>> if everybody just keeps coming in doing a really respectable second place, at the end of it, you're going to be in second place. you're not going to be in first place. >> we have to hit back. every time you see one of our bases attacked and you see a key administration official come to

the microphone and tell the world that our main goal is non-s escalation, the iranians hear that as we respect going to hit back to things they care about. >> what is the right way to report the the fact that almost every single month of this administration has seen real wages decline? what exactly is the right way to report the fact that people are demonstrably poorer under this administration in. >> most persons -- americans having to ask themselves who do i believe? do i believe joe biden who is known to tell a few things that didn't happen, or do i believe my lying eyes e when i go to the grocery tore or the gas pump? ♪ ♪ ♪ ashley: anonymous-looking midtown manhattan skyline with the fog obliterating some of the tallest skyscrapers. it's that kind of day. it's 11 a.m. on the east coast

on this tuesday, december the 26th. i'm ashley webster in today for stuart varney, the day after christmas. let's check the markets. we are on the upside as you can see, the dow, the nasdaq and the s&p all up around a quarter percent. let's take a look at some of the big tech names, if we can, see what they're up to today. as you can see, most of the tech names have been on the upside. there the they are, except for apple. apple down just slightly, but meta, amazon, alphabet, microsoft all gaping just a little bit more -- gaining just a little bit more. let's take a look at the 10-year treasury, 3.90% on the 10-year treasury. if. >> all right, now this: president biden says he's not happy with the media's negative coverage of the economy. oh, no. roll tape. >> -- about the economy, sir, what's your outlook next year? >> all good. take a look. go report it the right way.

if. ashley: start reporting it the right way. but a recent fox poll found that, guess what? 46% say his administration has hurt them financially. hmm. maybe the media's just reporting what the consumers are telling them. brian brenberg, great to see you this morn, brian. joining me for the whole hour. it's great to have some company. brian, is the white house that detached from reality? >> well, the white house has bubble wrapped this president. that's the idea. if you can detach him from reality, then he can say what a he said with 100% conviction because he has no idea. and here's why that's really important, because if you were to actually give americans some relief, you'd have to roll back everything biden is doing. you'd have to roll back everything the left is doing. you'd have to roll back the green spending, the green regulations, you'd have to change the spending picture in the government. if you did that, we, the consumers, might actually feel

like next year could be a good year. but because the president doesn't know that and he's bubble wrapped, he can say what the left needs him to say which is just hang on tight, we're going to be okay. ashley: just a puppet with people pulling the strings. all right. next one for you, brian. thanks to the tart of the u.s.-led naval task force, denmark-based shipping giant maersk who does massive amount of container hipping says it's going to -- shipping says it's going to keep shipping through the red sea. >> i'm glad they're reassuming but, ashley, i look at this situation, and it feels like we're institutionalizing target practice. we're not going after the houthis, we're not going after iran, we're just saying, hey, i bet you can't hit the ships. i bet our protection is so good -- and they're just taking shots, and they don't need to make 10 out of 10 shots, they need to make 1 out of 100 to

accomplish their purposes. i don't like this because it's not sustainable, and contrary to the name prosperity guardian, it's not facilitating prosperity, ashley. you know, this looks like the biden policy of not deterring bad behavior, and nobody -- clearly, the houthis, iran -- nobody is deer thed by this. ashley: yeah. you're absolutely right, brian, because the response from the administration has been, well, we don't want to escalate -- >> right. ashley: -- violence in the region. what a signal does that send? >> it just says we're not serious. and it says to these guys, you're in the truck driver's seat is. take your -- driver's seat, take your hots. create the chaos. they don't need a win, ashley, they just want to create chaos. they a want to make it painful must have for america to walk away -- enough for america to walk away. and and basically we're saying go ahead and try. biden is so weak and so beholden to the left that can't stand actually prosecuting action

against hamas if that he's stuck in this spot. ashley: yeah. peace through strength, it works every time. brian, or thank you. i want to get to the markets now. and we're just seeing a slightly, you know, it's an uptick to begin the final week of trade that thing. you can see up about a quarter president across the -- quarter percent across the board. jeffrey small joins us now. i've been watching -- asking everyone, of course, what's your outlook for 20224, jeffrey? if mainly positive or not? >> well, i think that we're going to witness the institutions trying to catch back up to the retail investors. some of the best stocks still, the mega-cap big tech sector are underweight institutionally which means they're flocking to buy them now before the new secular bear market which just started in a.i. ashley: well, let's get to some of your picks. this is a very popular one,

amazon. tell me about amazon, it's at a $153 a share. you like it at this price? >> i like amazon a lot. they just had their second best reporting quarter in history when the entire market's earnings bottomed this past third quarter. amazon's got a lot of potential in a.i., but the biggest point if about amazon right now is the little guy, you want to get in there before the institutions get in there, and presently amazon is only owned 6 11th institutionally. -- 61%. they do expect earnings to rapidly increase in 2024, that's one of the biggest reasons, the two biggest reasons why you want to own that stock at this time. ashley: very good. let's move on to another familiar name, meta. >> well, meta's another one the institutions are changing. it was just a week and a half if ago they were 70% institutionally owned, now they're up to 78, and the stock has gone up $30 a share over

that time frame. meta is probably the is second best stock in the market from 202423 next to -- 20223 next to nvidia, but it's got lots of room to grow. the other thing people are discounting is really the nasdaq is still 2-3% below the last 24 months, so is we're just now getting back to break even. is it too pricey to own at 30 times earnings on meta? absolutely not. that's my core holding right now. ashley: a very good. well, stuart or varney will talk all day long about microsoft. you like it too, right? >> i like microsoft a lot. it's probably one of the best a.i. plays to own out there, so you've got a little bit of a longer-dated approach, the next 24-30 months. you definitely want to own some moth. it's the up the least out of the fang seven group year the date, but it's got the most institutional ownership. that tells you it's a good longer term hold. they've got a good revenue model and, like you said is, very any loves microsoft. ashley: he opens just a sliver,

he likes to say. you also like apple. what in particular if about apple? it's $193, down a little bit today, but you like it. enter well, apple's -- >> well, apple's earnings and margin are expected to come up in 2024, so the whole earnings outlook has changed as a we've bottomed out. rates are onlying down, things are going to compress press, and that's good news for apple. apple's going to have a suite of a.i. apps coming out in 2025 that will add to their services bottom line which is really where all the growth is in terms of apple's revenue model. so i would look to own apple for a little bit longer-dated approach. can we expect great returns of 40 to 50%-200% in magnificent seven for 2024? no, that's not going to a happen. what can you expect? more like 20, 25, 30% for the year. it doesn't mean they'll outperform the market like they did in 2023, but they're a good hold right now. ashley: you covered a lot of ground in a short amount of

time, jeffrey. take a bow. great insight this morning. thank you so much, sir, for joining us. all right -- >> thank you. ashley: let's take a look at a the cryptos now. thank you. bitcoin, let's take a look where bitcoin is, down a little bit, $42,328. etherium down 57 at $2,227. but if you remember, last christmas we were in the middle of a crypto winter, as they called it. bitcoin was just below $17,000 in value, now it's sitting in that range of 43, 422,000. so if you put -- 42,000. so if you put $100 in last year, it would be worth approximately $257. now, an increase of 157%. if you choose to invest in etherium, it was worth $1200 last holiday season, now about 2200, so $100 informs last year worth about $190 today, a 90 president increase in -- 90% increase in value. pete hegseth, sean duffy, yeah,

they'd love to crow on that. the cryptos, by the way, may not be near their record highs, but maybe it's safe to say we're out of the so-called crypto winter. don't want to junction it, but it appears that a way. coming up, new research suggests being a night owl puts you at a higher risk for a number of heart conditions. dr. frank continue access saw will tell us how important a good night's sleep is. [laughter] i wouldn't know. pro-palestinian protests in new york turn violence over the weekend. the protesters were trying to cancel christmas. we're going to bring you the full report. and take a look at this op-ed from the washington post. it says or harvard's claudine gay should resign. and guess what? a liberal columnist wrote that. what? media guy joe concha will sound off on it next. ♪

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tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to or if ibd symptoms develop or worsen. i move so much better because of cosentyx. ask your rheumatologist about cosentyx. ♪ ashley: anti-israel protests turning violent in new york city last night. hundreds clashed with police as they shouted christmas is canceled. alexis mcadd adams joins us now to talk about it. alexis, were there any arrests made last night? if. >> reporter: hey, ashley, yeah, there were six arrests made that we know of so far. we'll get to that in a minute. but christmas wasn't canceled here in new york city although those protesters tried their best. the nypd was on high alert are, but things did get out of hand for a little bit. watch this. [inaudible conversations] [background sounds] >> reporter: you can see there

that crowd clashing with police. people were arrested on a variety of charges including disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and criminal mischief. one police officer was injured. organizers -- organizers were targeting the biddiest areas of new york city. protesters car erieing blood red mock nativity scenes calling for an uprising as they swarmed near the rockefeller area. many tourists were in town for the olding day, the crowd stopped traffic. finish watch. [inaudible conversations] [background sounds] >> reporter: it wasn't just in new york though. protesters gathered across the cup country including in d.c. check this out at the home of white house national security advisor jake sullivan, they saw protesters there. and in virginia at the home of defense secretary lloyd austin, he got a christmas visit from some pro-palestinian protesters

accusing the two biden administration officials offing being complicit in the genocide against the palestinian people. ashley, more protests are planned in the coming days across the country including here in new york city which is not a surprise so, hey, the nypd says they're ready for it and prepared. we'll send it back to you. ashley: very good. alexis, thank you very much. i want our viewers or to take a look at this headline coming out of "the washington post." it reads: harvard's claudine gay should resign. joe conning cha is here to talk about it -- econ cha. joe, remarkably, that is from a liberal columnist, no doubt. so the question to you is, and i read the article, is it time for gay to resign in your opinion? >> absolutely it's well past time, ashley. even before all these charges came about, again, this was the president of harvard who went to capitol hill and said somehow genocide hasp context, that if you call for the genocide of jews on your campus, well, it fends on the context. there is no am by youty

around -- am a by guyty around genocide. this was written by ruth marcus, and it's also noteworthy that it was green lighted by "the washington post" which is never, ashley, in its history enforced a republican candidate for president p. think about that. when this is coming from a liberal publication like washington post, rest assured in the going to get -- this is going to get the anticipation of the powers that be at harvard. it's potentially toxic and not only do you have a university president now that has plagiarized, what, 40 times, they're finding 40 examples, and it's not lower e or case p, this is blatant cutting and parissing verbatim. it's time for her to go. it's very simple. "the washington post" is calling for it, welcome 209 party, pal. ashley: yeah. the fat lady hasn't sung, but she's warming up, as they say. it comes town to money, does it not, joe? once the money, the funnel of

money starts to be, you know, threatened, that probably will do it, don't you think? >> yeah. well, ashley, there's two ways to go with that. yes, the doe e nations are drying up, but they have so much billions in endowments that it may not impact if them as much as a one would think it would. ashley: yeah. tax-free too. let's move on to this one, "the new york times" publishing an op-ed written by gaza city's mayor on christmas eve. he condemned israel for if, quote, causing the deaths of over 20,000 people. i don't know if he actually ever at all mentioned the attacks from that -- hamas on october the 7th. what are your thoughts on this? >> you read this op-ed and not one word, ashley, you're right, about what happened on october 7th. this is profoundly shameful by "the new york times", right? that's the understatement of the year, quite frankly. the mayor of gaza was hand picked by hamas. he was appointed. and now we have sympathy the

pieces coming out of "the new york times." and to your point, the massacring of 140 people, the beheading $1400 people, the worst attack the on jews since the holocaust, and not one word in "the new york times" as far as this op-ed e is concerned as if hamas, ashley, is somehow a victim in all of this. this is no different, quite frankly, than if after 9/11 "the new york times" decided to give al-qaeda space in their op-ed pages so they could defend themselves too. it's just pathetic. ashley: right. and and the have we seen "the new york times" publish an op-ed by netanyahu? i don't think so. >> i'd have to double check that. i'd will -- have to look that up. perhaps. maybe yes, maybe no. but if you're going to do both sides x there are no both sides based on what happened on october 7th, then, yeah, you have to give equal time to at least netanyahu or somebody senior within the israeli government. ashley. ashley: joe, one last question to you, are you surprise at the level are of anti-semitism that has erupted in the wake of all

of this? okay, college campuses, but it's beyond college campuses. i've been very shocked. >> i wrote a column in "the messenger" talking about the biggest media stories of the year in the u.s., and i think the biggest story this year is the blatant, overt anti-semitism that we're seeing to your point not just on college campuses, but all these protests in cities across the country, on line. it's now in broad daylight when maybe it used the fly under the radar a little bit. now the cards have been shown, and it's quite a scary time to be living in this country given the reaction after october 7. th you would think would be with like after 9/11 where the country comes together. instead it's completely splintered apart by people defending hamas and their actions. it's disgusting, quite frankly. ashley: you're absolutely right. joe, as always, thank you so much. appreciate your time. >> her erie christmas. thanks, ash. ashley: merry christmas to you, happy new year, sir. harvard's governing board, by the way, is facing calls from

faculty to resign as critics say that the university's reputation has taken a substantial hit. over its response to anti-semitism. faculty members have apparently reportedly urged the university's credittive board -- and they are secretive -- to resign or at least apologize. and one professor has even proposed that state lawmakers should appoint if one seat to represent the public. oh, my. good time to bring back brian brenberg. what do you with want to see happen to claudine gay? look, we know how she, you know, performed when she was talking to the congressional committee. but when you look at some of these educations -- allegation as of plagiarism, there's large chunks of paragraphs that are not attributable to anyone, so presumably passing them off as her own. i mean, she's under -- should be under a lot of pressure to step down, right, brian? >> yeah. i mean, the easy one here is for her to step down. that a shouldn't be hard, and the board should have been able to do that very quickly.

ashley: right. >> but the board is compromised because they're the same ones who created the criteria a to promote her. here's what people miss, all right in i worked at a university for 14 years. you could get rid of the president, even change the board, but the place isn't going to change until you go down into the faculty, ash, because they were promoted for the same reason she got promoted. and if she's gone and the board's gone, they're still there. they're in the classroom are. i know there are some faculty speak up she needs to go, there were more saying she needs to stay because they all know they're playing the same game. you need top to bottom reit at that place if you -- reset at that place if you hope to the turn the corner. ashley: very good point. and you know, mr. brenberg, better than many. you've within on the inside, as they say. brian, thank you very much. coming up, a new study shows that working for home is good for your mental health but bad for your career. we're phoning to ding -- going to dig into that.

and senator around paul released his annual grievances with government wasteful spending. we're going to tell you what he called out. of it's always fun, next. ♪ did you tale my money? -- steal my money? ♪ did you steal my money? ♪ (adventurous music) ♪ ♪ ♪ be ready for any market with a liquid etf.

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♪ sleigh bells ring, are you listening? ♪ in the lane, snow is glistening. ♪ a beautiful sight, we're happy tonight -- ashley: isn't that a beautiful sight right there? winter wonderland. that's actually mount hood, oregon. it is a, well, we say chilly 39, but for december the 26th, that's a actually quite mild. it's above freezing at least. take a look at the markets for you. we are on the up. the dow up now nearly 100 points, up quarter of a percent. same story on the nasdaq, up a third. s&p also up about a quarter of a percent. let's take a look at the big tech names, if welcome. i think mostly a mixed bag. meta and amazon moving higher,

microsoft, apple and alphabet a little lower. the 10-year treasury has been around 3.9%, there it's. under 4 president, we'll take it9 -- 4%. let's check the price of oil, moving higher to do, up to $75.711 a barrel. and take a look at bitcoin. it's been down, yeah, $42,000, is that -- there you go. [laughter] hey, it changed right in front of my eyes, down to $42,2611. all right, now this: the human rights campaign foundation just released its corporate equality index. it gives ratings to companies based on their lgbtq inclusive policies and practices, all right? paul fitzpatrick from the 179932 exchange joins me now -- 91792 exchange. you say these ratings demonstrate an even more radical push towards left-wing politics, is basically what we're saying

here. make your case. >> yeah. thank you for having me on, and it is true. ashley: of course. >> this index is 20 years old. and, remember, this is about stakeholder k579 limp. -- capitalism. stakeholder capitalism is about bringing divisive social issues into boardrooms and into corporations. and the human rights campaign that publishes the corporate equality index is a political stakeholder. they have influence because corporations willingly participate and complete the survey, and this year the corporate equality index raised the bar even higher. ashley: companies like bud light, which got blasted as we know for woke advertising, actually got downgraded. what does the hrc expect? [laughter] >> well, that's the interesting thing, is these political stakeholder organizations, they raise the bar every year, and they raised it so high this yea- ashley: right. >> -- that, interestingly, about 300 companies lost their perfect rating. bud light is a perfect if

example. a lot of stories talked about a rogue marketing manager, mid-level manager. not. bud light was doing exactly e what human rights campaign was demanding they do in having trans-focused marketing among other policies. ashley: you release a sort of responsive list, don't you in the corporate bias ratings. what do you, what do people learn from that? explain if. >> yeah, thank you. the 1792 exchange has evaluated over 2500 companies as a either hue risker medium risk or lower risk on their likelihood of denying oren canceling service. we do it so that businesses, nonprofits and families can understand their risk if they're going to do business with someone such as a bank or web hosting or payment processing. they need to know are they at risk of being canceled because of for ideological reasons x. within the coming week or so we will be adding these new corporate equality index ratings to our corporate bias with ratings because these

corporations that are bending the knee to political actors having major governance problems, and it's harming their hair hollers. shareholders: ashley: well, that's the bottom line are, isn't it? shouldn't they be concentrating on building and expanding the company as opposed to kowtowing, if you like, to what's expected of companies today in it seems to me this is just wasted energy. >> no, it is very true. i mean, hrc could be called helping radicalized corporations. [laughter] i mean, they are pushing them, expect corporate equality index could be called the corporate embarrassment index. we have 13 companies notably from last year to this year declined to participate, and that's what we encourage, that corporations simply do not participate, get back to business and and focus on shareholders. otherwise they're going to alienate customers, divide employees and harm shareholders. ashley: right. yeah. just ask bud light. paul, thank you so much.

appreciate your time. brian, want to bring you in on this. i mean, you think the companies will learn that woke policies, and bud light is a classic example, just are not in their interest, certainly not the shareholders' interest, but we're probably going to see more of this into the new year, don't you thinkable. >> oh, i think you will because, as paul just said, the problem isn't like a rogue marketing manager. you have corporations that have legions of people who came up with this view that marketing is social act a vim, and they're not -- activism, and they're not going to stop now because minute if's calling them out on it. they're going to keep going which is why these corporations have a long task ahead of them of rethinking their human resources policy, who do we hire and why. and i do hope the market holds them accountable for it. a good first step is to pull out of these stupid indices that a turn out just to be left-wing ideological hammers to bring down on consumers.

ashley: amen. amen, brian, thank you. now this, senator rand paul releasing his annual airing of grievances with wasteful government spending. is there any other type of government spending? anyway, the list includes $33.2 million to look after medical research monkeys. $6 million to the agency for international development to promote tourism to egypt. really? lobster tanks worth $8,000. $400,000 study transgender monkeys. that's something i never thought i'd say on "varney," but there you have it. and $200 million in covid relief sent to major music acts and touring companies such as a post malone and chris brown. brian, money well spent? what say you? >> the only problem with releasing this now is the timing is bad. these things need to come out every time we have one of these debt ceiling conversations -- ashley: yes. >> oh, no, we can't cut anything. oh, no, we must raise.

no. and this is just the tip of the iceberg, ashley. i mean, there are hundreds of billions of dollars of waste. come on. ashley: yeah. >> next time we get a debt ceiling conversation, bring back the lobsters, and then let's talk about whether we want a raise. ashley: and the monkeys. brian, thank you very much. coming up, taylor swift dominated headlines this year partly because of her new romance with kansas city chiefs' tight end travis kelce. well, the pop star and her swifties have had a significant economic impact on kansas city. we're going to break down how much of a boost swift gave to that city. and with mortgage rates at record highs and housing affordability at record lows, it's been a bad year for new home buyers. but welcomed be a turn around for the habit just over the horizonnen. we're going to have a full report on the state of the housing market next. ♪ ♪ steal thing my money -- stealing my money.

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ashley: let's take a look at these markets for you the last trading week of the year, and it's all very positive, up about a third a percent across the board on the dow, the nasdaq and the s&p. let's take a look at the retailers right after christmas, all on the upside. kohl's, by the way, up 3.333%. the only fly in the ointment, wal-mart, just down 3 cents. now this, taylor swift, no big surprise, she's helping kansas city boost its economy. ever since she started dating nfl star travis kelley, visit kc says they made about $200 million just from swift's eras tour this past summer but that's not all. ticket prices for kansas city chiefs' games have skyrocketed after swift started attending.

tubhub reports that ticket -- stubhub reported that ticket sales tripled for the rest of the season. come back here, or brian. you know, i'm wondering how long the love affair's going to last because now there's talk that maybe ms. swift is a bit of a distraction because the chiefs are starting to lose games. >> yeah, look, i think taylor swift is a two-edged sword. she comes in and brings all the business and she loves kc, but what happens when the break-up happens? i'm not even talking about necessarily breaking up with kelce, but just breaking up with kc, are they going to finish are the fans going to love kc? that's the problem. taylor swift could go either way for you, and i just don't know how this ends. i know it's going to end well for her because she's going to get a great song out of it whether it's a love song about kc or a break-up song, he wins. [laughter] she always wins. ashley: she always wins. now -- you know the song is coming.

brian, thank you. the number of affordable homes plummeting this year to a record low, and guess what? jeff flock is in mount prospect, illinois, right now. jeff, good morning to you. i'm going to ask you this, are things going to get better with or worse next year? what say you? >> reporter: i wish i knew the total answer to that. i can tell you this, ashley, you know, we're inside a house here in the chicago suburbs, it was tough for us to find a house that was on sale, was for sale. this one has been staged, and it already is sold. and case shiller, or you know, we thought prices were going to go down. well, or today we got the latest case shiller numbers, they went up. so that means housing affordability is really at an all-time low. take a look at the numbers from redfin. they have been tracking this for the haas 0 is years or so is. -- last 10 years or so. they say only 15% of listings right now are afort if bl for -- affordable for median house income, and that's down from 21% last year and if really around 40% for the lockest time. --

longest time. that's been cut in half, and that's because mortgage payments have gob up. as a result, high interest rates. take a look at those numbers. this past month, $2,137 for the average mortgage. that is up about $11100 from last year -- 100 from last year. and just 209 it was $1200, so almost double the mortgage payment right now. and we talked to the folks at bankrate who said e this is kind of a perfect storm of bad news in terms of affordability. listen. >> home prices are el elevated right now, and the financing costs are some of the highest that we've seen in the last 20 years with mortgage rates being up near 7%. even though they're come down a little bit, that's still very pricey. and there's a limited inventory of homes available on the market, so the selection isn't very good. so you put together, it's not a good time to be buying a house. >> reporter: a piece of

positive news, arleigh, 6.88% last week, that's down from 7.2 # 11% the prior week, to there you go. our house tour continues here in the suburbs but, sorry, can't buy this one, already sold. we'll be talking to rebecca who sold this house just last week, right? yeah, or we'll be talking to her all day here and give our -- put our fellowshipping per on the pulse of the real estate market right now. ashley, or back to you. ashley: no wonder rebecca is smiling. jeff, thank you so much. it's pretty tough in the housing market right now. thank you, jeff. a new survey found that workers were less likely to be considered for promotions or even raises if they don't work in the office at least part of the time, but those same remote worker weral more likely to report having a good work-high balance. 43 of in-office workers -- 43% -- said they were, quote, very stress thed while just 30% of remote if workers felt the same way. in-office workers had other problems, 37% said they were unhappy at their job compared

with just 11% of those works remotely -- working remotely. if you can say -- stay in your pajamas, i guess the work-life balance is all right. brian, what's more important raises or a good work-life balance? what say you? >> well, look, this is the problem, okay in in the short term, working at home is great. it's not the street theful. -- stressful. you put quotation marks around work. you like your job when you're at home. but the problem is if that job goes away, are you set up well to get the next job? and i think the answer probably is, no, because you're a little bit less sharp when you not around your colleagues all the time. 9/11 people in the office right now, they don't hike it. they'd rather be at home, but i think they're just a little bit sharper. and if the job situation changes, and it very well might next year, they might be in a better spot to get a new one. it's pay me now or pay me late everything ashley, but one way or another, you've got to deal with the fact that you got to do some work.

ashley: yes, indeed. we'll leave it right there, bruin. point well made. let's take a look at the dow 30 stocks, kind of get a sense of where were in the market. we've been open for about, what, two hours or thereabouts. as you can see, the dow up now 114 points. intel, caterpillar leading the way with, amgen and salesforce at the bottom end of the dow. but overall, the index itself up # # 15 -- 115 points on the dow, as you can see. here's a question for you, can improving your sense of smell actually help redouse your risk of dementia? -- reduce your risk of dewhen shah? a new study suggests just that. a doctor will tell us if this study passes, dare i say, the smell test. next. ♪ ♪ they're waiting for you. hey, do you have a second? they're all expecting more.

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i suffer with psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis. i was on a journey for a really long time to find some relief. cosentyx works for me. cosentyx helps real people get real relief from the symptoms of psoriatic arthritis or psoriasis. serious allergic reactions, severe skin reactions that look like eczema, and an increased risk of infections, some fatal, have occurred. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to or if ibd symptoms develop or worsen. i move so much better because of cosentyx. ask your rheumatologist about cosentyx. ashley: all right, now this, this is interesting. new researchers found that people who stay the up hate at night are almost twice as prone to adopting a common heart condition like blood clots or stroke compared to early birds. we need a doctor, so guess what? dr. frank joins us now to talk about it.

doctor, how credible is this? do night owls, i should say, do they have a greater risk of health problems? >> well, good morning, ash, great to be with you today, and it look like they actually do. we've known there were differences with night shift workers for quite some time. years ago they found that e.r. nurses that worked at night had a higher risk of breast cancer, and now this newer study suggests that people who stay up late, they're night owls, they had higher rates of calcification, basically hardening of the arteries, in the arteries of the heart. so their risk of heart disease was twice as great as people who were morning birds and early birds, people who got up early. so it does suggest that. and the reasoning behind it, we think, is that staying up ladies ruts the circadian rhythms. it means around the day literally in latin. so what happens is we have daily good luckation -- fluctuations

in our hormone levels, and staying up late ine creases our stress or hormones like cortisol which means it's more hugely to develop core far hardening of the -- coronary hardening of the arteries. ashley: really it boil down to not getting quality sleep. i used to be up at 2 a.m. for a year, and i always felt like i had jet lag, i could never, ever catch up. is that what we're talking about? >> yeah. and it's not just the absolute value of the amount of sleep that you get. that's part of it too. it seems like getting heads than 6 or 7 hours increasing the risk, but it's not just the amount of sleep. you can get enough sleep if you slept during the day, but it's these daily rhythms that get thrown off by night if shift work. it's really more complicated than we once thought. ashley: it always is. next one for you, doc, researchers say that our sense of smell and us connection to our memory -- and its connection to our memory could be used to

help fight dementia. do you know how that would work? if. >> yeah. so this is really interesting too. our sense of smell is connected to the part of our brain that's the most primitive part of our brain. our smell memories, if you think back to when you were a kid or even now, you can get a smell. i know for me it's garlic and tomatoes cooking on a sunday morning instantly brings me back to my child childhood as an italian, the tomato sauce, and i'm instantly transported back there. and we all have this. what they're linking now is that the sense of smell is connected to our brain health and that it could be an indicator that people start to lose their sense of smell at an earlier age might be more at risk for dementia, and they're using that to treat demen a shah where they say if we can train your sense of smell to improve, almost like doing crossword puzzles for cognitive ability, if we could train that sense of smell, we might be able

to prevent and improve the overall outcomes in dementia patients. it's a really interesting approach. ashley: that is absolutely fascinating. i wish we had more time, but we don't. dr. frank, enjoy the smells of the kitchen as you were talking. i'm very hungry, so i could -- i was right there with you. >> almost lunchtime, ash. ashley: i know, i know. my symptom -- stomach's telling me. it's time for the tuesday trivia question. how large is the times square new year's eve ball in diameter? is it 10, 12, 14 or 16 feet around? think about it. of course, it's a very timely question. we'll have the answer he when -- when we come back. sofi is helping me get my money right to achieve my ambitions.

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narrator: time is running out to give a year-end gift like no other, a gift that can help st. jude children's

research hospital save lives. ava: it is my first time having cancer, and it's the very worst. woman: you just have to give. you have to give someone that hope. because of st. jude, she has a chance at life. narrator: every gift counts, and whatever you can give will make a difference for children like ava. make your donation today to help st. jude save lives. ashley: we asked how large is the times square new year's eve ball in diameter? 10, 12, 14, 16 feet? brian brenberg. brian: i will go ten. that's a huge sphere. ten feet. ashley: i'm going to go with 14.

the answer is 12 between the two of us. it is made of 1200688 crystal triangles, it weighs 12,000 pounds. thank you for sticking around. a new paycheck next week. we will be watching you on "the big money show" on fox business. i will see you at 2:00 pm for the charles payne show. let's look at the markets, up across the board, the dow up 117 points. good day to start the last week. coast-to-coast starts now. >> the us military unleashing airstrikes on groups after militants attacked an american airbase in iraq. i will ask republican congressman and house armed