the privates then follow. again, it means acknowledging that prevention is a key part of treating disease. let's stop it before it happens. we're treating diabetes and blood pressure, cheryl, by getting weight down in advance of those things happening. cheryl: that's the argument for these glp-1 but the patents unfortunately don't expire for eight years so the cost isn't coming down yet, so dr. siegel thank you so much for being here we appreciate it. >> great to see you cheryl. cheryl: well, as the housing market continues to be a challenge for prospective home buyers you can watch my solemon "american dream home" to see the hidden gems in states and cities you may not have considered all episodes streaming on fox nation and that is it for me. i'm once again going to say hello to taylor riggs. taylor: i'm just glad if i'm doing double duty i'm doing double duty with you. we keep tossing back and forth

to each other. cheryl: see you at 4:00. taylor: meanwhile, stocks are a little bit finally in the green. this is the first trading day after the christmas holiday. i'm taylor riggs, i'm in for liz claman. let's talk about it. it is the santa claus rally officially kicked off on tuesday this year, it runs through january 3rd. now, we're ending the year in positive territory, but still trying to reclaim those record highs. can the santa claus rally help us get there? meanwhile, one of the biggest stories of the year continues to be nvidia. new data showing retail investors bought $30 billion worth of nvidia this year. that is up nine fold since 2021 and it has doubled the flows into that popular s&p 500 etf known as spy. meanwhile on the economic data front coming out this morning it really continues to give us an all clear on the economy and they show jobless claims remaining low and layoffs not really a problem as 2,024 winds

down. let's do all of this with our floor show joining me now, er shares ceo joel shulman, and srm u.s. chief economist joe pursuelas. joe, is the santa claus rally a real thing? do you buy into that this year? >> so it's real. you talked about nvidia. we've been in nvidia since 2005. what we're seeing now is anything musk-related, the musk trade is crazy and we've seen tesla go up a half a trillion dollars last month. the next closest thing if not better spacex. so we have spacex now in our etf. we're the only ones that do it. people go crazy over spacex. taylor: i want to get to that but first joe, i want to come back to you and i mentioned the economy in the opening. does the economy give the all clear to you? >> well right now, what i'm seeing is an economy that's growing above 3%, well above the long-term trend of 1.8%. you see what's going on in the labor market, absolutely

rock solid gains every month. wage gains above inflation for over a year and a half now with a really strong tailwind behind this economy and i don't see why it shouldn't continue. taylor: is it all hinged though, joe, i get worried about on the tax cuts and if we don't get the tax cuts, are we still okay? >> so here is the thing, because we don't know what those look like. i really don't believe the tax cuts are priced in. we won't see that priced in effectively until early next year at the best. what's driving the economy right now are two things. one it's household spending and two, firms are investing in productivity-enhancing investment. equipment software is what's driving this. if part of that tax cut is full expensing that's going to improve. taylor: yeah, it's interesting. i was talking to some small business owners and they were all over the expensing versus the capitalizing and the impact it has on an income statement and balance sheet so joel let me come back to you given the backdrop you just heard

about a decent economic backdrop heading into the new year how do you sort of invest in that? do you still do high-quality or get comfortable taking on risk? >> our fund is largely large-cap growth. we go into entrepreneurial companies and we're seeing privates. so the new etf we have goes into private equity and the retail investors been locked out entirely over this last 20 years that that markets continuing to go up so we're seeing more opportunities cross over funds and that's where the spacex right now is an incredible play for people that do it and they do it in an etf like ours. taylor: talk to me about that because you were saying in your whole career you've never seen enthusiasm for anything musk-related especially spacex, what do you mean? >> it's extraordinary. i wrote an article last night in forbes. close to 4,000 reads already in just under 24 hours, we had 100,000 reads on spacex. people want spacex, how do you buy spacex stock, and so now

there are a handful of options only one etf and that's ours, but the people are going crazy over this. they want a piece of this. it's an exciting story. the largest private company on the planet. it's growing quite a bit. people believe with musk and the white house he's going to get more of those dollars. we've seen you and i have talked a few weeks ago. spacex is doing a fraction of the cost of nasa. you know, nasa spends 2 billion to send a rocket ship in space. spacex spends 10 million. it costs $150 to go a kilogram in space. nasa spends $54,000 so the cost for spacex is just incredible and people think with musk in the white house, or right next to the white house, with trump, there is a benefactor so people want a piece of that and there's only a handful of ways to play in our etf is the only way to play it. taylor: joe i know you're listening to this. fold in what you're hearing into

your world of economics. on one hand i think this is good. you have risk taking, capital formation, people investing in private companies, but on the other hand you get worried about the irrational exuberance, are we getting ahead over our skiis especially if you have a federal reserve who does not cut as much as maybe we thought a year ago. how do you think about that? >> well my sense is that i'm seeing all of my financial metrics organized around leverage, pointing to the fact that firms are getting ready to leverage up. the big banks are in a better, more risk taking mode and you're going to see that come through. my sense here is though on a fundamental basis. the economy has just got a good tailwind behind it and i think about things like the breakthrough in quantum computing by google announced a couple of weeks ago. taylor: game changer, right? >> yeah, it's a real game changer and there are other longer term plays than the short-term frenzy we see. when i saw that the first thing i thought was well this is great if you're into artificial intelligence. you're into quantum probably not

so good for bitcoin because the security concerns around that and that's exactly what happened in the market. so we're going to get some give and take but look. this is really really important. we're at full employment. people are now seeing wage gains above inflation. that means we're going to see a sustained mid cycle expansion, well into 2025 and then we'll get some of the policy actions taken around tax cuts, less regulation, and the market will move to price that in, but right now, just you know as we head into the new year this is a very strong economy and i think we ought to take a step back and appreciate that because next year, we'll need to see some of that because we're going to see disruption in other areas from policy and we'll need that growth. taylor: is the disruption, joe, for your economy, for your world of markets as well, a 10-year at a 4.58 and how do you think about the risk that higher yields presents on long duration assets, on the ability of

companies to grow and to invest even with yields climbing? >> all right so our forecast for next year was we would average 4.50. we thought the trading ban be around 4.30 but there could be occasional ways above that. there is risk with the 10-year above 5%. i want to remind everybody when we did this in march 2023, what broke. it was problems at local and regional banks that held a disproportionate quantity of commercial real estate, loan portfolios. those banks hold about 70%. that's when the fed had to step into prevent a bank run on those local and regional banks, so that's where the risk is because we've got a wall of corporate debt coming. it's a five-year maturity. that's the debt issued at unusually low rates in 2020. they're coming due at much higher rates and the ongoing structural adjustment in commercial real estate which is going on all around the company because the way in which we work. we work a lot more from home.

we're not back in the office. we're never going back there. so that's really, to me, some of the risk around what's a very good economic outlook in 2025. taylor: joel final question to you. does anything look frothy. if i'm an investor what should i be selling? >> we're seeing a number of things this whole play with, for example, crypto. it's always a question mark in terms of how high is crypto going to get. 100,000 starts to seem a little bit like that. micro strategies another one of those names that has done quite a bit but there's some stocks that the a.i. plays. again you mentioned nvidia. there's another one, app lovin. taylor: it was up 700%. >> so this is a stock when you look at the relative valuation their peers it's still priced okay, still doing all right so it's important to look at traditional measures and you talk about being ahead of your

skiis. in 2021, 2022 you saw multiples in some stocks like build.com is 100:1 market cap to revenue. we've got to be a little careful when they start getting above 30, 40, 50 or 80 some of the stocks, be a little careful. don't get caught up in that to your point about being too enthusiastic, so people need to be careful about you want quality, you want growth and we focus on quality and growth. you have to have a valuation overlay always. taylor: joel shulman, i want to thank you and joe, i know we go back a few employers ago so it's great to chat with you as well. >> you too, taylor. taylor: meanwhile, consumers delivered retailers some holiday cheer this season. take a listen to this. according to mastercard spending polls from november 1 through christmas eve on december 24, retail sales rose 3.8% year-over-year. e-commerce sales were up 6.7% year-over-year, but with record spending comes record returns.

we're going live to jeff flock at the willowbrook wall in wayne, new jersey where consumers, oh, no are returning everything they got yesterday? reporter: [laughter] well, i wouldn't say everything, but i'll tell you, taylor, it is busy out here. it's pretty crazy. we're here at the mall on black friday. it was pretty busy then. well it's approaching that now. look at how big returns are. take a look at the number. $890 billion will be returned this year. that's almost 17% of everything we bought, pretty crazy. according to the retailers, actually, exploitation and fraud when it comes to returns is a huge thing. 93% say it's a significant factor. it's not fraud but exploitation stuff like buying multiple sizes, multiple colors of the same item and returning it? maybe a crackdown on that. of course it's also a potential

opportunity because one survey found that 20% of people that returned something actually spend more money when they exchange it for something else. we talked to one ceo of a data analytics firm who says that's an opportunity for growth. listen. >> imagine if retailers could push that up to 20, 30, or 40% so understanding why that consumer is making the return, and then doing something with that information, proposing them other alternatives to actually build loyalty with that customer and turn that return situation into an expansion of that relationship is really critical. reporter: yeah, that's a.i. that's what those guys are going to use. if they know more about you they will know more about what you want and make you less likely to return something, or when you are returning it, give you something back that you might like a lot better. all you gotta do is give up all your personal information and it's all good. taylor: just that minor problem. i will say, jeff, you

get the best assignments. look at you out there in the mall. that's wonderful. reporter: you want to go to the mall don't you? didn't get enough yesterday? taylor: jeff flock so great to see you as always. reporter: good to see you. taylor: it's a little bit easier to order your oat milkshake en espresso. is that one drink? easier today after the pre-christmas starbucks barista walk-out. we have the details on the labor strike at one of the nations most popular coffee chains and tiktok set to have its day in court. billionaire entrepreneur frank mccourt jr. wants to buy that super popular social media platform. he tells us what he thinks will happen ahead of that big deadline that could ban tiktok across the nation. the "clayman countdown" we're coming right back. to go further, you need to be ready for what's down the road. as energy demand continues to rise,

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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 have a fox business alert. take a look at shares of starbucks. those investors are having a cup of cheer. shares are at the top of the nasdaq this hour up more than 2%. all those striking baristas are returning to work. five days of strikes by workers at more than 300 locations, it all wrapped up on tuesday. lee auto riding the a.i. wave today. the stock of the ev maker gaining about almost 4% on what's otherwise been a muted day of trade today. the company ceo says he envisions transforming the company into world-leading a.i. firm by 2030 and also ev's serve as the first a.i. robots, and create the foundation for a.i. integration into the physical world, whatever that means. meanwhile take a look at bitcoin on the other hand, erasing gains

we had from the big christmas day rally. the cryptocurrency currently down. you're down about 3,000 bucks to 95,000. remember the all-time high was 10 8,000. we hit that back on december 17. and the crypto-related stocks also sort of sliding along with bitcoin. micro strategies down about 5%. it's one of the largest publicly traded corporate holders of bitcoin. the company also announced on monday that it's planning to expand its bitcoin buying program. coinbase down about 2%. riot, blockchain down about one-half of 1%. crypto providing to be proving to be a tailwind though, to the stock today. shares of online video platform rumble catapulting you're up 33%. this is after reports show that it is embracing bitcoin treasuries as a strategic asset. year-to-date, wow that stock has more than doubled.

all right tiktok fans, young and old. you could be in for some post-holiday misery if the popular social media platform gets banned in the new year. billionaire frank mccourt jr. is here to tell us what kind of discussions his group has had with its chinese parent company about buying the short form video app that is all straight ahead. and make sure to tune into "the big money show" brian brenberg, jackie deangelis, and i, have all of the breaking market and economic news each weekday at 1:00 p.m. eastern, only on fox business. we're coming right back. customize and save with liberty mutual. customize and sa— (balloon doug pops & deflates) and then i wake up. is limu with you in all your dreams?

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taylor: all right it's deadline. tiktok's u.s. feature resting all on one date. so the supreme court set to review tiktok's arguments about why a ban could be unconstitutional january 10. the fate of the chinese-owned app to be decided just over a week before it's completely restricted in the united states on january 19. that is unless the chinese parent bytedance decides to divest its american tiktok arm before then. enter billionaire frank mccourt jr. who wants to buy the social media platform. the former l.a. dodgers owner says he's put together a consortium of associates who have verbally pledged up to $20 billion to purchase tiktok under his ventura churr called "project liberty" i want to bring in the man himself.

frank mccourt jr. joins us live now here. tell me what are some of your investors saying particularly coming up on this deadline? >> yeah, everybody is waiting, taylor, because january 19 is right around the corner and so the supreme court has agreed to hear the case. kind of that was in record time, and i surveillances they are going to uphold the government's position and also i don't think they are going to provide a stay for bytedance so they are up against it and have to make a decision and we hope that decision is to divest of the platform and we understand they aren't going to sell the algorithm. we don't want or need the algorithm so we're in pretty unique position. taylor: i want to talk about the algorithm in a minute but up until then i wondered would biden do anything until the 19th or trump when he assumes office on the 20th could he do anything if you get the supreme court ruling that goes against tiktok? >> yeah, so it's really interesting isn't it? because the legislation provided

bytedance 270 days to figure this out and the expiration is january 19. now, that's the day before the inauguration, so if the supreme court does not reverse the appellate court, or issue a stay, then bytedance is going to shutdown on the 19th and the trump administration will jjjusjust inheret that, but aga, this is legislative, right? a strong, bipartisan legislation was passed back in april and its been upheld now by the appellate court 3-0 and that same court denied bytedance request to put things on hold, so this is going to the supreme court. i think that it's going to be resolved by the 19th and i sure

hope bytedance decides to enter into conversations for sale because in that case, they do get a three-month extension. taylor: so talk to me about that. are you in conversations with them? >> not at the moment. we've reached out to them and reached out to them prior to the appellate court decision. the feedback was we're not interested in talking about a sale and we reached out again in hoping to hear a different answer. taylor: so the why behind the purchase is interesting. i spoke with kevin o'leary a few hours ago, one similar to you with a consortium of investors ready to go but his why is different. he likes the algorithm. it is addicting and fascinating for people who love the short form videos. your reasoning is a little different. you say for you actually it's not the algorithm. what is it for you? >> yeah, it's to give people, you know, control of their data, and protect their data, and actually get money for neuralink

for their data. we've all learned our personal information is extremely valuable and we seen what's happened to the market cap of these big, big companies, and i think that it's time to kind of shift the paradigm a bit. let the generators of the data, those , all of us, create data. morning, noon, and night. this is what's driving the value of these companies. this is what's driving a.i. let's shift now and for the next generation, next 25 years of the internet let's give people ownership control of their data and their relationships and now, let's have a huge surge in the business opportunities. i mean, who wouldn't want to control their data, make sure it's safe and receive value for it. taylor: right. any conversations with current lawmakers come january 20, what to do if tiktok is up for sale? >> we've talked to i think 60

lawmakers at this stage of the game to let them know what we're up to, and so that everybody is well-aware of our thinking here, and yeah, we've received tremendous support. now, the one variable here or the one unknown is what is bytedance going to do because ultimately, are the ones that make the decision but i want to emphasize. we agree with president-elect trump. we don't want to see this banned. we want to see this app continue, just on a clean, american stack with china having no back door, no ability to surveil american citizens. no ability to manipulate 170 million americans, which after all is why the legislation was passed, right? because it is a national security threat. taylor: quickly, in the little time we have left. mortgages are back up on average a 30-year fixed up to 6.85% despite the fed cutting rates. you got your start really in

real estate. what can you tell us about the health of this real estate market especially with rates continuing to rise? >> yeah, it really, real estate is no longer just one class, right? there are multiple classes of real estate. for instance if you're talking about commercial real estate, well, that's very spotty. with back to work and so on. there are places like hudson yards in new york that are very hot with the rest of the city is not, century city in l.a., the same. if you're talking about residential, there's been a flight-to-florida and texas that's obviously increased residential values there at the expense of values in places like new york and california, and if you are talking about retail, well, you know, look what's happening online now and it's a real struggle for retailers with brick-and-mortar. taylor: you mentioned century city in l.a. i want to thank you. one of my favorite marathons was in march of 2020. i did the l.a. marathon and saw

you'd come up with that stadium to the sea slogan and i remember running from dodgers stadium to the pacific ocean and you've been an advocate for using that to help create health in our community, so lots of things to cover with you and always grateful for your time, sir, thank you. >> thanks, taylor. happy holidays to you. taylor: you too. meanwhile, the future is here when it comes to using artificial intelligence for better health, using the technology to do full body scans to find any issues before they become life threatening. its founder and ceo here on fox business exclusive. and one atlanta, georgia family turned their annual little elf turned santa spy game into a global phenomenon. the company decided to write a book based on the tradition and parity with an elf toy and sold the elf and the book package at county fares and christmas markets. today, you know it as elf on the shelf. it is a multi million dollar business run by twin sisters. hear their holiday success story

on liz claman's brand new episode of everyone talks to liz podcast. listen on apple, google, spotify, iheartradio or wherever you have your podcasts. we're coming right back.

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because you kind of have to take a step back. getting some help would be a great relief. from companions to helpers to caregivers. find all the senior care you need at care.com taylor: take a look at nat gas slipping you're down about 6.3% today this was after rallying to $4 overnight. the commodity surge of the past week is fueled by forecast for extreme cold in january all to boost heating demand and one of president-elect donald trump's goal is to make sure they can meet the energy need so we're going to grady trimble joining me live from the white house to really drill into trump's promise. i think you know the pun that i'm using there. reporter: i see what you did there, taylor and yes there's excess supply of oil globally right now, and the international energy agency says that they expect a surplus in 2025 as well, so that combined with the president-elect's plans

to expand oil production in the united states could lead to lower prices for everyday americans because as he's pointed out and as a lot of our guests point out, lower prices on energy means lower prices across-the-board in many cases. despite president biden's green agenda, the u.s. has actually set another record in 2024 for crude oil production and energy executives as well as governors from oil & gas producing states are hoping that they are going to be trimmed down regulations under the incoming administration. they hope he will cut red tape, enact more tax incentives, permit interstate pipeline projects and reshape programs for drilling on federal lands and offshore areas. trump is also expected to lift the pause on some exports of liquefied natural gas or lng which the biden administration put in place. >> i think president trump will do exactly what he did in the first term and that is simply defined as applying

common sense to some energy policy here in the united states. yes, lifting the pause will make an immediate difference and the business judgment here that i think president trump will apply is that those demands should be met with u.s. lng. should be met with u.s. natural gas production. reporter: the head of one of the largest lng exporters in the united states tells the "wall street journal" even with the restrictions the biden administration placed on the industry, "we still have global emissions that are skyrocketing" that's because other countries like china and russia are using coal, oil, gas, et cetera. he goes on to say people are reassessing how we got here and the conclusion they are going to get to is we need to build more of everything. that certainly seems to be president-elect trump's plans so there are big changes in the oil & gas industry on january 20, 2025 with a slew of executive orders related to that industry and we also know that governor doug burgum whose going to be

the interior secretary as well as chris wright, energy secretary as long as they are both confirmed, wright works in the oil & gas industry so you can bet, taylor, he will have their interests at the top of his mind as he helps set policy for the trump administration. taylor: lots of changes to come. grady trimble we know you're all over it, thank you. meanwhile, let's take it from the oil rigs, back to wall street. apple continuing to grow on investors. the iphone maker stock hitting an all-time high today after wedbush raised the price target on shares of the company to a wall street high of 325. the analyst says that apple is on the cusp of an artificial intelligence-fueled golden era of growth. it is just shy of hitting that market cap of $4 trillion. a.i. has been a boom to big tech companies but also making waves in the healthcare business. mri screening company ezra is now offering blueprint, it's a new scan that uses the latest and greatest a.i. technology to

give customers a more comprehensive look inside their body. the scan looks at heart and brain health, body composition, and can detect cancer and over 500 other conditions. i'm so pleased to say that joining me now in a fox business exclusive is ezra founder and ceo emmy gal. thank you so much. tell me more about this blueprint and how it works. >> yeah, so ezra is a company 's deloped a way to screen for cancer everywhere in the body using this full mri that enable us to make fast, accurate and affordable so the scan scans 13 organs and identifies heart disease and many other conditions. taylor: you asked me on commercial break if i had a full body scan and i said no and one of my big prohibitors is cost. what is the cost and how do you think it will come down over time? >> yeah, so ezr axe offers a range of scans from >>stuart:

00,000 for the to fordable scan and 6,000 dollars and the ezra takes 30 minutes and screens for cancer in all of those organs i mentioned. the blueprint scan is two 60 minute mri scans plus the chest ct and does a lot more than just cancer screening. it's priced at $6,000. we believe that in about two years, we'll get to a $500, 15 minute full body scan. taylor: wow and why? is that just the a.i. technology is getting efficient? >> yes, so there are two big costs to doing this the scan cost and the radiology interpretation cost. we're building a.i. to make scans faster and to assist radiologists when they read scans so they become faster and in doing so we reduce costs and we pass those cost savings to consumers. taylor: okay, you mentioned radiologist. that was one of my questions. what is the role now of the doctor? does their role change? >> absolutely. so, i think radiologists will be replaced by radiologists using a.i. you'll never be able to replace

the radiologist because you'll always need someone who can explain the why but those radiologists will be empowered by a.i. that can say the what part. taylor: now me as a consumer, am i open to a.i. or do i still have reservations aunt want a doctor? >> yeah, so you always want a doctor in the loop because the human experience is very important for the doctor to explain to you what the extent of the problem is. at the same time, research shows that doctors powered by a.i. are much more accurate just doctors on their own, and so as a consumer, you want a.i. in the loop because it's going to make the radiologist and doctor more accurate. taylor: are doctors open to the technology? >> increasingly more, yes. taylor: what was the hesitation? >> the hesitation initially was oh, these are going to get so good they are replacing me, the doctor. i think the doctors that have embraced a.i., have realized that a.i. just makes them better, faster, they can service more patients. they can spend more time with the patients as opposed to just

reading scans, and that makes the healthcare more efficient. taylor: would you say that sort of is my early gauge on a.i. overall that it doesn't replace the doctor or the warehouse worker, if you're being replaced by a robot. it is a tool to help us become more efficient and productive so that can be more consumer facing. >> absolutely. taylor: is that generally where the medical field is going? >> that's what i believe and it's not just supporting doctors but also making the health system more efficient. if you look at mri scans they are incredible but take a long time. at ezra, we use a.i. to make mri scans faster without compromising image quality. taylor: what is the role of insurers? are you talking to them? >> we're speaking with insurance. ezra is currently out-of-pocket, cash pay so as a consumer, you book a scan, get the scan, receive a report. i believe that over time, insurance will be open to reimbursing full body mri's in the same way they are

reimbursing mammograms and other types of screening procedures. taylor: do you think rfk jr. and his push to make us healthy again talking about early screening and detection prevents the longer-run costs can down the road? is it an administration more open to talking with you and companies and a partnership? >> we think so so rfk and the administration are very open to preventive care to early detection, and that opens a path to have these screening procedures that can help people find cancer early which is really what makes the difference between life and death. taylor: totally. from a business perspective, what is the fundraising environment been like for you? >> its been great actually. we raised $21 million round earlier this year, from a number of incredible investors, who used to be the ceo of one medical, and it's a great environment right now, especially for healthcare companies that are trying to create efficiency in the health system and in our case literally save lives. taylor: the ultimate exit plan

is usually an ipo. do you have any ipo plans? >> we're very very focused on growing the company right now. taylor: you're giving me, you always say that. [laughter] >> think about it this way, taylor. we were in six cities at the beginning of this year. we're in 28 cities now. by the end of next year we'll be national. our focus is to screen more and more people and help them find cancer early. taylor: are you profitable? >> not yet profitable but we're getting there. taylor: that might help open up the ipo markets because they want the path to profitability. >> if you build a sustainable company doing something important in the world you have options for financing but we have no plans on that front. taylor: it's so great to talk to you both from the business perspective but really the health perspective and what you were doing to help people fight cancer and all sorts of things and longevity and all the likes. so emi gal, thank you. appreciate it. microsoft and open a.i. struggling to work out their partnership but today's countdown closer still thinks

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♪ ♪ taylor: investors putting the pedal to the metal when it comes to car stocks. take a look at this, toyota is up almost 99 % after it -- 9% after it announced plans to increase shareholder equity concerns by as much as 20%. this could signal a bit of a positive turn-around for the world's biggest awe to maker after posting a quarterly decline in november. meanwhile, honda and niece saw -- nissan are continuing their gains, up 4-15% after reports that they are in talks to merge their companies. remember, that merger would also include smaller automaker mitsubishi, creating the third largest car maker in the world behind toyota and volkswagen.

but could it affect potential car buyers? the that's where we're going with max gorden. he's at a honda dealership in thousand oaks, california, with the latest on car prices and also how inflation and potential trump tariffs could lead to maybe some sticker shock. hey, max. >> reporter: hey there, taylor. well, president trump says he wants to place a 25% tariff on goods manufactured many in canada and in mexico. now, behind me are two of some of honda's most affordable options. this right here is the hrv, their sub-compact suv. it goes for around $31,000, this one at least, and it is manufactured in mexico. that honda civic over there, that goes for about $27,000, it's the manufactured in canada. now, a couple thousand bucks here or there, that could strike a big blow to price-conscious consumers looking for a good deal. >> inflation, high interest rates are all things that contributed the consumers

looking to buy vehicles that are a little bit more affordable. so as we look at a 2025, we're going to see that trend continue until we see the market start to course correct and change. >> reporter: sales of compact cars and suvs as well as some compact suvs soared in 2024, and compact truck sales shot up by more than 30% in 2024 compared to a year ago. car experts say 2025 are likely be -- will likely be another hot year for small cars. cars are expensive with the average price sitting at $47,000. edmunds says consumers shelled out slightly less for cars in 2024 compared to 2023. the average transaction price for a new vehicle down .8%. then whilemaller cars and suvs are hot right now, will large vehicles, large car, full-sized cars as well as mid-sized suvs and full-sized trucks, those sales are down. interestingly though, taylor,

full size suvs, the largest suvs, those sales were up in 2024. >> i was going to say, you're out in california. you need a big f-150, right? >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. taylor: you can't be driving a small car on the 405 and the 10. [laughter] >> reporter: i grew up driving a ford f-150 -- taylor: i knew it. we're like twins. all right, max gorden. thank you so much. all right, the closing bell rings in just about five minutes or so. markets actually a little bit higher, but we were hearing that volume is still down about a 35% from the average, so some of the gains and the volatility you see may be because people are out skiing. we'll have to find out. meanwhile, are we seeing trouble in a.i. paradise? the information says there's growing friction between microsoft and openai. the talk centered on microsoft's equity stake in the company and whether it will continue to take 20% of openai's revenue.

year to date tech giant also lagging behind some of the other major a.i. players. microsoft is only up 16.5, but google parent alphabet up 40%. and, of course, nvidia, the big a.i. winner this year, up 179%. now, despite not having the same stock gains as its major competitors, our countdown closer says microsoft is sill a strong contender in the a.i. race. joining us now, turtle creek wealth advisers' chief market strategist, david sica. >> hi, taylor. let's talk about microsoft for a minute. first of all, next year earnings are expected to grow 10-15, roughly a third coming from the magnificent seven. microsoft is going to grow earnings, low to to mid double digits. and they do that consistently. the whole issue around openai and that problem that apparently is surfacing at this point, we are not concerned at all about that. microsoft has a massive

stranglehold on corporations here in the u.s. and really around much of the globe. they're going to do what they have to do to bring an a.i. solution to their client base that is cost effective and that is efficient and gives their clients what they need. if they have to -- a small bump in the road on this long evolution as we grow into a.i. and all that that means for our economy. taylor: another stock that you like is visa. why? >> this is a play on consumer spending, but it's also a play on a financial services company that is providing innovative payment solutions through their value-added resources division and also producing very strong double-digit earnings growth. one of the things we like about these stocks we're bringing up today, taylor, we're not getting the fed tailwind that we thought we're going to get, so earnings growth is absolutely critical. taylor: yep. >> we need to own companies that are going to produce double-digit earnings growth.

we think visa is one of those. taylor: in the "wall street journal" this morning, on the front pager they were saying this holiday season really highlighted the discrepancy, people over $100,000 are fine, but if you're making his than that, you're really struggling. does visa concern you when you're thinking about a bifurcated consumer? >> that is an issue longer term, i think, but if we get some of these things from a trump administration that has been promised, the extension of the trump tax cuts, the deregulatory environment, i think that'll benefit all consumers. at the end of the day though, high-end consumers are going to drive much of the consumer spending in the economy. and i'm not sure that that really is a problem for visa. ultimately, we'd love to to see better income distribution in the country because that's healthier, but i think visa can be fine if they have to rely more on the high-end consumer. taylor: in the final 30 seconds that we have left, the santa claus rally is all the the rang.

do you buy into this year? >> i think we can still see it. now, the seasonality, obviously, something people are banking on, but you've got all the optimism around the trump administration, you've got a strong consumer, you've got bets on a.i. and growth in the economy, and there's a lot of animal spirits out there. people are excited. they want to own growth. they want to be involved in an economy that's growing, and i think we can see that extend into january. taylor: and the u.s. is certainly in the s&p 500 one of the best ways in which you can do so. david spika, so appreciate your time today. thank you. as you can see, the dow, if it does close higher for the fifth straight day, you have the s&p and the nasdaq a little bit to the downside but overall volume light. that does it for "the claman countdown." stay tuned, "kudlow" is coming up now. ♪ ♪ david: hello, folks, and welcome to a special edition o