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ashley: fox square in midtown, manhattan. good morning, everyone. it's 10:00 eastern time and i'm ashley webster in for stuart varney. let's get straight to your money after the selloff go ahead gaining back what we lost and the dow up 220 points and nasdaq and s&p up 210 points, not bad. 10-year treasury yield around 3.6, 3.7, down to 3 points in the paint -- right on the money. 3.6% essentially flat. let's take a look at oil if we can. oil has been interesting and it's been well below the $80 mark and stays there. $77.37. it's up a buck today but still, $77.36 for crude and taking a look at bitcoin down $264 at $22,690. that's why we're@this moment. happening this morning,

lawmakers reason capitol hill getting briefed on the chinese spy flight shot down over the weekend and we're learning the balloon was part of a larger surveillance operation. watch this. >> we are aware there's been four previous balloons that have gone over u.s. territory. this is what we assess as part of a larger chinese surveillance balloon program and this just demonstrates why the prc continues to remain our pacing challenge, and i think that they have a lot of explaining to do when it comes to conducting these types of programs and violating nations air space and sovereignty. ashley: very interesting and this is not a one off but something china does and doesn't seem very high-tech to me and why are we finding out about it now? >> i think we deserve to know

more about this earlier on and the fact we're surprised is it system an indictment of the lack of seriousness that we've had when it comes to the invasion that china has really undertaken from the past several years when it comes to american experience. i think a lot of people that watch this network and watch fox are well aware of the dangers remitted by something like tic tock on the phones of teenagers and some friends and the like. but i think that they're less aware of the fact that china is conducting all manner of surveillance around the world in order to try and achieve its ends and achieve and obtain more information in order to use against us and against the west generally. china is taking this all very seriously but the indictment of our own leadership class is that they don't really seem to. they always seem to be a little slow on the uptake when it comes to what thigh that is doing and -- china is doing and it's incumbent upon our leaders in

congress to ask the questions why. ashley: exactly. next one for you, ben, congressman jim jordan going after one twitter official over the platform's suppression of the hunter biden laptop story. listen to this. i'll get your comment. >> mr. roth, did the story violate your policies? >> in my judgment at the time, no, it did not. >> if it didn't violate your policies and they didn't tell you you were fake or hacked, why did you take it down? >> the company made a decision that found that it did violate the policy. it wasn't my personal judgment at the time that it did, but the decision was communicated to me by my direct supervisor and ultimately i didn't disagree with it enough to object. >> i think you guys wanted it to be taken down. i think you guys got played by the fbi. ashley: ben, they claim they got key details of the censorship

story and seems very convenient to me contraindication for cerumen removal right? >> there's a couple things going on here and one there's a bit of shell game being played by the former twitter executives when it comes to the influence the intelligence community and fbi had on that decision. it was clear they were seeding the ground well before the laptop story broke for exactly this type of circumstances, including the idea that hacked materials would be pushed out by foreign agency via all manner of different media and the like but particularly on social media that it wouldn't be accurate, that it would be disinformation, and this whole pressure campaign was something that all -- that extended well before the hunter biden story broke in the new york post. the twitter executives in question had all of that information beforehand at the back of their minds as they were analyzing the circumstance. what we see is something very disturbing. it's the government, particularly the intelligence community, doing things they're

not allowed to do legally via corporations who are frankly threatened by and scared of the consequence ifs they don't obey. that's something that has always been wrong, it's always been unethical and imposing to free speech and seeing democrat congressmen on the other side saying that congress should be happy with the fact these former twitter executives are apologizing now. really it is absurd. we have to make sure this type of thing never happens again and the intel community really has its wings clip when had it comes to their approach when it comes to using these entities to do things they're not allowed to do. ashley: exactly, all right. ben, thank you so much for taking the time to chat. we appreciate it. ashley: leo, you say the tone is bearish 18-24 months.

explain. >> well, bear market haves a bay of correcting themselves via time. we've been in the bear market for quite some time now and had two legs down and we continue to believe there'll be continued volatility for the first half of the year but if you're an investor, you should be thinking about two, three years. as we get through the next wave and the fed finally gets on top of inflation and starts to slowly terminate this constant rise of interest rates, then what we see on the other side is an equity market that's been repriced cheaper. we'll see a bond market with a slower crawl down and that's important. i think we're in a secular bear market and bonds, and we're going to see opportunities kick back up as the economy starts to be restored.

it's -- the fed's been behind inflation and significant policy error from government and that's why we're in the mess we're in but in the second half of this year, we start to pull away. ashley: when we pull away, is there a recession before then? the president sees no recession in 2023- '24 he says. but he would say that. what is your gut instinct? >> well, i think we'll be in a recession, we've been in a recession. it used to be just two down gdp quarters and now we're throwing other variables in it. yes, i think we'll see a recession but again, i'll reiterate that the markets price what's coming in front of us, not where we are at the moment. i think the markets have already looked at this economy as if there's a recession in place. it's important to remember if you're an investor that what we've just gone through is the

greatest economic anomaly maybe in the history of man. we shut down a 20+ trillion economy just in the u.s. and we did it around the rest of the world and then we had the arrogance to think we could just throw a couple trillion of money into the system and everything would turn right back on. i think there's a period where you have to be active and smart and places to put money. ashley: very well said. leo kelly, thank you very much. terrific insight and we appreciate it. thank you. lauren, you're looking at movers. thank you. let's begin with disney. what's the news about disney? lauren: on the heels of bob iger's reorganization into the three segments that focused on streaming profitability and cost cutting, the activist investor, nelson pelts trying to get disney to add him to the board

says his company, that proxy fight is over meaning he's happy with the moves he's seeing so far from disney. he thinks they're listening. he has a big stake, $1 billion, so maybe for now this proxy fight and pressure on iger and co dies down. then they say inflation is hitting demand for fisher price toys, even barbie dolls. not at my house, barbie is popular. volumes and mccow during the recent chinese new year surpassed 2019 levels and they're confident that business is back in a big way. ashley: good news. all right. another one for you, lauren. getting back to twitter. twitter users reporting a rise in glitches on the flat form. what are we talking about? lauren: this happened around 4:0 yesterday and users -- 4:00 yesterday and userred reported all kinds of problems some told

they were over tweet limit and couldn't send message and twitter down, the hash tag was trending. there's glitches as musk took over and he axed 70% of staff. the information the news outlet was reporting that musk told staffers let's pause on new feature development to keep the site stable because the super bowl is coming up and we're going to be popular and see a lot of volume. but that didn't seem to include long tweets, twitter blue subscribers, the ones that pay $8 a month can pay 4,000 characters. it's currently 280. 4,000 is a tremendous increase. i like twitter because it's quick and brief. ashley: exactly right. i'm not going to read an essay. yep, all right, lauren, thank you very much. lauren: 100% agree. ashley: yeah. sam bankman-fried, sbf, due back in federal court today after a judge deny add proposal to modify his bail conditions and we'll have all the details on

today's hearing for you. senator john fedderman has been hospitalized after feeting light headed and the democrat retreat comes after the pennsylvania lawmaker suffer add stroke last may. you may remember. we'll have the very latest on his condition. right now president biden on his way to tampa to discuss social security and medicare. this as he insists republicans want to end those benefits even though they've said it's not only the table. edward lawrence has the story from the white house, next. ♪

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ashley: the nasdaq up more than 1%. president biden on his way to tampa to talk social security and medicare as he doubles down on his claims that republicans want to end those benefits. edward lawrence at the white house this morning and, edward, give me the latest. reporter: yeah, the president took off about two minutes ago on his way to tampa, florida, and you can hear that construction going on behind me and kicked up when the president is on his way out. the defense department budget sunsets and no one expects that to be eliminated.

>> what a hypocrite. he accuses republicans that they want to cut medicare and social security. i've never suggested that . i say we've got to preserve them. reporter: this is why senator scott calls biden, president biden, a hypocrite. in 1995, then senator biden said this on the senate floor, listen. >> when i argued if we should freeze federal spending, i meant social security as well. i meant medicare and medicaid. i meant veteran's benefits. i meant every single solitary thing in the government. and i not only tried it once, i try it had twice, i tried it a third time and i try it had a fourth time. reporter: the congressional budget office says social security will be insolvent in ten years and automatically benefits will be cut by 23% if nothing is done. republicans say they don't want to cut the programs, but the president keeps pounding in drum and senator josh holly floating the idea to pass a bill to protect medicare and social security and then be done with this back and fourth.

back to you. ashley: all right, thank you very much, edward. congressman barry loudermilk, republican from georgia joins us this morning. congressman, it doesn't matter what the republicans say, the president will continue this attack on medicare and social security and that the gop wants to do away with them. >> exactly right. i thought from listening to his speech the other night in congress that he claimed he converted the republicans, even though from the very beginning, kevin mccarthy was clear that as we negotiate on the the approval rates you're that low and very desperate and as you just said, he's made the same proposal that he's accusing republicans of making. he's made it himself in the

past. ashley: all right, i want to get onto this issue as well, which i just don't understand. despite the biden administration denying plans to ban gas stoves, the energy department has quietly put forward proposal to limit energy consumptions for gas stoves and could effectively end the use of them. what do you think of that >> i'm surprised he's not accused the republicans of wanting to ban gas stoves and this is what he does in his administration and he make as claim and backs off of it and quietly allows the administration, the brock seisebureaucracies to go ahead h it. that's what he did with petroleum and said he started backing off and had the epa and said we're opening more leases and tells the epa not to approve the leases based on environmental. this is the way this administration works. they tell you one thing and behind the scenes they're going to do anything. he'll float a trial balloon --

no pun intended with that, but he'll float a trial balloon on something and when there's bad response, he'll say we're not going to do it and empowering the brock bureaucracies to cart that policy. ashley: this is insane, he's got a strangle hold on the oil industry and the gas industry at the same time wanting to take away gas stoves. i mean, is this what the american people want he and the radicals pulling levers behind the scenes, this is what they want. he could care less what the american people want and he wants to get reelected and he'll play the game a bit and hoping that we don't see the reality of it, but this is the america they want.

a perfect illustration during the state of union address and rampant crime and people being their property being stole and they're being murdered and the only thing he wanted to crack down on were those who fraudulently took covid relief funds and he'll hunt those down and prosecute them and if someone steals from the individual citizen, that's no big deal but don't you steal from the federal government. ashley: we'll leave it right through. congressman laudermilk, thank you for talking with us today. >> thank you very much. loudermilk, thank you very much for talking with us today. lauren: fetterman felt light headed and his staff took him to

george washington hospital and he spent the night there and initial test showed no sign of another stroke, of course he had one last year but there are going to do more testing today to monitor him and to be certain. look, this is what he has to deal with. we wish him well and a speedy recovery. ashley: we do indeed. lauren, thank you for that update. a university is going so woke it's now requiring potential customer toad indians to fill out -- custodians to fill out diverse reigns leading responses on -- diversity responses on their job applications. that's really happening. schools across america are celebrating black lives matter in the curriculum and we'll tell you what kids will be learning in classrooms across the country, next.

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♪ ashley: we're sing this song because the fox family is celebrating a new edition. white house correspondent peter doocy and his wife hillary vaughn, have welcome add baby girl. bridget blake doocy was born on february 1. everyone is doing great. this is steve doocy's first grandchild. congratulations to all. welcome to the world, bridget blake doocy. great stuff. all right, take a look at markets now. we've been on the upside since we opened about an our ago and there acts and the dow losing steam and all up around half a percent. lauren, come back in and looking at some of the other movers. look at coin base.

lauren: down it goes. coin base ceo warning the sec could crack down on what's called staking and that impactspact ether and not bitcod they can take a stake and clad rale in the process and if the sec cracks down, it's another battle for cryptos and sec views ether as security. that stock is selling off. lower quarterly profits and sales down 6% today and consequences of slowing housing market and astrazeneca swings to fourth quarter profit and reported lower revenue because of lower sales of their covid vaccine. why is the stock up so much. about 6%. they're pivoting to new potential block busters to plug the covid vaccine gap. lower sales there and they spoke of several drugs in a phase three trials, which is promising.

ashley: up nearly 6%, lauren, thank you. now this, thousands of schools across the country are celebrating black lives matter week. it highlights woke lessons like this one where students had to complete a work sheet and told them whether they are privileged or oppressed. stacey washington is an ambassador of the first policy institute and joins me now. stacey, good morning. do you agree with this? >> no. parents send kids to school to get an education. test scores and the attainments and the measures to test if our children are getting a good education and able to compete in a global marketplace, those is it atistings are trend -- is it atist ibrams are trending -- statistics are trending downwards and we're teaching them to hate each other and people of a different tan than them and this is all super official and the fact i'm black and you're white, these are not

the most important things about us. our most important thing is our heart and whether we believe in this country and ourselves and our community and whether we're willing to help each other. all of those far supersede any of these weird oppressive teachings. ashley: yeah, it is strange no doubt. i want to get to this issue, stacey. florida's governor desantis is requesting additional information on the now revised ap african studies course after learning the program could still contain critical race theory. what's your take on this? >> first off, america's governor and what a great job he's doing and parents care about and on the topic of whether or not high school students in ap classes, which are advanced placement and classes that give you college credit if you pass the class with a good grade and earn a good score on the test, you get college credit for that. what does this critical race

theory, dei have to do with getting into a good college or being ready to withstand the rigors of being in college? i'd say nothing and parents don't want this either and he's doing the right thing by attacking it, and i want to see other governors, the governor of missouri, the governor of these conservative states, they need to step up to the plate and take the same actions governor desantis is taking. ashley: stacey, you can take these out and the student can be told to dot homework and google all of the information and they're being exposed to this; right? >> we love them and raise until the country and our parents were raised in this country and have an amazing history going back generations of our families. my husband and mine, contributing to the country and military service and public service, whatever. the things that we d. we've talked to them about who they

are and what this country means to the world and to us, and that kind of helps them to navigate the rocky waters and they'll encounter this stuff and as a mom it's my job to teach my children how to think when they encounter these and what to think and how to think to navigate the stuff. ashley: do you think the parent's voice is getting louder and school districts and educators are hearing or just the battle goes on? >> well, i mean there's always something to fight every day a new battle. but i like to look at it as something that as a mom, i signed up for it. i love talking to my kids about all of these topics, and they love to engage with me and ask me tough questions and i sometimes have to come back to them later. hey, i have to think about that and it's a great way for me to continue my relationship with them and promote the things that i really love and value, one of which is this country. ashley: beautifully said, stacey. keep up the good fight.

stacey, thank you for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. >> thank you. ashley: thank you. by the way, one university is requiring its j its janitorial f to submit a diversity application. lauren: this is at washington state and eastern washington university. if you're applying online to be cleaning staff, custodian, janitor, housekeeper, for a $35,000 a year position, you must also write a let tore accompany your application describing -- letter accompanying your letter how you'll help the diversity on campus. they're on tribal lands and this is important to the university so you have to be able to fix things, lift heavy things and be nice to all students. i don't really know what i want to say, ashley. ashley: i thought that was implied. that's interesting. lauren: i don't think there's much interaction between the

house cleaning staff and the students, maybe a bit in the dorms but it's a requirement. ashley: anyway. yep, i want to move onto this one. the governor of arkansas sarah sanders just announced a new education reform plan for the state. what's in it, lauren? lauren: two of the big items are teachers making a minimum $50,000 a year and higher performing teachers would get bonuses. imagine that? introducing competition. then she announced esas, that's an education savings account. it's a school choice grant so you let the state fund the student over the school. parents can make their own decisions with state money for their children. as i said, governor sanders is introducing competition into the system. she's a mom, she's in charge now of the state, and she wants arkansas students to be able to get ahead. ashley: she's also very smart. good stuff. lauren, thank you very much.

now this, so much for biden saying he wouldn't be going after the working class. a new proposal from the irs plans to audit waitress' tips even though a majority of their income comes from tips. we'll have that story. we've all fallen victim to items that we just couldn't resist. roll it. >> how'd you like to pay? $50 in cash and put 30 on this card, 10 on that. >> declined. >> really? ashley: confessions of a shopaholic. turns out nearly half of americans hide or lie about their spending habits to their loved ones. what? lauren simonetti will tell us all about financial infidelity, next. ♪

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hi, i'm katie, i've lost 110 pounds on golo in just over a year. as a mom, it has been life-changing. my daughter had lost 20 pounds, my son had lost probably about 40. we're just a lot more healthier as a family in general.

ashley: let's take a look at these markets and we're still up but up 200 points or so on the dow and s&p half a percent and same story on the nasdaq, still positive. disney is the latest company to announce new job cuts. come in, lauren, how many jobs are we talking about? lauren: 7,000 but it is just 3% of disney workers. it's all part of bob iger's reorganization to save $5.5 billion in cost and make streaming profitable. on wall street bank of america will require a debt execution. time will tell if this pays off.

ashley: the administration looking to crack down and what are republicans saying about this? lauren: the last thing the american people need right now are more audits from out of control, bloated irs. but, ashley, that's what they could be getting as the irs is now literally targeting moms and dads who are servers just looking to make ends meet and it's pretty low-hanging fruit for them and latest audit found about $1.7 billion in tips are going unreported so some are saying this is just an idea but it's legit and that's how democrats and the biden irs are wanting to get middle class money, lower middle class money to fund their democratic agenda. they're going after waiters or plan to go after waiters. ashley: okay, moving on from that one, lauren.

really interesting story. 40% of people married or living with a partner have committed some form of financial infidelity whether hiding or even lying about money. that's a high number. lauren, you took to the street to talk to new yorkers. are they hiding money from their loved ones? lauren: okay, i'll do the report, you think about it and can fess up at the end, ashley. i thought new yorkers were surprisingly loyal but there were a few that admitted to secret splurging. does your partner know about all of your spending? >> no. lauren: what dun he know about? >> my amazon. >> we're on the sam amazon act and when he shops i see it and i work and i see what he's buying. lauren: what have you caught him buying or wearing you didn't know about? >> sneakers. he's a sneaker head and buys lots of sneakers. >> you should have total open communication in a relationship. financial secrets are equal to

other secrets. lauren: that nice man right there in the green jacket is right, 52% tell bankrate.com financial infidelity is as bad as physical cheating but, ashley, it can land you in trouble. >> most of the time this becomes this bombast ick issue between parties because one person feels betrayed. you can't sit in a marriage and say, i love you and have secrets from a financial perspective, forget about the emotional perspective. lauren: people have secrets, ashley. 12% say they have credit card that their partner doesn't know about. they're swiping it more than their significant other would be okay with. 9% keep their debt hidden and 6% have a separate secret checking account. as for the spending, when the box comes, you immediately take the item, you have it disappear into the closet, and dispose of the box. that's all you do. ashley: is that you speaking

from experience, lauren? lauren: this is how i was raised, ashley. yes, it's generational. i'm joking, sort of. ashley: i see. yeah. lauren: you want to add anything? ashley: no, i was just thinking, i don't do it. my wife and i are very honest and to the point that was made in that, you know, my wife will say did you order something on amazon and i'm like maybe. maybe. something dealing with golf or something. that's okay. lauren: i can't remember. ashley: exactly. good stuff, lauren. very interesting stuff. now this, there's growing concern over flight safety. this is the faa investigates two separate incidents where planes nearly collided at airports and we'll tell you which airlines were just named the safest in the world. also utility company in california warning that the price of natural gas could increase more than 100% this year. the governor of california is now calling for a federal investigation. we're going to speak to the san diego county supervisor on

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i screwed up. mhm. i got us t-mobile home internet. now cell phone users have priority over us. and your marriage survived that? you can almost feel the drag when people walk by with their phones. oh i can't hear you... you're froze-- ladies, please! you put it on airplane mode when you pass our house. i was trying to work. we're workin' it too. yeah! work it girl! woo! i want to hear you say it out loud. well, i could switch us to xfinity. those smiles. that's why i do what i do. that and the paycheck. first psoriasis, then psoriatic arthritis. even walking was tough. i had to do something.

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ashley: all right, let's take a look at these markets continuing to move higher. the dow up more than 200 points and s&p half a percent and nasdaq up three quarters of a percent. take a look at big tech talking of the nasdaq, most of big tech names moving higher today. it's a bit mixed and microsoft, apple, and amazon on the way up. microsoft up 1.5% but meta down ever so slightly and alphabet down almost 4%, 3.33%. now shell, their 11 board members are personally being sued. over what, lauren? lauren: mismanaging climate risk. environmental law group filed a suit in the uk alleging that shell's director failed to prepare the company for the energy transition. this is the first time corporate directors could be held personally liable over fossil fuel actions made by a company.

nonetheless there's a lawsuit. ashley: uh-huh, see where that goes. all right, lauren, the country's largest auto show back in shipment that's always a fun time. madison alworth is there. madison, i bet there's a big push for the automakers to go electric. reporter: ashley, there absolutely is. a lot of electric vehicles are marquee vehicles but electric is still a small portion of the sales market. last year 5% of new cars sold were electric vehicles and up from just over 2% the year prior but still a ways to go but the automakers believe it's the future and the federal government supports that notion with the tax credits. i want to bring in james bell from kia. the vehicle we were just showing, it qualifies price wise for the tax credit, but not

because of manufacturing. are you guys trying to adjust to fall under that category for the tax credit. >> this announcement and ira caught some of us off guard but what i love about working for kia is we can scramble, adjust, and pivot very quickly and we're working hard to get back into that space. what we love about like the vehicle you showed here, the nero, it's affordable and not having additional money, i get it. the point is this is an affordable ev set up to be family's all over the country as that kind of easy step into ev life. for some people, it's still kind of a wonder, is this right for me? once you live that ev life, it's so luxurious. reporter: let's talk about pricing and showing you some models on the floor here. price w wise, electric vehiclesn average are more expensive than counter parts and how do you convince families to pay more than their gas vehicles? >> it pays itself back so quickly.

i don't have the hard numbers in hand but living with an ev myself, the whole idea of not spending money on gasoline, just the effort and time that's given where you need to find the gas station, the pressure that comes from that, when you leave your house or your apartment every day with a "full tank of gas," that's a really nice thing to o and dollar cost of gasoline is lower than the price of gasoline with gasoline prices being in flux. it's kind of hedging your bets to just know what's a nicer, easier lifestyle and the cara quiet too and it's like rolling around in a luxury ev. reporter: the place where the cars are manufactured or the chips are manufactured did catch a lot of auto makers by surprise and even though the tax credits have been announced, there's a lot of movement happening within the industry so families can buy the cars that qualify. ashley.

ashley: very good stuff, madison. thank you. affordability is the key question. thank you very much. now this, the governor of california gavin newsom is calling for a federal investigation into the high costs of natural gas in his state. one utility company is warning in their statements that prices could rise from $105 to $225. that's 114% increase from january of last year. jim desmond is san diego county supervisor and he joins me now. jim, great to see you. do you know what's behind these soaring prices for nat gas? >> i don't know nationally what they are, but i know here in california, you know, we actually have -- we have to import most of our natural gas because we capped fuel reserves, we capped more drilling and we buy most of it from out of state. it has to be imported. we've got these lofty goals, newsom put them in place for going all green and everything

else. they're already having utility bills about 30% higher than the rest of the country. primarily due to california regulation. so with these prices going up. yes, they're going up but we're already at too high of costs, primarily to california not doing it is bit. we've got these lofty goals, but we don't have the infrastructure for all this electricity and for the things like that we're trying to switch over to and electric vehicles, there's no infrastructure in place. we've got great plans but no way to implement them. ashley: it's insane. yeah, you just can't afford the green policies as they stand. jim, i wanted to get to this. you've been leading the opposition against new mileage tax proposal in your county and part of $163 billion transportation plan. you actually called on elon musk to help with a realistic transportation plan and he responderred. he said he would help. have you spoken to him about it? >> not him personally, but we

did get hooked upright away to one of his companies, a boring company that's underground boring and tunneling and not a very endeering name for a company. we're in touch with them and we'll be getting tours and checking into technology. i really think technology is the way to go and they're trying to tax us out of our cars and into public transportation in san diego county. it's just not going to work. we are -- like i said, we have the highest utility rates and our seniors are hurting and lower class people -- lower wage earners are hurting with all of these extra regulations, and even when the -- our california passed regulation that we all had to have electric vehicles by 2035, six days later they told us stop charging our electric vehicles because the current grid couldn't handle it. ashley: you can't make it up. jim desmond, jim, we're running out of time and i have to cut

you off. thank you very much and we'll check back in especially with your perhaps collaboration with elon musk. thank you so much. still ahead, sean duffy, brian breamburg and michael -- brian brenberg and michael lee all coming up in the 11:00 hour of varney. ♪ .. [coughing] hi, susan. honey. yeah. i respect that. but that cough looks pretty bad. try this robitussin honey. the real honey you love,

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