.. >> we are going to be devoting real-time energy and resources to examine, documenting the

abuses, censoring, silencing, to bring sunshine and transparency and hopefully real accountability. >> nikki haley should be judged on her record. >> fuel prices going through the roof like it is affecting everybody else, families and businesses, the cost of diesel more than doubled. you've got to make up for that. >> companies are beating earnings and sales estimates by one person. that is why it is better than fear. that is one of the reasons stocks have been rallying. >> next couple days could be important. >> you need to talk tougher. if he wants markets to take him serious. ♪ take it easy baby ♪ ♪ she was an american girl ♪ ashley: the late great tom

petty with american girl, the empire state building in new york city. good morning, it is 11:00 a.m. on the east coast, 8:00 am out west on thursday be wary 16th. i am ashley webster, in for stuart varney. let's take a look at these markets, we have been lower since "the opening bell," the dow a to hundred 20 points, we are down 1% across the board, we are coming back a little bit. a hot new surprise reading on the producer side, harder than expected, raises fears about rate hikes by the fed and we will see a selloff in equities and bond yields. let's look at big tech which is always -- spikes in the bond yields in their we have it. alphabet is turning around a little bit, alphabet is up 0.7%. apple just about flat, microsoft and meta-lower but trying to turn it around a

little bit. look at the 10-year treasury if we can. that is spikes but it was up more than this before, it is up 3 basis points. certainly the momentum has shifted little bit. nikki haley wasted no time calling for change after jumping into the president or race. this is what she's calling for. >> in the america i see, the prominent politician will retire. [applause] >> we will have term limits for congress. [applause] >> and mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old. ashley: some clear messaging. ben domenech joins me. do you agree with nikki haley

on those issues? >> i think i agree with her on those issues above all else she's going to run on, in the sense that here she is coming out saying what a lot of americans believe, even americans who are older, that we have a political class that is held onto power for too long in this country. as they have done so, they defend their ability to redistribute wealth toward their own generation and that is something we saw in nancy pelosi, we see it in chuck schumer's extended period of power and president biden's political career and someone like diane feinstein heading for the exits, not even knowing she made a decision to retire, has to be informed via staffer, that raises questions on the part of americans that we do we have our best when it comes to representation we have in washington.

ashley: another one for you. we are at risk of defaulting on our debt, but the president says he will make sure that doesn't happen. >> president biden: i will not negotiate whether or not we pay our debt. i will not allow this nation to default. ashley: the question is does the government continue to raise the debt ceiling? i guess so, right? >> one thing that is infuriating about this is president biden negotiated in the context of multiple debt limit showdowns when he was vice president under barack obama, nancy pelosi, chuck schumer, negotiated in the context of wanting more spending with donald trump, democrats have been willing to use the debt limit to their advantage in the past, now there is this idea that negotiating is somehow risking america's economy. having a situation the proceeds, as much as

republicans are saying hands off social security and medicare, for political purposes we do have an enormous fiscal problem when it comes to social security and medicare. the most recent release in terms of the trust fund, looking down the barrel at costs we cannot sustain without addressing these problems. i don't think there's an appetite right now on capitol hill to do that hard work of saying we have tough decisions to make it have to start asking ourselves what kind of america we want to leave behind for our grandkids. that is something a lot of politicians have been unwilling to do throughout their career. ashley: write on the money. we are out of time. great to see you this morning. now this. president biden has named lyle brainard to be his top economic advisor. that leaves a vacancy at the fed. do we know who the white house

may tap to fill the fed's vice chair role? lauren: report say it is austan goolsby. he was economic advisor to president obama, serving as president of the federal reserve bank of chicago. he would reported the replace brainard as she becomes the white house economic policy director. here is the question. as vice chair, goolsby would be instrumental in influencing jay powell. he hasn't said much recently on inflation or rates. he did back the 25 point hike last time. the last i have on inflation is something he told fox business in november, too soon to see if inflation has peaked. the report would be austan goolsby. ashley: we are down but perhaps trying to come back a little bit, we were down a lot more

than this, more than one% on major exchanges, now we are down half of 1% across major exchanges. let's bring it in lou, good morning, should people be scared of the fed and what their next move, cpi came in hot in january, and ppi number harder than expected. all of this point to the fed continuing to be aggressive. >> would you be afraid of a surgeon wanting to operate on you with a butter knife? there is no precision, no confidence in what they can do. of powell stayed at a holiday inn express, nobody has confidence in his ability to read the data. the data is conflicting, not laying down a clear-cut path. inflation peaked but we are far from out of the woods based on the ppi data we got last week.

retail sales, the headline is scarier than it is. if you look at inflation, they are unchanged and we have this weird seasonal blip from december to january. everyone is going to be rightfully scared that the fed will overshoot the market. they anticipated the end of rate cuts, rate increases. we need to get ready for more increases. ashley: the prospect of the fed bringing rates down under 4% seems like, this year, unlikely. their target is 10%, but this is proving very stubborn, very difficult. jobless claims were lower. the job market is still out of whack. this has got to be a slow motion, i don't want to say car crash, but goes into next year as well, right?

>> we talked about it last week. anyone talking about rate cuts has that in their minds. it is not happening. what we need is certainty that rate increases will stop. that is why stocks rallied. rally. they were anticipating that. ashley: anything in particular you like in this uncertain environment? >> it never goes off in areas of the market where we need it. areas like semi conductors and headlines about artificial intelligence, that doesn't happen without semi conductors. you can shovel names like lam research, biotech is another area that got beat up, but we need drugs and lifesaving treatments, prevention bio, they have a diabetes drug that

could delay or possibly eliminate the onset of a disease. a lot of interesting names in the biotech space. ashley: i love the holiday inn express reference. thank you very much. great stuff. come in here, you are looking at some of the movers. begin with trip advisor. lauren: bernstein called the new strategy defense event says it will take a few years to pay off materially. their price target is higher than that. airbnb up 14% on earnings, just saw this headline. airbnb nightly rates shot up 36% in three years, but they are very popular, their inventory is almost 7 million listings so the stock is bucking the down travel trend,

up by 4%. they plan to reduce their staff by 10% in their second round of layoffs since september. investors responding come up 40%. ashley: the rising number of homeless in chicago's o'hare airport causing serious safety concerns. roll the tape. >> do you feel safe in the city of chicago? >> not always. i was born and raised here a few months ago. i was actually assaulted to. ashley: the question is what is mayor lori lightfoot doing about the problem? college grads say they are not emotionally prepared to work 9-to-5. i'm not making that up. former army secretary patrick murphy says we need to prepare for the worst when it comes to chinese aggression. the former secretary is here next.

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ashley: the biden administration is facing scrutiny over handling of the ufos that were shot down last weekend. when are we going to hear from the president about what is going on? >> reporter: the president left campus for his physical and reporters shouted questions, asking him to speak about this. he held up his hand like not right now.

we do know the president's team is weighing a speech sometime soon, reuters reporting next week, i'm told the timing is up in the air, no pun intended. in the meantime he is letting other officials take care of the chinese spy balloon and the three other objects that were shot down since last friday. >> what we can say is our intelligence community has at this point a leading expectation they are looking at that in fact these objects are benign. >> reporter: the us is concerned possibly china did not intend to penetrate the american heartland with surveillance equip and, with wind driving that spy balloon on an errand path, officials are sharing with fox a fuller picture confirming it is unclear whether the chinese intentionally sent it into alaska and the continental us with wind playing a factor but they also pointed out the

balloon did fly toward guam which is us territory and later in montana, over several sensitive sites with the chinese still able to maneuver it. fox said they tracked the chinese problem the best program for a long time but these balloons don't always come to the us and when this particular balloon left on january 20th one, its path wasn't certain. as it approached guam, than a literary didn't consider it a threat, they opted to collect intelligence against it rather than shoot it down, the president didn't know about it. he was informed on january 31st as it approached alaska. he ordered it shot down and other points along its path, the us wouldn't have authority to take it down because it was over international waters. they didn't have eyes on this thing for its entire trip across the pacific, the us has since all this happened blacklisted six chinese entities for supporting their military intelligence gathering, reconnaissance efforts related to their

balloon programs and in response as what the chinese said would be retribution effectively, they have today and acted sanctions on two american defense manufacturers for what they claim is a response to selling arms to taiwan but follows all this fallout about the chinese spy balloon. that is what we know and we want the president to tell us much more. ashley: thank you very much. joining me now is former armory -- army secretary patrick murphy. you say we need to prepare for the worst when it comes to chinese aggression. my first question is what do you mean by worst? >> thanks, the worst is there a competitor to the united states, 3 times the size of the population, and military that think they can stand toe to toe with our military, i fear there

economy is toe to toe with hours. what you saw with the chinese spy balloon was a breach of our sovereignty. we can't sit back and be so blasé about it. we are in a competition with a competitor both militarily, economically, and needs to act accordingly. ashley: china threatening retaliation after we shot down there spy flight, we have seen sanctions already on american defense companies. do you expect more, and what kind of retaliation? >> we are trying to decouple our tech from going in, especially semi conductor technology that could be in the wrong hands in china. we are seeing a government that is responding by making a down payment to the chips act for semiconductor manufacturing here in the united states, and diversifying to other markets.

and other countries that are more friendly to our american values. ashley: we have had analysts who said the chinese are interested in observing how the us handles the russian invasion of ukraine suggesting perhaps they are trying to get a sense of how this country behaves in a situation like that with china's ion taiwan. where does that issue progress to in your opinion? >> that is a phenomenal performance that we were able to rally the world, a legal invasion of ukraine and what you are seeing is the whole world in response to russia and the president said it was a week after the russian invasion started, we need $1 billion. in the last year giving $27

billion. 31 tanks, training forces. what you are seeing is a massive pushback not just from the international community but most importantly the will of the ukrainian people, they are standing up, they have the will to fight and defend their nation against russia and the illegal invasion of their country. that's the most promising performance indicator that i think stands about our actions but sends a clear message to china that the world won't let them send out spy balloons across the world. ashley: we have to leave it there. secretary patrick murphy. china hit a couple defense companies, what are they saying about it and what are the sanctions.

lauren: supplying arms to taiwan, sanctioning lockheed martin and what does that mean, no business with china, management can't come there, neither company sells defense products to china. double the amount of arms sent to taiwan, no clue how that is enforced. the bottom line is china is retaliating for the us shooting down there spy balloon and not taking their word for it that this is a weather balloon that veered off course. ashley: anthony blinken traveling to germany for the munich security conference. the foreign minister will be there as well. what is the chance of those two meeting? ashley: tomorrow through sunday in munich. lincoln's counterpart will be there.

it seems likely they will bump into each other should nothing official be set up. how do we view this, an opportunity, keep dialogue open or is this something we should not do and stand firm? if we meet and intentionally, what is the tone. ashley: right. all of the companies laying off workers, which ones in particular are hit the hardest. inflation has gotten so bad, to cook the same meal at home, what would celebrity chef robert irvine think of that? he is here next. ♪

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very nice looking, 45 ° and mostly sunny. let's take a look at the markets. 1% across the board, we are trying to come back after some hot inflation numbers, the dow selloff 230 points down 0.6% across the board. susan is keep an eye on the markets. let's begin with a familiar name, apple. >> reporter: apple turned positive, you are pretty much flat and this is the tech stock trend we've seen this year. apple is on a chair along with other high-growth tech names up 20% the last 8 weeks and that's a big move for the world's biggest company in one of the most influential on the stock bench. hesitates on broader markets

with it. the stock rallied yesterday in the wall street journal reports the doj reporting an antitrust investigation specifically about its own products in the apps store which is the main way third-party apps get on the iphone. reports sterger just that i suggest apple is delaying until april, it will be in june at the worldwide developers conference. that was always the plan. i want to show you bitcoin, $25,000 helping lift the other crypto names, 50% rally in bitcoin and only 8 weeks into the year. best monthly rally in two years, tax loss, harvesting, just like tech stocks investors were negative. now they are playing catch up.

selling crypto to book those losses, lowering their tax bills, same reason tech stocks have ripped so far this year. look at roku, big today, smaller losses for these names, also cutting jobs, cost cutting, buying back $1 billion in stock, tesla, elon musk up 70% so far this year, tesla sold out all model why suvs for this quarter until april, elon musk saying there's a to the one demand reduction for tesla cars on the earnings call last month. apparently true. you can't get your hands on a model-emac. ashley: the price of going out to eat is less expensive than the cost of cooking at home. robert irvine joins me now. what does that mean for the

restaurant industry, good news, right? >> reporter: more people are going out. inflation hitting the consumer at home but also the restaurant, a carton of eggs, $40, depending on what you are eating in the restaurant, cheaper to go out or cheaper to go in, but people are dining out more than they have been through covid for sure. ashley: have restaurants been forced to pass on higher cost to customers or are they doing what they can not to do that? >> most restaurants want them to come in. they are being more creative than we were before. a sirloin steak, they are doing

creative things. trying not to pass it on, don't want to alienate the customer. it depends where you are eating and who you are eating with. ashley: i want to your comments on this. going after the tips of waiters and waitresses. what is your reaction on that? >> going after the big fishes, most credit cards now, a tracking device already there, do we need them looking at that? the answer to me is no. few people pay cash anymore. 80 million more folks, to a $30,000 server.

ashley: that's the short answer. you've got a new book out called overcoming, advising small businesses how to succeed and you say 22% of small businesses fail, what is the biggest reason for that failure? >> the biggest thing i talk about is empathetic leadership, understanding people who work with you and for you and what makes them tick? and losing our egos and those most people in business higher people lower than themselves. i want to succeed. the third thing is trust. micromanaging, three pillars of failure, those three. ashley: the book is called

overcoming impossible, thanks for joining us, we appreciate it. the majority of recent college graduates say they are not emotionally ready for work. lauren: if i could start seriously before we poke finance column snowflakes, interviewed a college counselor, four kids, two in college and she said when you go on your college tours, the first question you should ask is where is the mental health office and how many times can i see the counselor before i have to pay out-of-pocket? i was floored by that response. then we have this survey, 43% of college grads say they suffer anxiety at work, 53% feel burned out each and every week. they are not ready for the 9-to-5. they are not ready for the workforce. doesn't matter if they are working at home in their pajamas are commuting to the office, the question is why?

was at the college's fall? maybe the classes are too goosey, too woke, or is it the pandemic? social media? all these other pressures that hit this generation? ashley: all of the above may be. this is interesting. which roles are marched most corporations laying off? >> diversity, equity and inclusion, big company like target, amazon, intel, cutting these diversity jobs. the attrition rate 33% in the last year compared to 21% overall. it is a big expense for them at a time when they are looking to cut costs and cutting jobs in general. if you look how much big companies spent, it is 9. $3 billion last year and that number is expected to double in the next couple years.

we are seeing they are not only laying off these positions but a bloomberg report says they are cutting hiring positions. they are slowly taking it out of the budget. that's an argument that can be made here. ashley: very interesting. now this. a new bill would allow teenagers to get gender reassignment surgery without their parents consent. jason rantz will have the details on that. sam bankman-fried will be back in court after he used the internet in ways that couldn't be monitored. that report coming up next. ♪ ♪

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ashley: the markets holding steady, more than half of one% on the dow, nasdaq, and the s&p 500. sam bankman-fried will be back in federal court this afternoon, the judge will review his bail conditions after he used the internet in ways that couldn't be monitored. kelly o'grady on this story. the question is could bankman-fried be stripped of all cell phone and internet usage? >> that would be the most extreme case but we can't rule it out. the government will seek to limit his cell phone and internet usage to what they can monitor, email or text message because it is a virtual private network to watch the super bowl of all things. vpn conceals online activities,

the concern is next time he could use it to illegally accessed crypto exchanges for example. the defense is pushing back on these restrictions but we can expect the judge to come down hard, perhaps more stringent than the population, and today should prove no different. the global hunt for customer funds continues. bank of the lawyers have given politicians until the end of the month to return 93 million before taking legal action, a $400 million investment, cohen that -- the little-known hedge fund is not only run by former colleagues but also headquartered in the same luxury community as ftx. that kicks off at 2:30 eastern and new restrictions on top of other modifications. the prosecution limit contact with employees. should be interesting today. ashley: always interesting.

we know the names of two of sam bank superman-fried's bail backers. lauren: sam's parent helped him, put up 500,000, $250 million bond. the second is a research assistant, put up 200,000, they were the two previously anonymous backers of the bond along with sam bankman-fried's parent, they know each other from stanford. ashley: thank you. a quick look at the dow 30 stocks to get a sense of a market. we were down heavier than we are, half of one% but as we were at "the opening bell," cisco on the upside, the other 29 stocks of the dow 30 down, bringing up the rear, the dow

itself 217 points. to the story, a drug crisis in washington state is worsening and jason rantz says part of the democrat solution is to hand out syringes and crack pipes to youngsters. he's calling them out next. ♪

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ashley: a new law in washington state could put syringes in crack pipes into the hands of children. give us the details on this. >> reporter: the state supreme court invalidated felony drug law, democrats effectively legalized drugs in response but that led to a host of fatal overdoses. they have to come up with a fixed this legislative session and they have a bill that makes drug possession a gross misdemeanor and most people think that is a good compromise. buried in the bill are two provisions. it creates a health engagement hub and they have to hand out harm reduction tools by law that include syringes and crack pipes and by law it has to be

open to minors so they only give them to minors in seattle and that would go state wide. it creates a workgroup to see if they can get away with giving out illicit substances like meth or heroin or fentanyl to addicts so they don't have to buy it on the street and accidentally get a bad batch of rugs, telling the drug cartels state government could become the largest drug dealer. ashley: very quickly, is it likely to go through and pass? >> this is the leading bill that is likely to go through. hopefully they stripped this out. ashley: to this next bill in washington state that would allow teenagers to get gender reassignment surgery without parental consent. is that right? >> you have a certain amount of time to report a runaway child under the law in washington, but this new healthcare bill

you wouldn't have to tell the parents if a kid runs away solely for the purpose of gender affirming care which you could then receive without parental consent. you don't have to say you are a victim of abuse at the home or your parents won't give you gender reassignment process, you just have to say i am looking for this healthcare and under the law in washington state, there is protected health care which includes gender affirming healthcare which includes surgical interventions in certain circumstances. after some outcry, a democrat introduced an amendment that they say takes that away. we haven't seen the amendment yet but at best, you don't get surgery without parental consent but everything else, hormone replacement, you can receive without any parental consent as a minor, you have to run away to a facility that no longer has to tell parents you are even there. this is the most extreme bill i think i have ever read in washington state.

ashley: so minor is missing but you can't tell the parents where the minor is. to the police -- if you report to police the minor is missing do the police, they can't tell the parents either? >> under the law you would have to report it to the state, and the state takes possession of the care of this minor and all the laws previously passed in washington state under this. and they get healthcare without telling the parents. it is breaking up families if this were to pass and it will be devastating to kids. ashley: it certainly is. there's a couple fun stories for us to digest. thank you for keeping us up to speed on what is going on in washington state. take a look at this. chicago's o'hare airport is overtaken by homeless encampments.

that is raising safety concerns. giano caldwell took to the streets of chicago and asked residents if they feel safe in their own city. take a listen. >> do you feel safe in the city of chicago? >> not always. i was born and raised here a few months ago. i was assaulted. i was attacked. crime is what it is here. >> do you feel there's any protections. >> no one is doing anything about it. >> we feel pretty safe, we have to watch our backs extra, paranoid as well. >> >> stay away from chicago.

>> and crime and public safety are the important issues to them in the mayoral race. 1.5 everything else. take a look at the big board, and we are off session lowe's, and hot inflation report, and and dow winner cisco up slightly, and up 6%. let's look at the s&p 500 winners as well. it is down half of 1%. cisco as we mentioned, and energy player, let's look at the nasdaq as well. cisco, jd.com, doc you sign.com

up 2. 5% but markets have been down, take a look at the 10-year treasury yield, as least that go up, without hurts equities and comes back as well. it is up 82%. gold quickly up $5, $1850 and let's look at bitcoin, on the way up, it is a short squeeze. time for the thursday trivia question, we continue the valentine theme. how would -- he marriage proposals are there on valentine's day. let's see, lauren knows the answer, after this. ese straps ! they collect hundreds of data points like hrv and rem sleep, so you know all you need for recovery. and you are? i'm an investor...in invesco qqq, . .

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♪. ashley: all right we just asked you on average how many marriage proposals are there on valentine's day? your choice is, final guess, lauren. >> i'm going high. a lot of people think it is romantic day. 220,000. ashley: you know what? you know your trivia comes to valentines. you're absolutely right. the answer is 220,000. thank you for everything, lauren. that's it for "varney & company." "coast to coast" starts now ♪ neil: lunchtime on the east coast. three stories we have to tell you about.

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