly o'grady joins me now. what happens now? reporter: well, ashley, we wait and wonder who these people are while this goes through an appeal process. so yesterday, we did expect to get the names of the two individuals beyond sam bankman-fried's parents that co-

signed his $250 million bond. the judge had ruled to release those names to the public, but in the 11th hour the court revealed sbf's counsel submitted a notice that they intend to fight that ruling in the u.s. court of appeals. they previously argued with the crypto kick's parents receiving death threats "there's serious cause for concern that the two additionals would face similar intrusions on their privacy as well as threats and harassment if their names appear unredacted" so their idas will remain sealed until at least next tuesday though potentially longer with a new appeal time line in play. meanwhile, sbf will appear in new york court tomorrow for a hearing to modify bail conditions following accusations of witness tampering the prosecution is seeking to make term a net neutrality a temporary ban on the ceo's access to encrypted messaging apps as well as communication with fatality employees. tomorrow should be interesting because following a heated back and forth, sbf's lawyers indicated they had agreed upon a compromise which the judge promptly rejected.

ashley, legal experts tell me this could be as simple as the judge wanting clarity on the particulars of the deal, but , sometimes judges can be testy parties separately modify ing court orders in a high profile case like this so we'll be watching that closely. ashley: i'm sure you will and everyone else. kelly thank you very much. now a football rookie just got a half million dollar payday. come into this lauren. he didn't get the money from the nfl, right? lauren: no he got it from playing poker in vegas. it's l.a. rams running back ronnie rivers and he's 24 and he hit the jackpot at caesar's palace and won $515,000 from one hand of three card poker. that's almost as much as he made in the nfl last year and he says he's going to use the money to buy his mom a new home. ashley: awww. he's a good son. next one for you, lauren. jim "mattress mac" calls himself the world's most famous gambler

so the question is why is he against legalized sports betting lauren: he thinks it's dangerous for people impulsive, mattress max specifically speaking out against betting in his home state of texas, where state lawmakers are pushing to legal ize it. he had a change of heart. max says he's also concerned that the state revenue from the bets that the estimates on that are completely overblown. some people are saying hey, you're a hippo hypocrite. you've made all of this money, millions of dollars, betting on sports events, but he says look, i have to drive, or fly to other states to place the bets and that's an extra effort which helps me not be as impulsive, but traveling isn't a realistic option for most people and they would rather just be able to do it in their home state of texas. ashley: all right i'm not sure i get the logic but okay. lauren, thank you very much. let's take a look at the 30

stocks right now giving you a sense of where we're at and there's a lot of red. that's the sense, merck and goldman sachs and microsoft up at the top at the majority of the dow 30 are now in the red and we're getting a little more downward momentum. the dow off 213 points down six- tenths of a percent. all right, now this. president biden is taking a victory lap on inflation. listen to this. >> inflation has fallen every month for the last six months. our take home pay has gone up. ashley: all right john catsimatidis, he owns a chain of grocery stores in new york city. he's been on the show often, so does he or his customers see falling inflation? we'll get into that, next. ♪

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i have dropped seven pant sizes and i've kept it off. golo is real, our customers are real, and our success stories are real. why not give it a try? 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: well, here is the president taking a victory lap on jobs. roll that tape. >> two years ago the economy was reeling. i stand here tonight after we've

created with the help of many people in this room 12 million new jobs. more jobs created in two years any president created in four years because of all you. >> [applause] ashley: all right john catsimatidis joins us now. good morning to you, john. what do you say to that, to the president's boasts? >> well, i never want to say a president of the united states is not telling the truth, so i think the best i could say is that he's diverting the truth. a lot of jobs were laid off during covid and i guess a lot of those people came back to work, but our economy before president biden has taken office was soaring. our inflation rate was 1.5%. our interest rates were down. our gasoline was almost $2 a

gallon. our foot was very low and since we declared war on the fossil fuels industry and he knocked out the keystone pipeline first and oil went from $55 a barrel up to $110 or $120. well, everything followed through. i mean, i don't understand why it's so simple. oil producers fertilizer for food. oil through diesel fuel runs our factories. runs our trucks that go to all of the stores for the whole country. ashley: well you know, john, the president also patted himself on the back for cooling down inflation. listen to this. i'll get your comment. >> but here at home inflation is coming down. here at home gas prices are down $1.50 from their peak. food inflation is coming down, not fast enough but coming down.

inflation has fallen every month for the last six months and our take home pay has gone up. ashley: you know, john, you own a chain of grocery stores. are you seeing inflation come down? >> inflation is not coming down yet, but don't forget. we've got oil down to $73 a barrel, $74 a barrel. food prices will come down if the fed doesn't screw up anything else. food prices will come down. there's a lagging period over the next three months, four months, five months, but don't forget what goldman sachs said yesterday. all of a sudden, they are saying well we might have $100 oil. well if goldman sachs is pushing that, i don't nowhere they got those numbers from, then we're going to hell, we came back from hell, we're going back to hell if that happens. ashley: in a hand basket i

thought you were going to say. i want to get into this issue too, john, while i have you here because it's affected you. crime on the rise in new york city. according to the nypd there were 4% more major crimes this january compared to the same time last year. there were 15% more felony assaults. now you're a new york city guy through and through. how do you get crime back under control? >> i think it just comes down to the old rules worked and albany and new york city, mayor adams wants to do the right job. now, the state senate and assembly have the governor. they have it tied up, and the governor has to put her foot down and she could do that on the budget. there's a way to holdup the budget and not make the state senate the real governors, and i think people have to realize. new york city doesn't want to go into a recession.

it's the greatest city in the world, and if we bring crime under control, and the old way? when a person had a gun? they went to jail for a year. nobody wanted to carry a gun or have shootouts. you know what they do now? they get a parking ticket, call it a act ticket and you know how many people show up for court? nobody. maybe 6%. ashley: yeah. all right, john, we're going to have to leave it there but you are the man who knows all new york city. john catsimatidis. thank you, sir, for joining us. >> thank you. ashley: i want to get to the, thank you, want to get to the wednesday trivia question. it's a good one. which state has the most diners? new jersey, florida, california, or new york? i have no idea. the answer right after this. this thing, it's making me get an ice bath again. what do you mean? these straps are mind-blowing! they collect hundreds of data points like hrv and rem sleep, so you know all you need for recovery. and you are?

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they provide the potential for regular income... are federally tax-free... and have historically low risk. call today to request your free bond guide. 1-800-763-2763. that's 1-800-763-2763. ♪. ashley: all right. earlier we asked which state has the most diners. lauren take your pick. >> my instinct is new jersey. i'm going with california. i think new jersey is too obvious. ashley: very good. my instinct was new york. the answer is -- >> new jersey. ashley: should have gone with your gut. new jersey. there are 500 diners in the garden state. now you know. that is it for "varney & company" today. "coast to coast" starts right about now. ♪ neil: housing might be h