like the previous quarter. earnings are going to come in under expectations, so the stock market is counting heavily on lower interest rates to prevent a sell-off, and that could be the case near term but eventually the driving force behind lower rates will be a recession that appears to be inevitable. maria: yeah, john lonski, liz peek, great to be with you both, have a great day, everybody we'll see you again tomorrow right here same time same place, "varney" & company picks it up now, stu take it away. stuart: good morning, maria, and good morning, everyone. biden's energy policy and his foreign policy have just taken a big hit. opec will cut oil production by more than a million barrels a day. the price of oil is already going straight up. its reached $80 a barrel. gas prices surely will follow soon. on day one, biden abandoned american energy independence. opec now calls the shots. in his first year in office,

biden called the saudi ruler a pariah. mohammed bin samon didn't like that, he's leading opec's production cut. all of this overall overshadowed by legal proceedings against donald trump. crisis all over, but the focus is on his appearance in new york courtroom tomorrow. trump force one is ready for take off in florida and it lands at laguardia just after noon and will walk into the courthouse tomorrow morning. the judge could issue a gag order. that would stop the former president from speaking about the indictment during his presidential campaign. how about that? and news this morning that secret service agents will be testifying in d.c. about trump's handling of documents at mar-a-lago. the bottom line here is that legal proceedings will distract from biden's policy failures for a long time to come. mixed picture on wall street this morning. the dow industrials benefiting from oil company gains. they're going straight up this morning. dow is looking for a gain of

over 100 points but a small loss for the s&p down maybe five. the nasdaq is down nearly 90 points, as big tech starts the new quarter, after solid gains january through march. looks like they maybe down today because of interest rates. the yield on the 10-year treasury still well-above, well just over 3.5% but look at the two-year. that yield there is coming in at 4.11%, maybe that's what's upsetting big tech investors. on the show today, we will have is on trump's plane when it lands in new york, and from there on out, we'll be following the former president as history is made in a new york courtroom. the city is close to a lockdown, but we are not distracted from the crisis america faces. mayorkas tells "60 minutes" that there is no crisis at the border just a significant challenge. monday, april 3, 2023. "varney" & company is about to

begin. all right we've got to get straight to this. former president trump will be arraigned tomorrow following an indictment from a new york grand jury. okay, we've got that. i want to know what's new. good morning, susan. >> good morning to you so let's get to fox news reporting on timelines here because it does suggest we are awaiting trump's arrival at trump tower in new york city later on today and he's leaving mar-a-lago, florida so we have is on his plane. arraignment will be tomorrow, tuesday, in new york city. trump is expected to arrive at the courthouse at around 11 a.m. arraignment at 2:15 p.m. it should all be done by 2:45. now, according to reports, trump will not be handcuffed, so no pe rp walk and it'll be the only case on the docket. his lawyer this weekend says they will fight the reported 30 charges that will be filed against president trump. >> we will take the indictment. we will dissect it. the team will look at every

potential issue that we will be able to challenge and we will challenge and of course, i very much anticipate a motion to dismiss coming because there's no law that fits this. >> now what about that gag order? because president trump will then fly back to florida and says he would make a nationwide address at around 8:15 p.m. but there's a lot of unknowns since we have these charges under seal so we're still awaiting to see the detailing ourselves. stuart: got it. thank you, susan. karl rove with me this monday morning. thanks for okay in the show on a very important day. is this indictment a win for the democrats and the biden administration? because it certainly distracting from the crisis we face. >> well i think that's absolutely right, and the short run at least, that's the case. what's interesting to me is that a lot of americans are waiting to figure out what this is all about. abc poll, 47% say that it's politically motivated. heavily republican, strongly pro -trump. 32% say it's not political, and

20% say they don't know, so we have 52% of the electorate saying either this is not politically motivated or we're awaiting to figure it out and if you dig deeper into the numbers, 45% say should he have been charged? yes. 32% say no, and again 23% don't know. they are waiting to hear what's in the indictment. and among republicans this is, it's a big advantage to biden in that it puts the entire focus on trump. it is an advantage to trump in that it unites the republican party largely but this be problematic from the former president'perspective. 16% of republicans say he should have been indicted. 20% say they don't know. that's over one-third of republicans either say should have been indicted or they don't know and 62% say no, he should not have been indicted so this is not going to help the former president and anything that doesn't help the

former president by its very nature helps the current president. stuart: look at this new poll, k arl. trump holds a commanding lead over his nearest competitor governor desantis of florida, trailing by 30 points. i'm sorry desantis trails trump by 30 points. i think i'm right in saying, kar l, that conventional wisdom right now says trump will win the primaries and then lose the general. what say you to that? >> i think that's a right conventional wisdom for now, but a lot of things are going to happen in the nine months left in this year. remember, in 2008 rudy giuliani was well ahead of the rest of the pack at this point so things can change, and i'm not certain this is the most problematic potential indictment for the president. the one that may be more problematic involves the handl ing of classified materials at mar-a-lago. if the president's lawyers lied to the federal government in june of 2022 and said we gave you everything that was classified, and knew that it was

not, or worse yet, if the former president played a role in telling them to lie to the federal government, that could be a real issue, but right now, yes, i think the conventional wisdom is right. this is causing a rally around the flag moment for the former president, whether he can sustain that or not through the iowa caucuses and new hampshire primaries is a big question, but it's helping him certainly right now, but it is adding no support whatsoever. they're not one of those , the gap between biden and trump in the last election was 7 million votes. biden got 7 million more votes than trump. the idea even in this action that's being filed today, that it somehow is paying nearly $300,000 in hush money to people who alleged they had affairs with you, that ain't going to switch any one of those 7 million people who voted for biden to vote for trump. stuart: got it. karl rove thanks very much for being with us this morning. see you again real soon. >> thank you. stuart: staying on the 2024 race former governor of arkansas asa

hutchinson threw his hat in the ring wasting no time going after trump. >> fifth candidate to official ly enter the race, many for to come and like other potential candidates says trump is not the right choice for 2024 >> i have made a decision and my decision is i'm going to run for president of the united states. i'm convinced that people want leaders that appeal to the best of america and not simply appeal to our worst instincts. stuart: do you think that trump should now step aside? >> well i do but he's not going to, and only he can make that decision, but to me the office of presidency is more important than any one person. >> so so many more expected to get know the ring including we're awaiting florida governor ron desantis officially, former vp mike pence likely jumping in, senator tim scott and even john bolton. did you listen to his remarks? he didn't rule himself out yet for 2024 so it's a crowded stage

stuart: would you like to rule him out? thank you, susan. thank you very much. all right look at futures, please. it's monday morning want to know where your money is going despites all of the trump circus the dow is up 110 but i've gotta tell you a lot of that is the oil companies. jeff sica with us this monday morning. opec is cutting output by over a million barrels a day. the price has already gone to $80 a barrel and moving up. apart from surrendering our energy independence, do we, which i think is a bad thing, do we now face energy price inflation? >> we certainly do, and keep in mind that biden handed the saudi s the bat that they are hitting us with, so just in time for the summer driving season, the saudis cut production which creates this avalanche of price increases, and we're going to see more retaliation from the saudis, because the saudis do not respect joe biden and they're going to continue to retaliate the fact that we gave

them this power is a tragedy because now, we have this global inflation. we have the fed printing money, increasing money supply, which is more liquidity chasing fewer goods and services, more inflation. we are in a spiral of inflation right now and our energy policy has just added fuel to the fire. stuart: what the president should do is reverse course. pump more oil, drill more oil, frac them on natural gas but he's not going to do it. >> no and the fact that he gave all of this power to the saudis and he has criticized them on every turn and then pretended he's their friend, they're playing with him right now. he is not a strong leader and they are playing with him and they are going to make it worse for consumers which is the real tragedy. stuart: you've had a lot to say about disney recently and today is their shareholder day. it looks lake you'll have a woke company facing some angry shareholders.

how do you think it plays out? >> yeah and i wish i flew to florida because i'm one of those angry shareholders who has owned this stock since i think i was 22 years old. so i'm way older than that now. stuart: yeah, you are. >> so, the bottom line with disney is they have a lot going for them. they have this content. they are the king of content. they have this catalog that they could continue to capitalize on. they have 235 million subscriber s in disney plus. they want to fight this woke battle. they want to appeal to the progressive woke and that is hurting their brand immensely. they need to get back to capitalizing on expanding this catalog. they need to look at their corporate structure. they are looking to cut around $5 billion in expenses which is a good thing. i'm really hoping that the new leadership brings them out of this fight, and they have to stop fighting their landlord, ron desantis.

they have to stop that. they have to make peace with him , sit down, go on the tea cup ride with him and move on with this. stuart: that's the sole ride that stays at magic kingdom, i know it very well. thank you, jeff, we'll see you again soon. look at the futures please monday morning. i see green for the dow, but some red for the nasdaq. coming up, dhs chief alejandro mayorkas refuses to call the border situation a crisis. watch this. >> why won't you say the word crisis? >> you know what? because i have tremendous faith in the people of the department of homeland security, and a crisis speaks to me of a withdrawal from our mission. stuart: oh, why can't they call it a crisis? how come mayorkas doesn't know what cartel wrist bands are? we'll have more on that. trump travels to manhattan today , ahead of his arraignment tomorrow. his lawyers believe a judge may impose a gag order that will ban him from talking about it during the presidential campaign tom fitton will react on that.

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stuart: president trump is getting ready to head to new york ahead of his arraignment tomorrow. ashley webster is in palm beach. what are you seeing there, ash? ashley: well, you know, it's all very quiet this morning, stu. we know that the former president spent the weekend chat ting with attorneys. he also managed to get in a round of golf on both saturday and sunday, but no doubt about it. today is d-day, departure day. we're expecting that he will leave his mar-a-lago resort around mid-day, head to the airport and straight to new york city. from there, he will go to his residence in trump tower and that's where he will remain for the rest of this monday.

then, of course, tuesday's arraignment scheduled for 2:15 before judge juan merchant but lots going on before that. trump will be photographed. he will be fingerprinted but not handcuffed as has been reported. we also understand no trump family members will be present in the court during his arraignment. it's going to be quite a scene, no doubt. republican congressman james comer of kentucky, he's the chair of the house oversight and accountability committee. he says this is nothing more than election interference and manhattan da alvin bragg will be made accountable. take a listen. >> i think most people in america are sick and tired of the government getting involved in our election process. we want free and fair elections, so we have a lot of questions for the manhattan district attorney. he doesn't have the luxury whether or not to determine whether he can show up for congressional inquiry.

ashley: tomorrow's arraignment, stu, expected to last from 15-to -30 minutes and then, we understand that donald trump will head straight back here to palm beach. we're told he will "deliver some remarks" at 8:15 tomorrow night from the resort, but few details probably in those speeches because there is wide speculation and it is only speculation but donald trump could be put under a gag order which would prevent him from talking about any aspects of the case, and if anyone would struggle with a gag order it be donald trump. stu, back to you. stuart: well-said ashley. i want to follow-up on that. thank you very much indeed. tom fitton is with us this morning. trump's lawyers believe the judge could impose a gag order on trump. if he violates that gag order the penalty will be what, 30 days in jail, $1,000 fine. but if there's a gag order, doesn't this deny free speech in a presidential campaign, tom fitton? >> oh, it be abuse on top of

abuse in my view of the president, president trump's first amendment rights. you know, when a judge imposes a gag order, he's supposed to weigh these first amendment interests and who has higher first amendment interests in talking, yes, about a case like this , of which, you know, he alleges quite correctly in my view that he's being targeted because he's running for president. i mean, the idea that a district attorney could have these charges of a former president and leading presidential candidate into court and then a court would bless that abuse by telling the candidate he can't talk about the biggest issue right now of the campaign, i just can't believe that be allowed to happen, but you know, the fact we've gotten here shows that our justice system is terribly broken and our governmental systems have been so abused in a way that there's urgent need for repair and going to your last point there with

congressman comer. congress can't haul in alvin bragg soon enough to question him under oath about what he's doing here. stuart: if alvin bragg doesn't want to appear he says he's not going to appear before congress. can you do anything about that? >> well, he can be, if he refuses to obey a subpoena, he can be found in contempt of congress. alvin bragg is also not above the law and we need to investigate the investigators here. stuart: there's a poll that shows 47% of people think this indictment was indeed politically motivated. okay, so he doesn't have the majority in his corner, right? >> you know, the poll numbers tend to kind of match up with the presidential numbers. isn't that interesting? you know, this is just politics, and the american people are responding to it as a political gain, not as what i think what really it is is an abuse of

power, and i think if it was -- if we had better leadership here in d.c. talking about it and the media stopping, refusing to ratify this abuse, americans of all, republicans and democrat s, would denounce this. stuart: got it. tom fitton again thank you very much for being with us and it's a very important day and you've got a lot of work to do. we'll see you later, tom fitton, thank you very much appreciate it. florida's governor desantis was in new york on a book tour over the weekend and he went right after manhattan da alvin bragg. what did he say? >> all politics according to the florida governor and likely trump require all. listen to this. >> he comes in, his whole thing is he doesn't want people to be in jail. he wants to downgrade felonies to misdemeanors and he turns around does a flimsy indictment against a former president of the united states, and they're trying to do all of these legal gymnastics to act like it's a

fill on it when almost every other time he's trying to take the felonies and downgrade them to misdemeanors. this guy is doing politics. he has an agenda. that is not the rule of law. >> now a lot of folks on both sides of the aisle do agree with those sentiments, unless there's something new. these are pretty old charges that bragg's predecessor, by the way, the manhattan da passed on prosecuting and so does the fed so let's see what the 30 new charges include if they are new. stuart: we have senator joe manchin coming to the defense of trump, right? >> yes, that's right so the red state democrat manchin says this indictment is pretty much bad for the entire country. >> it's a very very sad day for america. very sad day. especially when people are maybe believing that the rule of law or justice is not working the way it's supposed to and it's bias, we can't have that. no ones above the law, but no one should be targeted by the law, so let's wait and see what comes out next week. >> so there you go. we have manchin defending trump and you know a lot of people

have been pointing to some of manchin's recent comments saying it sounds a little presidential and they wonder if there might be a 2024 bid there in future for the red state democrat. stuart: that's an interesting idea. >> you have to run as an independent right and that's not a very good track record in terms of probability. stuart: no, in terms of probability, i don't think he could run as a republican, though. they might still elect him. he's very popular, susan, thank you. check those markets please we're coming up to the opening bell. dow is up about 100, nasdaq down 90. we'll take you to the opening of wall street on this monday morning, next. ♪ good luck.

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stuart: mixed market as we head towards the opening bell. the dow is benefiting from all those oil companies which are part of the dow 30. oil companies straight up along with the price of oil, straight up today. nasdaq though down 90. keith fitz-gerald joining us now all right, keith, look. the banking crisis is cooling at least a little. rate hikes could soon be ending, and we have a modest rally on wall street. does this rally have legs? >> i think the answer is yes,

stuart. people want to get on with their lives. it's a lot of money on the sidelines. if any of those things come to fruition then that's stable for markets and good for earnings, good for growth, et cetera. stuart: okay how about tesla? i think you've got a price target of about $300 and it's now at 200. make your case. >> absolutely. selling most of the cars they can produce, changing the industry, going way beyond the vehicles that everybody is thinking about so to me this is all about the future of electricity, and distributed generation. this is not about cars any longer. musk is the leader, not the follower. stuart: what do you mean it's all about electricity in the distribution? i don't get it. >> well so for example, musk went after this. he built his charging network, his cars, solar panels. he's touching industries that will realign the power grid. not necessarily produce transportation or produce energy, produce charging. what he wants to do is redefine the relationship between consumers and the energy we use. he's building out a

multi-faceted approach that for the most part people still think about in terms of vehicles stuart: wait a minute. he's building out a multi-faceted approach. what do you mean? >> well he's getting into energy trading. he's getting into energy production, storage. he's getting into redefining how consumers interact with car dealers, transportation, et cetera. he's big, big, big ai development so i think he's got a lot of different irons in the fire to use an old expression. stuart: okay, we hear you and i hear that price target of $300 a share for tesla, which is now at 200 exactly. let's see if you're right. keith fitz-gerald on a monday morning, thank you very much. we'll see you again soon. >> [opening bell ringing] stuart: the market opens we're expecting a gain for the dow but some red ink for the nasdaq. interest rates up a little bit this morning that's not going to help, the nasdaq, let's see how we go. at the moment the dow just opened for trading and i see red , look at that maybe because not all of the dow 30 have opened yet. okay now we've turned it around the dow is up one-third of 1%,

117 points, roughly half the dow 30 are up and roughly half are down. mixed market for the dow. how about the s&p? down a fraction, 4 points lower but it's at 4,100 that's an important level. the nasdaq well-above 12,000 and it is down about .6% that is not a huge loss. big tech all of them in the red but not by much. apple is to 164, microsoft is down two bucks, alphabet a buck 30, meta 270 down, amazon down a buck 34. not huge losses, but red inka cross the board. i want to get back to tesla. we have that forecast a moment ago of $300 a share from keith fitz-gerald and now at $200 a share and the stock is down. why is it down when they seem to have delivered so many cars? >> yeah it was a record first quarter. i think it depends on who you ask because according to selling 22000 cars delivered in the first quarter, 440,000 cars made some said that was actually

below estimates. i think factset had 432000 deliveries but still it was a record so that was slightly below, right? again, depends on who you ask because i actually saw some other estimates that said it was pretty much a beat, but i think this is a case of by the rumor, sell on news. stock is up 50% this year and analysts say these delivery numbers were pretty much juiced because of the price cuts around the world, up to 20% here off in the u.s.. so what does this mean for automotive margins? how much do they make on each car that's been delivered and sold? i think it's going to be important when they report first quarter earnings. profits might come down as a result, especially with the cash burn that we're seeing to ramp up austin and berkshire hathaway min. stuart: so we're interested in profit margins when they issue their financial report? if the market shrinks bad for the stock if we expand wonderful. >> yeah, and some good news from china. so you can extrapolate because if you look at teslas rivals they came out with pretty strong deliveries in the first quarter so the autos sold about 20,000

in march. those are pretty good numbers, n io sold 10 and xpung 7,000 in march and given that tesla actually sells more cars than all three of these combined they will see a big number in the first three months of this year. stuart: what is with mcdonald's temporarily closing its offices as it prepares for layoffs? >> that's a great question because we don't have any specific numbers on how many they expect to lay off but you do have corporate headquarters being shut, and many see that as a potential sign of impending layoffs. now, mcdonald's i would say has actually held up better than other retailers. in fact if you listen to their last earnings for the last few months of last year they said high inflation meant wealthier clients are trading down to buy cheaper meals, so maybe this might be a preemptive, let's save on cost and possibly lay lay off a few employees. stuart: maybe get ahead of a recession, a cut now, so you don't have to cut later and you'll be in good shape. who knows. now we've got this , you want to -- >> mcdonald's employs 150,000

workers around the world. most of those are global. stuart: got it. the endeavor group agreed to purchase vince mcmahon's wrestling group $9 billion. let's cut this down to real english. this is wrestling getting together with ultimate fighting. >> i'm sure you're a fan. stuart: absolutely not. >> so this is a combination which is interesting because wwe has been on the sales block for a long time, so this is an outright sale per se, it's a combination, so uc will merge with wwe, so this combined sports entertainment company is worth $21 billion in total. that means you had wwe with 9 billion andufc is worth 12 billion and this is a separate entity run bye-bye endeavor group, and they will have 51% of the separate entity so it's interesting that it's like they aren't using outright cash to take over wwe, does that make sense but they are giving them aishah hasnie premium on what they are worth. stuart: i'm just looking at the

wrestling people down nearly 10% let's talk about life storage combining with extra space storage. $12 billion. >> yeah, so why is this important? because look. we live in this world where all of a sudden we just got through the steepest rate hiking cycle since 1980 but yet people are willing to make deals in this environment so does this show maybe we're at the end of this tightening cycle since we have seen the first, best first quarter for the nasdaq 100 since, i mean, we're up 20% in a bull market run so that's why it's important to point out these deals taking place. stuart: it is important. could be a few deals coming. that's very nice. >> are you making any? i'd love to know. stuart: no. i'm sure the airlines are down. i've got it right the airlines are down because of the opec oil >> yeah, that's right. surprising everybody, opec + cutting a million barrels per- day. i saw some analysis saying that cartel cut could go up to 1.5 plus million barrels per day, taken off the oil market so when oil prices go up, of course that

means extra cost for airlines which i think 60% of their costs are outlays go to fuel. jet fuel costs but let me ask you this , because it surprised everybody. i'm looking also at the estimate s and jpmorgan said we could get up to $84 a barrel now that we're looking at the highest jump in oil prices in a year, because of this opec + cut now whose benefiting? oil companies. stuart: sure. >> we know that warren buffett has been the single-largest buyer in occidental so he's, it makes you wonder what warren buffett nose. stuart: look at the percentage gains. exxon -- >> biggest jump in oil prices. go back to last april. stuart: bed, bath and beyond they tried to raise money to keep out of bankruptcy. did they get the money they need >> there was concern over especially into the weekend since they hadn't closed that capital raise of $380 million. in fact this stock has been all over the place in the pre-market today was up 18% at its peak, because they finally did close on that cash, but business going forward i think there's some concerns. stuart: got it, bed, bath and

beyond is 41 cents, thank you, susan. coming up jpmorgan had advice for democrats about trump's indictment. roll tape. >> now is also not the time for democratic candidates to celebrate, to brag, to predict the outcome of the legal cases. if you can, i'd actually just put your head down and stay out of it for now. stuart: okay, maybe that's good advice but there's a lot of people in the media who are not keeping quiet, not keeping their heads down. they are celebrating, and we'll show you. opec announced a supply oil production cut more than a million barrels a day. looks like gas prices will be heading up again in the summer. how high will they go? don't know but we'll probably try to guess. we'll be back. ♪

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stuart: well take a look at this oil back to $80 a barrel that follows opec surprise announcement of oil production cuts. edward lawrence has the story. did the white house expect to see such a big cut as this? reporter: yeah, stu, they were stunned inside the white house, a source tells me here that they expected production cuts but nothing this big. now, with opec + now announcing this production cut, the global market will see 1.1 million-barrels a day less of production starting in may through the end of this year now russia previously announced another cutoff 500,000-barrels a day so experts are now saying this could mean we could touch $ 5 a gallon gas this summer. you see what prices are right now. republicans say this is exactly the reason they passed hr-1. >> the saudis are now looking at cutting their oil production as we go into another crisis where we are not energy independent, which is why we passed hr-1 this past week, to make the united states energy- independent again.

we need safe, we need reliable energy and we're not getting that out of this administration. reporter: so president biden moving full speed ahead with his energy policy, discouraging investments in fossil fuels and pushing his energy transition through the inflation reduction act. now senator joe manchin in an op-ed says the president is determined to subvert the intent of that bill and pursue a partisan agenda ignoring fiscal and energy security. >> i'm very very disappointed in how they have interpreted a piece of legislation. that is not how it was written and it's not the intent and it's not the agreement that president biden and i had, so, i'm hoping that he intervenes. reporter: so, senator manchin says that he believes that the intent of that was to support fossil fuels. instead, he says, the president is moving forward with what he calls deficit-breaking levels of spending on clean energy, plus the administration getting no help from frenemies around the

world. back to you. stuart: look whose here now, stephen moore the man himself. stephen? this is how it seems to me. this is what happens when you lose and get rid of energy independence. it was almost predictable wasn't it? >> you know, i'm so frustrated by this news story, because how many times, stuart, did we talk about opec when trump was president? stuart: right. >> never. because we broke the back of opec. it had become a toothless tiger and here we have this story that opec is going to reduce where there's a little over 1 million- barrels a day cut in production. guess what? if we just got back from the trump levels we be producing 2 million more barrels a day so twice as many barrels as they are cutting. we be looking at 250 to $3 a gallon gasoline not four and potentially $5 a gallon so this is an unforced error, self- inflicted by the biden administration because of this war on american oil & gas and by the way it's not just an

economic issue and a financial issue, but it's a national security issue, because now those dollars are flowing into the coffers of enemies of the united states like russia. stuart: some economists are warning about china's currency muscling in especially into the world oil market. why should i care if the dollar as the global currency is in decline? why should i care? >> well, first of all, inflation is a kind of devaluation of your currency. that's kind of by definition, stuart, what inflation is. if inflation goes up that means the value of your currency is going down, so that's a bad thing. i am a little skeptical, stuart, that any of these other currenc ies are going to take over from the united states any time soon as the world reserve currency. the way i put it many times on your show is we're the least rotten apple in the cart, so come on. are people actually going to buy

chinese yuwan? does anybody have any faith in that country's economy? euros, come on, europe is a disaster so i think that the winner from this though, because people will look for alternative currencies, if we continue to inflate the way we've been doing and by the way i want to remind your viewers that the reason we've been inflating is because we're spending $2 trillion more per year than we're bringing in, but i think that the big winners, if this continues, will be cryptocurrencies, because those are private currencies, outside the realm of control of federal reserve banks, and government currency so i'm not worried about china taking over. i'm worried more about what is the status of the u.s. financially around the world. stuart: real fast. go back to the opec oil production cut. the rise in the price of oil, probably rise in the price of gasoline. do we have an energy price inflation problem that's just

developing afresh which could stop the federal reserve lowering rates or pausing rates and maybe pushes into recession? how bad could this be? >> well, that's a real chain reaction there but i will say you're exactly right that, you know, if you look at what's happening with inflation over the last three or four months, stuart as the inflation rate has come down from 8% down to we're down to somewhere probably closer to 5% now. most of that has been driven by the reduction in commodities prices especially oil, so if we start seeing those commodity prices start to rise and i was just looking at the commodity index today. it's not just oil & gas. a lot of the commodities are starting to creep up again. you know what that tells me, stuart? we're not done with this inflation story yet. stuart: i wish we were but we're not. all right thanks very much indeed, stephen. i know we'll see you soon. stephen moore. big cities, you know, like new york, san francisco, and elsewhere, they were hoping for a back-to the-office boom. but susan? there's an awful lot of unused commercial space downtown.

>> that's right and it's a big concern commercial real estate right now because some say this could be the next shoe to drop. we're talking about millions of square feet of unused commercial space, so think of big cities like new york city almost 16% vacancy rate, d.c. is at 20%, san francisco is probably the worst at a quarter of vacancy rates downtown but that also means there's opportunity for some new cbd centers to be popping up so think of winwood in miami, maybe culver in l.a. or the suburbs like jersey, naperville in chicago but remember when we were talking about deutsche bank and how there are concerns deutsche bank might be the next bank to fall? a lot of banks that hold a lot of commercial real estate debt are the main concerns right now so no one is going back to the office as you just saw with the huge vacancy rates and that means tenants aren't paying their rent so what do you do if you are one of these commercial real estate operators that have a lot of debt and borrowed heavily on your books? stuart: you're in a mess. >> and what about the banks

that extended the credit? stuart: they have a problem too. >> absolutely. stuart: there's another trend story. more companies are targeting people who have the money to spend and they aren't worried about inflation. they are going after wealthy people are coming down. >> so would stu "varney" pay $ 10 for toothpaste or $190 for cream? stuart: i look like an idiot. >> so no discounts for retailer s to attract more higher-end shoppers because if you cut your, iffy you discount less profit for the company, so another example is chipotle raising prices by 13% and they want higher income folks to buy more of expensive guac and burritos. one example i loved which was five below, it sells for five bucks and below. so now they are saying we're going to go five bucks and beyond so $6 plus and converting a lot of those 1,300 stores they operate to sell higher end products instead. stuart: they got pricing power and the stock reflects it.

not bad. thanks susan coming up california's mansion tax is in effect. million dollar listing star josh altman says that tax is chasing people out of los angeles. he reports a huge surge in home sales right before the tax took effect. he's here to discuss his listings in the 11:00 hour. michigan became the first state in nearly six decades to repeal its right-to-work law. big win for the unions. jeff flock is in michigan with the full story after this. ♪ a ballet studio, an architecture firm...

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that said, most states in the u.s. still have right-to- work laws, 26 states, once michigan law takes effect at the beginning of next year. that said, union membership continues to decline in this country. now down to about 10%. it was 20% in 1983 and most of those workers are in the public sector. about one-third of public sector workers are unionized, just 6% of private sector workers are in unions despite the big push now at amazon and starbucks. unions point out that they get better pay and benefits, about three-quarters of union employees get employee-sponsored healthcare. less than half of non-union workers and so the debate goes on. we listen to both sides as we always do, and now you can too. take a listen. >> its been pretty overwhelming ly positive. i think a lot of people kind of view this repeal of right-to- work as the beginning of rebalancing the scales and shifting the focus back to the

middle class working families and prioritizing their needs first. >> i think it's harmful to workers and to our business climate. i think it interferes with our ability to attract new businesses. i think we will find people that currently have exercised their right-to-work in the state of michigan since the right-to-work initiative was passed, while by themselves looking for other jobs. reporter: important just one final note, stuart, to note that if you are not a guy who likes the unions and you have to pay the dues, those dues cannot support political candidates that you don't like. so that's at least one saving grace in this. stuart: perhaps the only one. jeff flock thank you very much indeed. good to see you. still ahead, will cain, kt mcfarland, pete hegseth, and million dollar list star josh altmann. yeah, the 10:00 hour is next.

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