with bitcoin really at the core, serving as digital capital and the true source of economic energy for the free world. ashley: what a good place to leave it, right there. natalie, thank you so much. and have yourself a great christmas. >> thank you so much, you too. ashley: thank you very much. taking a quick look at the markets as we wrap it up here, the s&p and nasdaq jumping for a second may a row to kick off a holiday shortened week. the russell slightly lower. take a look at the quantum computing stocks, up huge today. and since charles mentioned them on the show last month, they are up. way to go, charles payne. look at that, d wave quantum up nearly 400%. very impressive indeed. well done, charles. our time is up. guess what, taylor rigs is in for liz claman. taylor, tag, you're it. >> ashley, you had me at bitcoin and 200,000. if that happens there are a few

of us who won't be showing up to work. latch. [laughter]>> well done, merry , ash. we have a fox business alert. stocks mixed to a little higher as we kick off the holiday shortened trading week. i'm taylor rigs, in for liz clay claman. the dow trying for a third day of gains but as you can see it's just a little bit lower. meanwhile, it is merger monday and it is here. japanese automakers honda and nissan planning to merge but not until 2026. the deal will make them the third largest car maker by annual sales. speaking of automakers, take a look at tesla, trying to bounce up about 2 and-a-half percent after what was a really rough week last week. still, though, year-to-date, take a look at this company. the stock is on track to be the eighth best nasdaq performer with a gain of 74%.

but who managed to beat them? take a look at this, a 700% gain followed by nvidia and broadcom, also making investors on the nice list , constellation energ, marvel and netflix. for the s&p 500 you could have guessed this, palintir the top spot, followed by visra energy and nvidia. could the gains get bigger for 2024, as the santa claus rally is poised to get underway tomorrow. why don't we ask our guests. fs investment chief market strategy, troy g guyeski. it's great to have you on the program and get to chat with you. is the santa claus rally real? are we poised for a rebound here? >> yes, first of all, happy holidays, taylor. it's great to be on with you as well. look, i think the thing to be cautious about in the short-term is that we continue to see higher yields in the back end of the yield curve.

we talk about the fact that as the fed cuts rates it's natural for the back end to sell off and that puts pressure on expansion. that being said, taylor, if your outlook is longer than several weeks, call it three, six, nine, 12 months, it's hard to imagine that you don't have flor year of pretty strong gains because earnings should be pretty solid, between 8 and 15%. we're not going to get as much multiple expansion next year because we're starting at elevated valuations but the bottom line is, if you look at the whole stock to flow ratio, flow to stock ratio of u.s. equities it's better for u.s. equities than cryptocurrencies and bitcoin in particular and there still is 4 and-a-half percent more money supply today than there was pre-pandemic relative to nominal gdp so i would urge people not to focus too much on the next two, three, four, five days and focus on the next three, six, nine, 12 months where you'll continue to enjoy say priappreciation in the u.s.

equities. >> some of my concerns is the market is so hinged on the hopes of tax cuts. what if we don't get that? >> yeah, so look, from a policy perspective, the most important part of the election outcome is that the original tax cut and jobs act cuts will be extended. right. so anything above and beyond that is gravy. you know, what's powered the u.s. equity market whether it's private or public equities this past three, five, seven years, is tremendous nominal gdp growth which has led to revenue growth which has led to earnings ebitda growth and on the back of that we had multiple expansion. a lot of that was driven by quantitative easing, undone by quantitative tightening. now we have more money supply than pre-pandemic. tax cuts on top of expansion would be gravy. i don't think we'll have as much upside this year as last year. we'll have more volatility

because of the way yields are going but there's no reason to not continue to embrace u.s. equities, private and public, in order to achieve your growth goals in your portfolio. >> in your first answer you mentioned cryptocurrencies, i was listening to the previous guest on the show and she was thinking by next year, look, you could have bitcoin at 200,000, the first 100,000 she said is the hardest. i don't know if you put a price on bitcoin, maybe not, but how do you see bitcoin? >> i sort of opened myself up for that one, taylor. >> i went there. >> well done. but i think the point i was making is if you look at the crypto world and you look at the rationale for bitcoin having tremendous gains, a lot of it is based on the flow to stock or stock to flow ratio, meaning there's very little new supply that's created. however, you need new dollars to come in just to keep prices constant because it's not a performing asset. when you flip over to public equities what you see is the flow to stock's even better and

every year about 50 to 100 basis points or 0.5 to 1% of total supply is sucked out so that means without net new inflows you should have higher prices so it's one of the things that struck me as curious is that everyone uses this analysis of gold or crypto but doesn't focus much on u.s. public equities and technically it's another reason why you should enjoy strength going into next year. >> another reason i think people are optimistic is they said flood gates are open for business again, mergers and acquisitions, m&a pipeline looks strong. companies can form and if they're better together than separate investors are excited about that. you say the m&a markets feel open. how much more of a catalyst is that. you may not be able to give us individual names but sort of what sectors, what looks good when we're thinking about a more open and friendly m&a environment? >> yeah, we're really excited about that. just for the record, we expected

that to come back regardless of election outcome but given the election outcome it's really game on so we're seeing that across a variety of our businesses. on the private equity side, what it leads to is more exit opportunities for selling to strategic acquirer. particularly middle market but also in large and mega cap where that allows them to recycle dollars and buy out smaller companies at a healthy profit. on the private credit side, a lot of the lending that's taken place in the last several years have been creative special finance, lifting assets off balance sheets, doing receivable financing and we're seeing merger and private to private takeout transactions come back very strong and lastly, taylor, if i may, on the commercial real estate side there's been a real freeze the past few years because you had a depreciated market but the market has clearly bottomed and you're seeing acquisition development lending come back strong so all of these point to robust capital market activity and lastly, we

do expect the ipo market to come back. don't expect it to come back as strong as it was in 2021 s. 2021.>> finally, i want to go s asset with you and i think a lot of people at home are curious about bond yields and for me it is the why behind why bond yields are rising that is important, that is or is not a headwind for a stock. if bond yields are rising because there's higher growth and sort of this reflation trade on the horizon, is that a more positive for equities than if bond yields are rising because inflation is still a problem and the federal reserve still has to raise rates? how are you thinking about the why behind why yields are rising? >> >> it's important for people to always divorce fundamentals if technicals in terms of price action. but i'd say you're spot on that if you think of the forward trajectory of the u.s. economy, it's only gotten stronger post

election. now, that is going to make the fed's job a little bit tougher considering inflation but that being said, higher yields in the back end are completely logical. as the fed cuts the front end and stimulates the economy and we get an extension of the tax cut and jobs act that leads to stronger growth, more revenue, more earnings growth. that being said with the 10 year approaching 5%, that will more than likely cause some degree of correction but it's not to be feared. since the fed started tightening almost ever every may otherdiren we've had is driven by higher yields. there's strong revenue and earnings growth. >> stay invested is what i hear. don't sell. >> put cash forward. that was our major theme coming into last year and it's still a major theme coming into this year. everyone has way more cash now than they did pre-pandemic and there's better places to put that to work. >> well troy, i want to

appreciate your time and expert analysis. thank you for joining us. >> happy holidays, taylor. >> you too. while the trump trade may be fizzling out a little bit today, president-elect trump reigniting some threats that he's previously made about taking control of greenland and the panama canal. now, keep this in mind. roughly $270 billion worth of cargo moves through the panama canal every year. 40% of american cargo specifically goes through that route. so while the president-elect is demanding that the p panama government lowers fees on american vessels, what does that look like? what could the u.s. do in terms of taking back control of the canal for the first time in 25 years. let's ask grady trimble who is live at the white house and the response of panama's government. >> reporter: sounds like what president-elect trump wants to toys what he does with a lot of countries as relates to trade and that's renegotiate a deal

specifically in this conversation he wants to lower the fees that u.s. shipping companies and the united states are charged in order to use the panama canal or he is threatening that he'll take it back from panama. >> we're being ripped off at the panama canal like we're being ripped off everywhere else. the fees being charged by panama are ridiculous. highly unfair. especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to panama. this complete ripoff of our country will immediately stop. it's going to stop. >> reporter: it's worth noting that this fight also has to do with china and its use of the canal. on truth social, the president-elect writes we would and will never lote let it falo the wrong hands. it was not given for the benefit of others but merely as

cooperation between us and panama. if the principles of this gesture of giving are not followed, we will demand the panama cay pharmaceutical be returned to us in full and in question. beijing is the canal's second biggest user behind the united states. a chinese company or companies affiliated with china control two of the five ports next to the panama canal. as it relates to all of this, of course panama's president is weighing in. he fired back saying as president i want to clearly state that every square meter of the panama canal and its adjoining zone is panama's and will remain so. trump responded on truth social saying we'll see about that, so we will see. and the former -- or the president-elect i should say is also gearing up for kind of a fight it sounds like with greenland. he's talked about taking control and ownership of that island.

and the territory's foreign minister responded saying that greenland is open for business but not for sale. so 28 days until the inauguration and already some major shakeups taking place on the world stage. >> first he's not even in office yet and second all of this is i think to take on china which also is going to be presenting us with some big problems. grady, thank you so much. meanwhile, last minute shoppers hitting the stores today on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. one of the top retail chains in the nation about to make a $4 billion quick change. i'm telling you what's happening at nordstrom in a moment. and the new year just around the corner. improved fitness is always one of the top resolutions. we're talking to the crunch fitness ceo about how he prepares each year for the post holiday crunch. it is a fox business exclusive. the claman countdown coming right back.

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connectivity is a big part of my boys' lives. it brings people together in meaningful ways. ♪ ♪ taylor: we have a fox business alert. take a look at department store chain nordstrom. they're going private. it will be acquired by the founding family and a mexican retailer for nearly $4 billion, an all cash deal. nordstrom's board of directors unanimously approved of the transaction which is expected to close in the first half of 2025. take a look at xerox, popping after the document services provider announced an acquisition of the printer maker lex mark. the deal which is slated to close in the second half of 2025 is worth about 1 and-a-half billion dollars. meanwhile, take a look at shares of arm, at the bottom of the nasdaq after a legal win for

qualcomm. so a jury said that qualcomm's central processors are properly licensed under an agreement with arm. arm says it is seeking a new trial. meanwhile, wanted to check on other chip makers because those are really on the move this afternoon. global foundries advanced micro devices and broadcom all heading significantly higher in the final hour of trade. dross fa pharma surging after ty showed progress in the development of the h5n1 bird flu. the drug showed safety and tolerability in the phase one trial and will begin a phase two study early next year. we will be talking about the impacts that the bird flu is having on the price of eggs and we're doing that with grocery chain owner stu leonard junior later in the hour. first up, you have to work off all the holiday time feasting, right, all the chocolate that's floating around the office.

we're talking about new year's resolutions sending americans racing to the gym every january and how the ozempic craze has changed the fitness game. the ceo of crunch fitness is here in a fox business exclusive. and make sure to tune into the big money show, shameless plug coming up, we have all the breaking market and economic news each day, weekday at 1:00 p.m. eastern, only here on fox business. we're coming right back.

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taylor: okay. i don't know who is counting but i am. eight days, eight hours, and 35 minutes away from 2025 and, yes, it is that time of the year again. we are talking new year's resolutions. listen to this. according to statistic consumer insights the top new year's resolution people are making is to save more money. that's followed by eating healthier, exercising more, losing weight, and spending more time with family and friends. so how are gyms preparing for the surge in customers? don't tell my next guest that i haven't gone on a run in two weeks. it is our fox business exclusive, crunch fitness ceo jim rowley. great to have you on the program as always. so tell us, how do you prepare for the huge surge that comes every january? >> well, thank you, taylor. merry christmas. we prepare by really a year before. we've been developing new

concepts, increasing the strength in crunch, developing our 3.0 floor plans. reducing cardio, the movement is really towards strength. taylor: talk to me about strength. i've been watching the glp-1 drugs and people keep saying if we're losing weight then i don't need to go to the gym but you're losing a ton of muscle as well. how is the introduction of these weight loss drugs helped within your strength category? >> yeah, it's a great point because one of the effects that we see from glp-1 is weight loss. we also seamus he -- see musce wasting. we encourage people to come into the gym, advance strength training so they don't lose all that muscle while dropping the fat and a personal trainers at crunch are ready to assist you to reach your goals. taylor: have you seen any impact from the weight loss drugs, either to the positive or the negative? >> there's an interesting trend now where we're seeing micro

dosing so not taking the big mega dose so micro dosing so you don't have these massive muscle wasting effects and we're seeing people i think finding the consciousness to both work out and lose weight simultaneously. 2024 was our best sales year ever. we sold more memberships than the history of our company. taylor: talk to me about that. why should i join now before january. >> well, you want to beat the rush and you want to beat the price. january, everybody knows resolutions come, everybody surges into the gym. if you join in the last week of december, the prices are lower. we're encouraging people to participate. you can join from your house, crunch.com, find the gym nearest you and get one of our specials between now and january 331st. taylor: when you talk about low prices, are you talking in terms of margins, profitability, running a strong, healthy business. do you focus on volume over a high price? and is that a strategy that works?

>> we focus on service. at crunch we try to maintain a high touch, personal training, group fitness, relax and covery and have everything under one roof for the customer as well so it's a balance of finding that harmony between the price and the service ratio. we don't want to be the gym that only has one employee inside there. we want to be the cheers of fitness if you will where we know everybody's name and encourage them to come in. we're not the gym that's encouraging you to stay home. we want you to get your results. taylor: where are your future growth opportunities next year? >> domestically i think we'll open somewhere between 80 and 100 gyms so two new crunches per week and we'll announce in january two massive international expansion plans as well. so a lot of growth in the u.s. but also stretching out and exporting crunch to new countries. taylor: and there's clearly demand, right, or you wouldn't be opening those up. i want to talk about competition. it was interesting, jeffreys is

an investment bank here and they raised their price target on planet fitness. they're calling planet fitness, quote, the walmart of gym chains. how do you see the competitive landscape at this moment? >> i think there's a little bit of share for wallet but to be honest with you, our customer we identify them as young, strong and social and they're looking for everything under one roof to find the strength training, the cardio, group fitness, recovery, the classes, high intensity interval training, the zones and we've got all those things which separates us. it's great sometimes to be the second mover and planet had a 10 year start on crunch but look out because we're nipping at their heels. entrepreneur magazine ranked us the number one fitness train fitness franchisein the world ik we'll get that ranking in 2025 as well. taylor: the success of small business, a lot of people think that's why trump won the election. you have tax cuts.

you have a pro-business environment. and the american dream they see it, it is there for taking if you work hard. how are you hoping that the presidency with more pro-business tax cuts on the horizon will impact you and your business? >> yeah, i don't know if the tax cuts will impact us as much. i'm looking forward to see what rfk can do and if he can create a healthier message, healthier food supply and continue to encourage americans to get off the couch, get into the gym, even if it's 30 minutes, even if it's walking. we say that sitting is the new smoking so imagine that. 30 years ago, we were all worried about the effects of smoking on our health and now that's transferred to sitting. because we're spending so much time in inactivity. we encourage you to come in, can join for as little as 999 a month, get on a treadmill, do some recovery and also socially engage with your community. taylor: interesting. so a push from rfk junior to

take out the horrible food dyes causing a dam d and cancer and -- add and cancer and making us more addicted to sugar you think is a benefit to you. >> if we're healthier as a society we're better as a society and food is one aspect of it, right. you obviously need have a good nutrition plan and a health plan but you've got to move as well and we're learning that the stronger you are it helps offset alzheimer's, parkinson's, heart disease, cancers and so forth so strength is really where we want people to be. doesn't mean have you to be a body builder or power lifter, just moving those muscles, activation two or three times a week. taylor: we so appreciate your time, your success and your business, jim rowley, thank you so much. >> thank you, taylor. merry christmas. taylor: you heard it there. get moving. me included. i better get moving too. meanwhile, up next we're

checking on the holiday travel forecast. we're heading to stu l leonardss americans sit the grocery store to prepare the family meal. stu leonard is here, next on fox business. one atlanta georgia family turned the annual little elf turned santa spy game into a global phenomenon. the family decided to write a book based on the tradition and pair it with a elf toy and sold it at county fares and christmas markets. today, elf on the shelf is a multimillion dollar business run by twin sisters. hear their holiday success story on. liz claman's pod caster. we're coming right back.

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taylor: a white christmas in the north east not necessarily the best thing for millions of holiday travelers. santa isn't the only one with a big commute. take a look at this. we shouldn't be here. we should be on the slopes skiing. let's look at triple a projecting a record 119 million americans will be traveling 50 miles or more over the year end holiday period. 90% of that group will hit the road with an estimated 107 million americans traveling by car. if you want to avoid the traffic, you can always take to the skies. that's where we're going with fox business' jeff flock who joins me from philadelphia international airport on what we can expect. did you get through security? are you okay?

[laughter] >> reporter: you know, they barely let me through security when i have a ticket much less today. yeah, no, not at tsa. i'm at baggage claim. this is where people have beautiful reunions with loved ones or perhaps more importantly with their luggage. it's going pretty smoothly, at least so far. not a lot of weather today. take a look at the misery map. we show you this all the time when there's a lot of people traveling. minimal misery, i would say. yeah, there are a lot of delays, 28, i think, but just 40 cannulations nation -- cancellations flags wide. nationwide, that'snot so bad. dallas, you can see big long lines. we had pictures earlier from chicago, minneapolis, st. paul, yeah, there are going to be lines but with this many people traveling, maybe that's not such a terrible thing. yeah, you mentioned 107,000 people by car.

7.85 million by air, the triple a says, that would be an all-time record beating the pre-pandemic record. and when you look at tsa numbers, they're up too. saturday, 2.7 million through tsa, that was an increase of 6%. on sunday, an increase of 43%. so the numbers are out there. and people are willing to pay, more importantly as we talk on the fox business network, what it costs to pay the trips. if you got your trip cheaper than $830, you got a bargain. that's the afternoon. domestic prices, 4% increase, 13% increase in overseas flights. i leave you with this one. you're not going anywhere, you're going to be at home but if you've got to go to a hotel over the holidays you'd be paying through the nose if you were in new york, $430 the average hotel there. little cheaper in orlando, chicago and in vegas where the

cheapest hotel or the average hotel is $107. you're probably going to drop a few other dollars on some other activities if you go to vegas. taylor: that is fair. i want to ask you another question. usually when i talk to you you're driving which is incredible that you can drive and talk and hopefully not read the teleprompter at the same time but we talked a lot about gas prices. what are you hearing from people about if you fly versus driving, because if gas prices are high is it cheaper to fly than it is to drive? what are you hearing? >> reporter: well, it's all relative. we're at $3.02 or three cents right now. we talked to triple a about that. they say they don't think there's a lot of difference with gas prices right now because people are willing to travel whether it's by air or by car, they really want to take these trips. so that guy's in a rush. so they're doing it even though the costs are high both to fly and to drive.

taylor: hopefully he's running to get baggage that's. >> reporter: or stolen. taylor: thank you so much. if i don't see you, merry christmas. >> reporter: to you too. taylor: once you reach the destination, it's all about the food. the cost to make a classic christmas cookie is climbing this year. commodity data provider gingerbread index is up 5 and-a-half percent year over year. the index tracks the prices of ingredients like sugar, butter and eggs which are the main culprit behind the increase. egg prices exploding in the lat year, november's cpi report showing they're up 37 and-a-half percent. the skyrocketing cost at the grocery store staple can largely be attributed to the bird flu, the outbreak wiped out flocks of egg laying hens in recent weeks. joining me now on what he says is one of the busiest sales day of the year, stu leonard ceo stu leonard junior. thank you for taking the time,

putting sales aside to chat with us. what do you notice about consumer habits this year, what are they buying? >> well, first of all, taylor, i was looking at your b bio there, you study all the time when you're not at the news desk? taylor: just a little bit. trying to keep up with guys like you, stu. >> you know what we're noticing right now is people are traveling and you can see the store's packed, the busiest day of the year right now and they're buying right now. there seems to be consumer confidence. people love buying things. we're noticing a couple things like these are our tenderloins right here. these are $150 each if you go to buy one and this is our best seller. it's a holiday meal. we get people coming out and they're buying thousands and thousands and thousands of them today and then look at these guys right here. these are these colossal king crab. we haven't been able to get them

since before covid. this year the fishermen were able to get them in the bering sea there. look at those things. i mean, that's a crab leg for you right there. but customers are buying these today also. taylor: what's interesting is that doesn't seem to be trading down. we talked a lot about how i can't afford lobster, crab or meat, i'm going down to chicken. are you not seeing that? >> you know what, taylor? we're not seeing that at all. we're seeing people looking for quality today. you're not trying to really save money. there's a good spirit today. i can stop any one of these customers behind me and they'd say the same thing. but you know what? you do have a couple of spikes that you're seeing in pricing and one of them you mentioned earlier was the eggs. that's a supply and demand issue, less hens right now producing eggs and therefore the price is going to go up. that's why your gingerbread hike

is happening. taylor: talk to me long-term, outside of today, outside of the christmas season. we've been talking about tariffs. avocados from mexico were included in that. how are you bracing for potential tariffs? >> look, you know, first of all, i mean, it's out there in the news, everybody's threatening like our french wines right now, what's going to happen to champagne and french wine prices if there's a 2 25% tariff on it. you get certain things, even beer like this coming from mexico right now, which is one of our number one selling beers so what we're doing at stu leonards, we're loading up right now, like the panic buying that happened during covid. everybody was out there doing panic buying. we're doing a little bit of panic buying right now. we're getting things like french champagne and the big thing, tequila, you can't buy that anywhere in the world except

mexico so what happens if this goes up 25%? same thing with avocado. california can't supply us with enough avocados so if there's a tariff put on that, i think there's going to be short-term increases in prices. hopefully trump can work it out so in the long term prices will come down. taylor: the only thing i would say is you're fine if you're hoarding wine but if you start price gouging and hoarding my toilet paper i'm going to have a problem with you like we did during covid. i want to talk about prices quickly with you. trump talked about how he wants to bring grocery prices down. do you see any hints instead of just slowing the rate of increase, actually decreasing prices? >> well, you know, first of all, there's a couple things that aren't going down in price. we've had to raise our rates at stu leonards up $5 an hour over the last three, four years which

is very expensive. i can't go to our team members, we have 3,000 working at stu leonard, i can't tell them we're going to start lowering your weekly paycheck anymore pledget that's just not going to happen. so that's baked in. i think the energy prices are a window right now because a lot of our packaging costs have gone up and that's a lot to do with resin and energy and so forth and so if he can get the oil prices down, drill, drill, drill, maybe that will be some relief in pricing right now. commodity prices, corn has been high, animals eat a lot of corn, cows and chickens and so forth so i think there's a window there and also if the interest rates will come down too, that will help be able to lower prices. taylor: well, stu, with all my studying i'm learning you've got to focus on the variable costs. like you said, a lot of your

fixed costs are fixed and it's hard to bring those down. stu leonard junior, we so appreciate your time. merry christmas to you and happy shopping. >> taylor, i've got a tip for everybody listening. taylor: okay. >> everybody has -- you're having a family dinner coming up, there's that uncle or aunt that like oh, no i've got to sit with them. here's something that's exploding in the wine business. this is selzer water infused with thc. taylor: to calm them down a little. >> exactly. taylor: maybe calm me down a little. [laughter] >> have some of that on hand and your relatives won't bother you. taylor: you're the best, stu. stay cool. talk to you soon. >> a very happy holiday to everybody. taylor: merry christmas. >> thank you, taylor. taylor: coming up next, today's countdown closer has the stocking stuffer stock picks. we're getting the latest on the man as well accused of gunning down the ceo of united

healthcare on a new york city street, details of luigi mangione's court hearing straight ahead. stocks are trying to come back up to session highs. stick with us. to go further, .. so everyone can follow their own road. that's energy in progress.

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it's our son, he is always up in our business. it's the verizon 5g home internet i got us. oh... he used to be a competitive gamer but with the higher lag, he can't keep up with his squad. so now we're his “squad”. what are kevin's plans for the fall? he's going to college. out of state, yeah. -yeah in the fall. change of plans, i've decided to stay local. oh excellent! oh that's great! why would i ever leave this? -aw! we will do anything to get him gaming again. you and kevin need to fix this internet situation. heard my name! i swear to god, kevin! -we told you to wait in the car. everyone in my old squad has xfinity. less lag, better gaming! i'm gonna need to charge you for three people.

taylor: we just want to bring you breaking news you have the dow hitting new session highs you're up about 99 points now, among the day so that is a session high, but remember, the rally on friday, you had market volume the biggest day of the year. today a much different story. we are hearing the composite volume is running about 30% below the one month average. also, other additional breaking news we want to get to. reports are that tpg talks to acquire solar firm altis power. you have up 13% on the news, as typical, and the acquirer tbg down typical on the news. altis provides solar power to commercial property owners and has a market value of about $650 million. private equity firm looking to power assets amid the a.i. and data center boom. meanwhile we have to get to this story the man accused of killing the united healthcare

ceo brian thompson pleading not guilty to murder and weapons charges in a new york court today. luigi mangione accused of a deadly assault outside a new york hilton hotel on december 4. the ivy league graduate is also facing federal charges for allegedly stalking the leader, of the largest health insurer in the nation. that's where we're going next with fox news alexis mcadams whose been following the case since day one. you're now joining us live from the new york state supreme court with more on that hearing. what did you hear? reporter: taylor, well today was expected that he was going to plead not guilty. that's usually what happens they put in that not guilty plea when they go in front of a judge for the first time but this was the first time luigi mangione was able to go in front of a judge for a state case. we've talked about the federal case. these are state charges. he's looking at nearly a dozen of them. pull up this video for people wondering how a 26-year-old is dealing with these charges and media attention. he looked like he was pretty calm and cool and collect the to me. i talked to nypd sources talking

to him today and he's focused here and says he's been pretty cooperative. also, look at this. this was a camera inside of the courtroom, so that's not the case when you cover this. usually it's sketches but you can see him sitting next to his attorney and he ask him are you entering a plea he says not guilty but let's talk about those charges because there's a lot. you can pull them up on the screen, two separate cases against luigi mangione. at the state level he was hit with three murder charges. you can see him there, first degree murder, second degree murder as a crime of terrorism. that's the one making headlines because it's pretty uncommon in new york especially with alvin bragg. it looked like having out of the scene of a movie when he was flown into new york city just the other day in this orange jump suit in shackles. we were watching it live and he had police all around him with their guns drawn, and they wanted to show he was a threat. that they finally caught him after nearly a week of searching for him. his legal team says just examples like this are why they don't think he will get a fair trial here.

watch. >> this has to stop. my client is entitled to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence and we're going to fight these charges whether it's in the state or federal to the fullest extent. reporter: so he was in court then just moments after he was taken out. he's in the back of a cop car and smiling it appears in that video or in that picture rather. he doesn't look like he's bothered but these are really serious charges. back live he's in federal custody right now in brooklyn, new york. it's the same facility, taylor, sean coms is at and sam bankman-fried, so those are the people he's with. i don't know when he's back in court next but i'll keep you posted. taylor: unbelievable story, alexis mcadams thank you. meanwhile one of the oldest fights on wall street may be coming to an end. investors are betting the trump administration will loosen the government's grip over mortgage giants freddie mac and fannie mae. both play a essential role in the u.s. housing market by purchasing mortgages from lenders and repackaging them.

one of today's countdown closers has a way to play them. joining us now interactive broker senior economist jose torres, and chief investment office tim pagliara. talk to me about how we can cash in on fannie and freddie. >> we believe the safest way to play this is through the preferred stock of fannie mae and freddie mac. for example, fnmat, they have par value of $25 a share, upon exiting conservatorship they should start paying dividends again, and it's a great upside potential from here. the government stands to monetize close to $200 billion that could be used for a variety of initiatives to improve the log jam and housing and improve the amount of housing that's available especially in the workforce which is critically short right now. taylor: jose, sort of broaden out this with me. when we think about

the intersection of the economy, the markets, and policy in a new government. how should i be thinking about santa claus rally, markets next year with all of the tailwinds of a new administration at the forefront. >> well good afternoon, taylor great to be here. on the one side, you have lower taxation, a lighter regulatory regime and an onshoring manufacturing push that will help a lot of the value, small cap, dow jones kind of stocks, but then on the other hand you have valuations that are extended significantly already and you do have the threat of higher yields against the backdrop of a less friendly fed. last week was a shocker. taylor: yes. >> we expected chair powell to do more of the same, cheer on the progress, disinflation all that. instead, he was much more communicative on this side of cloudiness and uncertainty and worried that perhaps next year we could have goods prices begin to reinflate. taylor: quickly stay invested in the long run or headwinds

make you move out a little bit in the short-term? >> i think rotating around, going more into value away from mega cap tech which has run so much and isn't as levered to those domestically oriented policies, i think the value areas are going to start to catch up. taylor: tim we only have 20 seconds give me your case on lumen technologies. >> it's an a.i. play. there's a lot of infrastructure between data centers that have to be built out, lumen entered agreements with microsoft aws. it's a great under valued company and should do very very well over the next 12 months. taylor: jose, tim, always need more time. so grateful. >> [closing bell ringing] taylor: stocks near session highs as we finish up the count done on clayman, kudlow is next. larry: hello folks and welcome to kudlow i'm david asman in