and doesn't -- you know, maybe we are not getting kevin mccarthy enough credit maybe he can negotiate something here that kind of turns the ship toward growth. that is what we're missing. >> final comments? >> i hate to be sort of negative nancy here but, ultimately, you will, the fed, continues to raise rates going to continue to be a challenge for u.s. economy, frankly some level regardless what oil does. >> we leave dlit great conversation james freeman john catsimatidis jason brady tyler goodspeed cheryl casone, thank you so much everybody have a great day we will see you again tomorrow "varney & company" stuart: all right, good morning , maria and good morning beings everyone. yes, we have the all-important inflation report. it is a pointer to your buying power, and to the future course of interest rates. in the last year, consumer prices went up exactly 5%.

5.0%. that is a pullback from the previous reading of 6%. now the core rate came in with a gain of 5.6% over the past year and that's significant because the federal reserve pays close attention to the inflation rate that strips out volatile food and energy. here is the reaction on the markets. i can tell you now it is euphoric. the dow up maybe 150 points, nasdaq up close to 100. softer inflation numbers may give the fed some leeway on raising rates. that's why stocks were up this morning. don't know how we're going to close but at the opening bell they are up. interest rates very interesting. down sharply. look at that the yield on the 10 year treasury all the way down to 3.37%. before those numbers were released we were much closer to 3.5%. rates coming way down. same with the two year treasury. prior to the cpi number, it was 4.06%. now, it's 3.92%. that's a huge rally in the two year treasury.

bitcoin right there at 30, 165. oil back above 80 bucks a barrel in fact it's close to 82. gas slowly rising to an average of 3.62 for regular nationwide. all the markets, all of them, entirely, are reacting to those softer inflation numbers this morning. that's the markets. all right, politics. president biden is in ireland. this is a goodwill visit and a family visit. he's taken hunter with him. so far he's not addressed russia , china, or france whose president macron wants to move away from america. he doesn't want france to become an american vassle. no response from biden on that yet. donald trump, well he's got a lot to say about our rivals and enemies in an interview with tucker carlson trump contrasts his strength versus biden's apparent weakness. he says he threatened xi-jinping , warning him not to invade taiwan. he worries about nuclear weapons and says all it takes is one mad

man talking about russia. it is wednesday, april 12, 2023. "varney" & company is about to begin. ♪ i could use a break, all i do is sit is round ♪ stuart: the song that opens the show. lauren: i hope for better days. stuart: it's a positive opening? lauren: muted optimism, cautious optimism. stuart: the big financial news of the day is inflation, and as you heard, consumer prices went up 5% in the last 12 months that's a big improvement over the previous reading. look, there's a lot more in this inflation report, and lauren has got it all. what do you have? lauren: i'm calling it the goldilocks cpi report. inflation is up 5% in the past year. sounds like a lot, slow since may of 2021 almost two years.

this is unusual though, because core inflation, that's inflation outside of food and gas, that's up a greater 5.6%. that means rent is the biggest driver of inflation at the moment, on an annual basis, shelter is up over 8%. things are getting better. i've seen better days. food prices flat on the month. gas fell more than 4% but yes, shelter is rising at a fast clip month-over-month and annually and that's the biggest problem right now. what does the fed do with this? i just looked at the fed funds futures. there's a 66% chance that they go 25 basis points when they meet may 11. stuart: 66% chance of a 25 basis point hike. that could be won and done. lauren: could be. stuart: not suggesting it is but it could be. thanks very much lauren. check futures, green on the screen. left-hand side of your screen dow is up 148, nasdaq up 100. eddie ghabour with us this morning. all right, you've been forecasting a big drop that's

coming soon. then, a subtle rally. do these soft inflation numbers make any difference to your forecast? >> it does not, stuart. actually, this soft inflation number is really reinforcing the fact that we are in a recession now in our opinion and when you study recessions in bear markets, you will start to see cpi as i said in my notes to you this morning is going to continue to go down, because we are in a recession and that's what's causing these prices to come down, and the market has not priced in a recession in our opinion. and lastly when you look at this market, when you look at risk-free assets or the flight- to-safety like treasuries and gold, they have been rallying substantially, even with the market rally, so either the bond market is right or the stock market is right. they both can't be right in our opinion, and we think the bond market is smarter than the stock market right here. stuart: so to summarize here, you do still believe a major league drop is coming for stock prices, all across-the-board.

a big drop, which will take us back to the lows that we've not seen since last year. that's still your forecast? >> absolutely, because at the end of the day, the cost of capital is not going down for corporate america, even if the fed pauses. i agree with you. i think they might be won and done on the rate hikes, but the cost of capital in the secondary market when liquidity is tight as it is, we have a major problem with earnings and growth slowing and again, the cost of capital i continue to focus on is the biggest concern that we have stuart: are your clients getting nervous? because they have been sitting out this year's 2023 rally. they have been out of the stock market. >> actually what's interesting, stuart, i'm very bullish on long term treasuries. if you look at long term treasury etf's they're up 7-9% so far year-to-date. that's a better return than what the s&p 500 is, so, there's still opportunities. it's just in the flight-to- safety in our

opinion so these treasuries have done exactly what we hoped it would do and i'll make another bold call. by the time we are at the end of july, treasuries will substantially be higher on a year-to-date basis than the market. stuart: higher prices by the end of july, treasury prices will be higher. therefore yields lower. correct? >> that's exactly right, because this economy is falling off of a cliff in our opinion. stuart: okay, falling off a cliff. we'll have to leave it there. that's kind of dramatic, falling off a cliff in your opinion. eddie ghabour, i'm sure we'll see you again soon, thanks a lot >> thank you. stuart: now let's get to politic s and we'll turn now to the 2024 election. former president trump does not think he'll be seeing president biden on the campaign trail. watch this. >> do you think biden will stay in the race? >> look. i watch him just like you do and i think it's almost inappropriate for me to say it,

but ideal with other people. i don't see how it's possible, but this is something wrong. i saw his answer today on television about whether or not he was going to run. it was a long answer, talking about the eggs and the this and that. look, i don't think he can. stuart: i don't think he can. i think i've said that myself as a matter of fact. rob smith joining us this morning. i don't think biden runs. the democrats won't let him run. what say you? >> i do think that he runs actually but here is the thing. and the reason why they are so afraid of really putting him out there is this. you know, he can't run from the basement again, right? so in 2020, he basically campaigned in various small things and campaigned from the basement but if he runs again in 2024 he has to be out there and he has to take questions from the media. he has to go out on the campaign trail and he has to do that and that creates more possibilities for him to have these bad viral

moments that we're seeing but i still do think that he does, because here is the thing. i think, and this is my objective opinion, that the left thinks that trump is the only candidate that biden can beat. right? if trump gets the nomination and i really do think he's on path to getting the nomination then biden will run again. they have ran that playbook against trump. they know how to do it and i think they will flip on that switch. all of the trimble haters will come out and then that's their path to 2024. i really do see it's going to make a lot of people mad but that's my objective opinion. stuart: politics is fascinating. lauren: is that why the convention is in illinois? because their path once again runs through the midwest? is that how they see it? >> i believe so. i really do believe so. i think that people really do underestimate the visceral hatred for trump, that people on the left have. there's nobody with tds on this stage, so we can understand it but i do know people with tds and i think we have to understand that this hate is still out there. stuart: yeah, i'm with you on that one. listen to this.

kellyanne conway says the gop has a lot of work to getting on board with young voters. watch this , please. >> we've already won the policy arguments on the economy, on education, a number of issues and we've got work to do on the young people who think differently on abortion perhaps or guns or climate change, but even there, the democrats messages are usually cynical. the place i'm really, the thing i'm really concerned about with this , lara, is that the left becomes a turnout machine with young people. stuart: a turnout machine. that was wisconsin in the supreme court thing where the liberal won by 10 points because they had organized the colleges. can the gop organize youngsters? >> i don't think so. the gop has a blind spot with the zoomers particularly with the culture aspect so i want an organization called stop woke and a lot of what we do is we focus on center-right content on generation z voters. i hear over and over again well turning point is doing this , these are fabulous

organizations but for every one of those the left has about 15- 20 of those , so we are not competing to get generation z voters in the ways we should be and if the gop does not wake up to this they are going to lose again. stuart: okay, rob smith always a pleasure. thanks for joining us, sir. >> thanks guys. stuart: late night host steven colbert is taking shots at some of president biden's recent word salad. lauren: so now biden has word salads too. he was talking about the softball al roker question, hey are you going to have another white house easter egg hunt, in other words are you running again and this is how he poked fun. >> that's right, jack. i've got big easter news, joe biden can lay eggs. >> [laughter] >> easy as pie. no, i pushed him right out, okay >> [laughter] >> served them scrambled or set on them for a while and raise little baby joes. point is i'm mentally fit to once again run for president of the united states. >> [laughter] >> what's going on?

where's jill? lauren: it was funny and that's coming from the left. stuart: first time i've ever seen him be funny. coming up, manhattan da alvin bragg sued congressman jim jordan over the trump indictment injury. listen to jordan's response. roll tape. >> the real interference is coming from mr. bragg to our investigation. we have a duty, under the constitution, to do oversight and to investigate things like this where they are interfering in a presidential election. stuart: interfering in a presidential election. we've got more for you guarante ed. president biden in ireland to commemorate the signing of the food friday peace agreement many years ago. hunter biden is along for the ride. peter doocy is with the president and he spent the last hour trying to get him to answer a question. we'll see if the worked out for him. peter strzok next.

you can't buy great conversations or moments that matter, but you can invest in them. at t. rowe price our strategic investing approach can help you build the future you imagine. t. rowe price, invest with confidence. starting a new chapter can be the most thrilling thing in the world. there's an abundance of reasons to get started. how far we take an idea is a question of willpower. because progress... is a matter of character.

a ballet studio, an architecture firm... and homemade barbeque sauce. they're called 'small businesses.' but to the people who build them there's nothing 'small' about them. that's why at t-mobile for business... you'll save more than $1,000 versus verizon. and with price lock guarantee, we'll never raise your rate plan. so you can keep your focus on toe-turns and making sure the sauce is extra spicy. at t-mobile, there are no small businesses. ♪

ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. municipal bonds don't usually get the media coverage the stock market does. in fact, most people don't find them all that exciting. but, if you're looking for the potential for consistent income that's federally tax-free, now is an excellent time to consider municipal bonds from hennion & walsh. if you have at least 10,000 dollars to invest,

call and talk with one of our bond specialists at 1-800-217-3217. we'll send you our exclusive bond guide, free. with details about how bonds can be an important part of your portfolio. hennion & walsh has specialized in fixed income and growth solutions for 30 years, and offers high-quality municipal bonds from across the country. they provide the potential for regular income... are federally tax-free... and have historically low risk. call today to request your free bond guide. 1-800-217-3217. that's 1-800-217-3217.

stuart: president biden in ireland to commemorate the signing of the good friday agreement. peter doocy is in belfast, northern ireland. peter, you tried to shout a question at the president. did he get any kind of response? reporter: no, he didn't, and they kept us pretty far away, so sometimes that works. sometimes it does not. if i would have been able to get a question it would have been about these leaked classified documents. we did have a chance to talk to john kirby about those and he confirmed a detail from a headline overnight that there are actually u.s. troops in ukraine. listen. >> there is a small u.s. military presence at the embassy in conjunction with the defense to help us work on

accountability of the material that is going in and out of ukraine, so they are attached to that embassy and to the defense. reporter: for clarity, they are in the embassy in ukraine, but they are not fighting. >> that is right. they are not fighting on the battlefield. we are not providing, enabling support on the battlefield. reporter: that detail is brand new and so is this one about how the white house is doing damage control while traveling abroad. >> first time the classified document leaks what kind of questions are we getting from our allies about that? >> we are making overt attempts to reach out to the relevant allies & partners to explain to them as best we know what we know, and we don't know that right now. >> kirby said that they do not know what else may be released which could further complicate president biden's trip. he's on his way to dublin right now. stu? stuart: got it. peter doocy right there. france's president macron says

europe should not allow the american rhythm, should not follow the american rhythm, as he puts it, on taiwan. he made these comments after meeting with china's xi-jinping. adam bora is with us, the ceo of rubicon, and former senior trump administration official. did macron sell out to china? i haven't heard a word about this from our president. >> i think it was very dangerous what he said and very convenient too, because last i checked, macron didn't think there was a difference when we supported nato, and backed up europe as russia attacked ukraine, so i found the comments very irresponsible and not helpful relative to taiwan, and you saw china act almost right away after that. stuart: is the world split between this new arrangement, russia, china, iran, north korea and the united states and russia , i'm sorry, and the united states and europe, and europe is moving away from us. is that an accurate description? >> i would hope not. i mean, i did notice that when

macron got back the rest of europe was very upset about his comments. i think, you know, he likes to think of france as a superpower. last i checked it's not the 1700 s and he's not napoleon, so i did see the rest of europe upset. i think where we need to be foreign policy-wise and we usually do a good job. we should be with europeans, we should be with those countries close to you, to us, in the western hemisphere and we should be surrounding china with japan, korea, taiwan, the others that are our friends, and look at china's friends. they are the b-list. iran, ussr, sorry, russia, i can't tell anymore, but those countries are their friends. let's focus on developing and backing up our real friends and macron should not go astray there. stuart: does hunter biden have anything to do with this? i mean, he's on the trip. he's on air force one. >> it's bizarre given all of the details around hunter biden. he might be somebody that if i'm the president, i leave at home

and keep a little quiet. doesn't seem like somebody i want to throw into the mix. stuart: what's our standing in the world at the moment, adam? >> what i really worry about, if you look at russia, and what they did with macron, they would not have been able to do that before and i think you went back the way i think about this is it starts with afghanistan, and then it goes to russia-ukraine and now you see an embolden china and we really saw that as they brought our enemy, iran, together for middle east peace with the saudis. totally different from the abraham accords. this administration, i'm going to give a recommendation. we're very common and it's a very bipartisan approach to really fight china. i think both administrations recognize the strength. what we need are actions, not words. we need to see more trade alliances. we need to see more economic alliances. that was my agency. it was the dollars to counteract china and china is making a very big push here and it is time for us to show our strength. stuart: got it. adam, thank you very much for being with us. i'm sure we'll see you again >> thank you, stuart.

stuart: now this. we have an update on the leaked intelligence documents. what have we learned now? lauren: fox news is reporting the leak could be from outside the pentagon but still, within a u.s. agency, because some of the documents were not in the d od briefing books. another potential leading theory is the leaker is a contractor with the security clearance. either way this is catastrophic both size and scope and haunting the intelligence agencies. we have reaffirmed our support for ukraine and ukraine win. secretary of state anthony blinken calls our commitment to ukraine iron clad. of course some of the leaked documents show doubt about ukraine's air defenses, and their spring counter offensive. stuart: well -- lauren: it's a mess. stuart: it is a mess and that's a fact. what about this hostage "wall street journal" evan gaskovich. has the president reached out to anybody? lauren: yes, he called the family and spoke to them over the phone and made it very

clear his national security team is laser focused on securing evan's release. >> anything you can say about this case? >> well, no. we're making it real clear that it's totally illegal what's happening and we declared to change the dynamic. lauren: so, the family says it was reassured by that designation of wrongfully detained, and now the top hostage negotiator that's roger cartins, he helped free brittney griner is the point person in this case, so in this respect, yes. the white house is taking action to get evan home. stuart: all right, thanks, lauren. check futures, please. we have a soft inflation report. i think that i can call it that, a softer inflation report this morning. the market loves it. dow is up 160. nasdaq is up close to 100. the opening bell will be ringing shortly, and we'll take you to wall street. ♪ ♪

♪ i have type 2 diabetes, ♪ ♪ but i manage it well. ♪ ♪ it's a little pill with a big story to tell. ♪ ♪ i take once-daily jardiance, ♪ ♪ at each day's staaart. ♪ ♪ as time went on it was easy to seee ♪

♪ i'm lowering my a1c. ♪ jardiance works 24/7 in your body to flush out some sugar! and for adults with type 2 diabetes and known heart disease, jardiance can lower the risk of cardiovascular death, too. jardiance may cause serious side effects including ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration, that can lead to sudden worsening of kidney function, and genital yeast or urinary tract infections. a rare, life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection, ketoacidosis, or an allergic reaction, and don't take it if you're on dialysis. taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. ♪ jardiance is really swell, ♪ ♪ the little pill with a big story to tell. ♪

♪ i'm gonna hold you forever... ♪ ♪ i'll be there... ♪ ♪ you don't... ♪ ♪ you don't have to worry... ♪ do you shop for vitamins at walmart? force factor products powerfully improve your health. but they're also delicious, easy to use and affordable. that's why force factor is now the number one best selling herbs and supplements brand at walmart. unleash your potential with force factor at walmart.

stuart: well, with green on the left-hand side of your screen, that means stocks are going up at the opening bell. let's bring in our market watch er of the morning shah gilani. shah is with us today.

headline inflation down, the markets up. are you buying today, shah shah gilani? >> yes, we've been dipping our toes in, buying energy, industrials, tech tok catch the momentum trade. we own the basic have to own stocks like apple and microsoft and nvidia but we've been at it for some tech positions to see if this rally can continue. the softer as you called it earlier, cpi number is a positive but really, we need to see a trend downward what everybody would like to see and until we see that i don't think anyone is quite sure whether or not we're out of the woods in terms of inflation and i don't think we are. stuart: so you're kind of luke warm on things aren't you? are you concerned about bank earnings? >> very concerned about bank earnings, stuart. that's probably my primary concern right now. we know we've got a couple big banks reporting on friday and as other banks report, i'm more inclined to be keeping an eye on the likes of the pnc and the mid size banks and the community banks as they

report because if their earnings are bad, if their stock prices start to get hit we could have another round robin of selling off in banks and worry about the banking system and that's i think something the market can't handle very well and it would likely sell-off if we have that kind of negative feedback. stuart: you just don't sound like the shah gilani of old. you're luke warm. you're tentative. that's not like you. >> you know i'm a buy the dip guy and i'm trying to buy dips here. i still think the market can go higher. we're in a pretty good position as far as having business so far in 2023. it's now really up to earnings. the cpi number is behind us. we've got ppi coming up but i don't think it's as important as earnings. earnings earnings earnings going forward and that's really going to define this trend. can we continue higher or are we going to flat line and perhaps turn lower? it's all about the earnings, stuart. stuart: if that's the choice can we go higher or flat line? do we have another choice that we drop sharply? you don't see that in the future

, do you? >> well, it's entirely possible i think the thing that could create a sharp downturn be really horrible bank earnings and a sell-off in bank stocks. i think then the public would start to panic in terms of the safety of the banking system , and as if bank stocks sell-off, investors in those issues will continue to sell and we would have a problem of now, what is going to support everyone's talking about commercial real estate loans these banks especially the mid- size and community banks are sitting on. what kind of equities going to support that if equity prices are falling. we have a big problem, so this is what i'm looking at. this is front and center for me this earnings season. >> [opening bell ringing] stuart: i miss shah gilani. i'd love to see him come back. one-day he will, i hope. you're all right >> i will. stuart: thanks for being here. it's 9:30 the market has opened. the guy presses the button and off we go. we're expecting to see , well i'm going to call it basically modest gains on the market. at least in the very early going and that's what we've got. dow is up what 140 points,

that's not huge but it's not bad we've got more than half of the dow 30 on the upside. some have not yet opened. now the s&p 500 that's on the upside too, a gain of a half percentage point but better than the dow. 4,100 is the level. 12, 100 is the nasdaq level and that's up two-thirds of 1%. i presume big tech is doing well , and yes it is, because interest rates like the 10 year treasury, the two year treasury, way, way down this morning. alphabet, microsoft, meta, apple up, amazon down a fraction. susan is with us and i want to talk about apple. i know they're opening retail stores in india. is that a big deal? >> well for a country of 1.4 billion and the fact that these are the first two stores in the country, i think that's a big deal, so we're looking at two new ones opening in new delhi and mumbai next week, and reports say tim cook, the ceo himself, will be on hand for the first retail shop

openings. as i mentioned apple only broke into india's retail stores and retail market pretty late. back during the trump administration, and we know that their compiler, foxconn, has been investing hundreds of millions of dollars to expand their production capability in india, and many expect that this is a subtle shift away from china to put more manufacturing in india, and india could possibly make 25% future iphones according to the indian commerce minister and of course because of the covid lockdowns that her production there in china for apple and the geopolitical tensions, but you know, apple stock is up around 25% so far this year, and we're only three months in. by the way, warren buffett, oracle of omaha this morning, says he is not selling any of his $100 billion-plus apple stake. he may have sold a little bit to pay off taxes, but overwhelming ly, this is his number one position and he still is sticking with it. stuart: 161 on apple, up what percent this year? >> 25% on a $2 trillion --

stuart: it's incredible. >> which by the way makes up i think a record amount of the s&p along with microsoft now. stuart: great story. elon musk has given an update on his twitter and the finances thereof. how is the company doing? >> well okay, so he says they are breaking even now, after cutting 80% of their staff, so he only employs around 1,500 or so, long enter view last night with the bbc, out of all people and mucks says he was forced by twitter because he was likely going to lose that lawsuit to back out and he says its been painful but really the right thing to do and twitter could also be cash flow positive this quarter if things go well. he didn't offer any evidence. i think he had to take that with a large grain of salt. stuart: so do you believe him? >> all musk projections but he said they were losing $3 billion in just three months away from going under until he took those drastic actions to basically cut everybody, but i'll tell you this. his cut-and-burn method has been

inspired and copied across silicon valley and other tech companies so think of meta. quick layoffs, 21,000 jobs have been cut in two rounds, and this why meta is up 80% so far in the first four months of this year. musk, by the way, also has changed twitter. now it's called "company x" officially. because this is part of his plan to build that everything app from payments, social media to everything else in between. kind of like the we chat in china. stuart: i could use one of them couldn't i? >> i think so, yes, on something that needs no push of a button or anything like that. stuart: the news over the past couple of days has been the president cracking down on tail pipe emissions. that makes it much, that's a much better marketplace for electric vehicles, i presume i'm looking on the board. they're all up this morning. >> but this is kind of a market that everything wants to go up with the yield coming down, inflation is cooling, but you know, they would make the argument the electric car companies make the argument. it would still increase costs for ev's just a little bit because you need to build-out

the charging stations, et cetera now, yes, we know those epa rules will limit the amount of carbon emissions for model years from 2027 and 2032, but i'll tell you that, you know, the detroit automakers already know this. they've pretty much, gm and ford said we're going all electric. some by the end of this decade and you had gm saying by at least 2035. stuart: football fans, attention please. did google just, i think they did, make a streaming deal for some nfl games? >> yeah, but what does it tell you when big tech is getting into television and sports. if you were a traditional broadcast company, or cable company, you should be scared. google tv by the way, which is the roku competitive that hardware device you use to stream different services making 800 channels available for free. so also, this comes a day, by the way, after they made that announcement on youtube tv. so if you're a subscriber you get it for , the sunday nfl ticket for $100 cheaper.

they charge 449 for all those nfl games that you can watch on sunday, but if you already pay for youtube tv live package, i do, you will get it for $100 cheaper but think about it. google, amazon, paying for nfl sports rights. muscling into streaming and content, apple paid for the major league soccer and they are willing to pay a premium. who else has that kind of money to spend $2 billion on the nfl sunday ticket which is a money loser, by the way, but to attract eyeballs like youtube and google and silicon valley tech giants. stuart: this is fascinating stuff. talk about this forever. i really could but i can't. so let's talk about -- >> i want to talk about amc and movies since we're on this content. look at national media going into chapter is 1 so it's a bizarre move here but amc entertainment continuing that 10 % rally that one week 10% rally we've seen for amc after big record breaking box office weekends, mario brothers did it, john wick 4 did it and people are willing to go back into the theaters to watch movies on

the big screen and amc would rally if there's a fewer competition out there. stuart: you got anything on shop ify? >> one of the best performers, so shopify is the second-largest e-commerce provider in north america behind amazon, so you have jmp securities calling it a buy finally worth $64 so there's 50% upside with americans, still willing to spend, still willing to continue their e-commerce boom and buy things online. stuart: you checked all the boxes this morning, all of the interesting companies moving today you've got them all. one more note on the inflation. i checked the fed funds futures so we're still getting a 25 basis point hike in may, but 75% of wall street now anticipating that but that should be the end of the cycle for now and it's positive for the stocks. stuart: susan good stuff. thank you very much indeed. coming up china says it's ready to fight after holding drills around taiwan. is the administration ready for that?

lt. general keith kellogg does not think so. roll tape. >> we're going to be left out by ourselves and i'm not sure this administration is up to this fight. this is going to come to a head either diplomatically or militarily within the next two years and i think force will be applied and then really end of the game for us. stuart: well, well, well, that's interesting. we'll get more on that for sure and then there's this. compare companies like nike, kate spade, they are under pressure, after partnering with the transgender activist dillon mulvaney. 2024 presidential candidate vivek ramaswamy reveals what he thinks, right after this. ♪

♪ ♪ do the work, before the work. bodyarmor lyte. more than a sports drink.

- "best thing i've ever done." that's what freddie told me. - it was the best thing i've ever done, and- - really? - yes, without a doubt! - i don't have any anxiety about money anymore. - great people. different people, that's for sure, and all of them had different reasons for getting a reverse mortgage, but you know what, they all felt the same

about two things: they all loved their home, and they all wanted to stay in that home. - [announcer] if you're 62 or older and own your home, you could access your equity to improve your lifestyle. a reverse mortgage loan eliminates your monthly mortgage payments and puts tax-free cash in your pocket. call the number on your screen. - why don't you call aag... and find out what a reverse mortgage can mean for you? - [announcer] call right now to receive your free no-obligation info kit. call the number on your screen.

stuart: the corporate equality index score, that's a process that grades america's iconic brands on things like inclusive benefits and responsible citizenship. madison alworth has been taking a look at this. is this why companies partnered with the activist dillon mulvane y, to boost their corporate equality score? reporter: yeah, it's all part of that calculation, and the goal is to get a 100 total point score, so bud lite isn't the only company we're seeing partner with influencers, nike, and kate spade are just a few of the brands being called out for this woke advertising, to boost their cei score, so cei stands for as you mentioned corporate equality index, and it's a social scorecard that grades companies based on their inclusivity. you're seeing some of the things they look at on the screen. it's run by the human rights campaign, arguably the most powerful lgbtq lobby in the world and they are equipped with millions in funding from george soros's open society

foundation and money plays a big role. >> this is something that these corporations felt forced to do because of things like the corporate equality index. if bud lite does not spend a certain amount of money they will get dinged by the human rights campaign and have a lower corporate equality index. reporter: the second money part of all of this is that companies with high cei scores more likely to garner investments from firms that heavily consider esg in their investing. when you look at the points last year the human rights campaign foundation identified 842 businesses that metal of the criteria to earn a perfect 100-point rating that goal they are all going for. stuart: 842? reporter: yes. stuart: perfect score? reporter: that 100 point on the index all publicly available so you can scroll down whether buying from these companies and say, whether or not they get that 100 point score. stuart: you're supposed to scroll down and look at it. that's what they want. madison good stuff. thank you very much indeed.

vivek ramaswamy just wrote on this. "dillon mulvaney and bud lite reveal this shocking truth about the gender insanity cult. " vivek ramaswamy is a gop presidential candidate and joins me now. vivek? what is the shocking truth about this gender insanity cult? >> so there's two shocking truths about it, stuart. i've been writing about these issues since my first book a couple of years ago as you know. now its actually gotten far worse than i imagined . the first is that we have to acknowledge the reality. if you have a gender identity that is different that you believe than your biological sex , more often than not that is a mental health disorder and a sign of somebody who actually needs help not endorsement deals but the second question is then why companies are actually doing it and it often comes down to issues like executive compensation, because in many companies in their boardrooms, now today's ceo's are compensated not just on shareholder value maximization goals, but also, on esg goals,

and s stands for social, and so what you just talked about the corporate equality index is one of the now quantitative inputs into that social score, so this is a cynical game designed to blow woke smoke to deflect accountability for the actual failures of these businesses. that's what i've been pointing out for several years and now i'm doing it on the campaign trail. stuart: it seems like we're trying to normalize gender transition. is that wrong? >> well i think it is wrong. i think that especially amongst children in the next generation we are causing more gender confusion. that is not compassion. we're told to say that the compassionate thing to do is to affirm someone's confusion. it's not. that is a form of cruelty. i personally think that if you can't get a tatoo which you can't get in any of the 50 states of this union until the age of 18 because you shouldn't be able to do make permanent bodily changes you'll later regret, you should not be able to undergo genital mutilation surgery or chemical castration until the age of 18 either. that's one of the things i'm pledging to implement, stuart,

as the r president if i'm elected. stuart: we've got one of these surveys and it shows mr. trump widened his lead over mr. desantis. it's a 33 point lead. i guess you're happy to see them go at each other, aren't you? >> i think so. stuart, i'm slowly climbing those polls especially in the early states. we're doing actually really well in one of the recent polls that came out in new hampshire. the reality is nothing if history teaches us anything, before that first debate, which will take place in august, nothing really matters in any primary season. both in the republican party and the democrat party, but especially the republican party, history even in 2015 and 2016 would teach us that doesn't matter but once that debate stage gets rolled out in august, things are really going to get changed in this race. that's when reality begins to matter. my view is we should right now be talking about the agenda. forget the who. let's talk about the what and the why. what do we stand for , why do we stand for it? that's what i'm focused on right now. stuart: do you think you can get the youth vote with your strong anti-woke stance? >> i do, stuart and here is why

first of all i'm the first millennial candidate ever to run for president in u.s. history on the republican ticket, but it's not just that. young people in this country are so hungry for a cause, for purpose and meaning. that's why they have flocked to wokeness, but right now they are hungry for something else and i'm going to give them a vision of american identity. what it means to be american today that satisfies that hunger for purpose in gen z and amongst millennials and that's a xfinity advantage for us in this race but more importantly it's what's important to create a country for the next generation of americans. stuart: vivek ramaswamy doing well in the polls . thanks for joining us sir. i know we'll see you again soon. >> thank you. stuart: lauren is back with us. senator tim scott did jump into the race didn't he? 2024 race today? lauren: soft launch of a presidential campaign, he formed his presidential exploratory committee testing his message of optimism in quite a divided field. >> what brought me to this

moment is my faith in america tour. i have found that people are starving for hope. they are starving for an optimistic positive message that is anchored in conservative values. i can't think of a better story to tell than the story of america. this is a land of opportunity, not a land of oppression. the drug of victimhood being sold by joe biden and the radical left is wrong. we believe in the power of individual responsibility. i couldn't be more excited. lauren: he's facing off with this growing republican primary field, nikki haley is on there, collision course, she appointed senator scott back in 2012 to the senate. you have asa hutchinson, and of course donald trump and one more thing, ronna mcdaniel as chair of the rnc just announced this morning the first republican debate will be held in milwaukee, wisconsin. stuart: got it. thanks very much, lauren. coming up staying on 2024. an elite memo, nikki haley

blasted trump as more drama and says governor desantis is not ready for primetime. florida congressman byron donalds officially endorsed trump the other day. he's here to respond to nikki haley's comments, next hour that is. title 42 set to expire in a month. are we ready to face an even stronger migrant surge? the border report is next. ♪ allergies don't have to be scary. (screaming) defeat allergy headaches fast with new flonase headache and allergy relief! two pills relieve allergy headache pain? and the congestion that causes it! flonase headache and allergy relief. psst! psst! all good!

hi, i'm jason and i've lost 202 pounds on golo. so the first time i ever seen a golo advertisement, i said, "yeah, whatever. there's no way this works like this." and threw it to the side. a couple weeks later, i seen it again after getting not so pleasant news from my physician. i was 424 pounds, and my doctor was recommending weight loss surgery. to avoid the surgery, i had to make a change.

so i decided to go with golo and it's changed my life. when i first started golo and taking release, my cravings, they went away. and i was so surprised. you feel that your body is working and functioning the way it should be and you feel energized. golo has improved my life in so many ways. i'm able to stand and actually make dinner. i'm able to clean my house. i'm able to do just simple tasks that a lot of people call simple, but when you're extremely heavy they're not so simple. golo is real and when you take release and follow the plan, it works.

stuart: inflation cooling, when the market opened it went straight up. some of that gain is now, it's losing its steam. the dow is still up 145 but i see the nasdaq has turned south. it's down two points. let's get to the border. title 42 set to expire in less than one month. that could mean an even stronger migrant surge. matt finn is there. question, are the authorities doing anything to prepare for an expected push, rush? >> well, stu, here on the ground in eagle pass, as far as we could see local authorities are kind of in that holding pattern. there was two or three previous false alarms of title 42 potentially coming to an end so it seems like this time, local authorities and border patrol is just waiting until that really does happen. the biden administration has proposed a new rule that would

turn away asylum seekers here at the united states if they had not applied for asylum in hi of the other countries, on their way here, the biden administration also says it's going to start those credible fear screenings where asylum seeker vs. to prove they have a credible fear in their country of origin. not sure exactly how you'll prove that but we also have video of a rather stunning moment we want to show you, stu, not far from where i'm standing. the video shows a man hoisting a young pregnant woman and boy over the barbed wire fence over the rio grande river and the man kisses the pregnant woman's belly and the young boy with what appears to be a goodbye kiss and the man retreats into the brush heading back towards mexico. what clear where he went . the mother and boy started walking towards the area where we see migrants turn themselves in and if you look closely at the video you'll see a second man facing the my grants in the brush. it's not clear what his role was in this scenario and that pregnant woman is just one of 1.2 million migrant encounters at the southern border so far

this fiscal year and we're waiting for the march numbers to be released but looking month-by -month back in december there was a record high of 250,000 migrant encounters at the southern border. that number dropped to 150,000 in january, and february, and if you look at the statistics the numbers traditionally do drop during january and february and then pick back up in the spring months we are now in so we'll keep you updated from the border on those new numbers, stu. stuart: thank you very much, matt. still ahead, jake beckett, florida congressman byron donalds, martha maccallum, washington congressman dan new house. the 10:00 hour of "varney" & company is next. ♪

you can't buy great conversations, or excuses to unplug. you can't buy possibilities, .. ments that matter. but you can invest in them. at t. rowe price we believe your investments should work harder for the future you imagine. and that's where our strategic investing approach can help. t. rowe price, invest with confidence.

every day, more dog people, and more vets are deciding it's time for a fresh approach to pet food. they're quitting the kibble. and kicking the cans. and feeding their dogs dog food that's actually... well, food. developed with vets. made from real meat and veggies.

portioned for your dog. and delivered right to your door. it's smarter, healthier pet food. stuart: that is clean. i knew that.

lai