Transcripts For FBC Varney Company 20180102

Well, tha a big question a big meeting on capitol hill tomorrow may give us some answers perhaps the fist big test of the new year will come from iran. Deadly empty government protest there, least 20 people reported dead calling those protesters, quote, enemies of iran. Big day, of course, as we kick off a new year 218 is here and Varney Company is about to begin. Well, have you noticed unless you live in very southern, florida or out on west side in california it is freezing outside frigid temperatures continue to grip wide swaft of the country from pink and purples youre in deep purple youre in deep cold. Heres that weather map where windchills bundle up we mean that is obvious isnt it and snowstorm by the way, is brewing we are told off the atlantic coast. And if it it pushes east it could be a major storm up and down i95 corridor, oh boy looking forward to that. Or more for us on that, potential storm about three minuteses from now. Lets take a quick look at the stock future for you all pointing green check out dow up 116 points at 24851 and s p and nasdaq point to a nice significant start to the new year but bigger winner of last year 2017 there it is, the winner is boeing up 89 last year. And other side biggest loser of last year was g. E. Down 45 struggling to get out of 17 a share mark right now. But we begin with donald trump agenda President Trump, the president back at the white house now. Coming up, one of the big issue hes looking to make a deal on, immigration joining us now is fox news contradict tore katy with town hall katy, great to see you. Good morning. And happy new year to you. You too as well. Listen, donald trump wants pungtd for the war he wants to end chain migration and what had visa lottery system in return the dreamers can stay at least we believe that could be the deal is is that the deal, though, that in thes could sport somewhat do you say . It certainly a fair trade and the president has made it very clear from the beginning that he has a soft spot for Daca Recipients but he moved that responsibility over to congress for legally it should be thought out, and it is not just democrats either who need to get onboard with the president s negotiations here. It is also republicans a number of republicans marco rubio for example, jeff flake, who believe that daca should be taken care of before we get into legislative item and that has been push b. C. On toking for wall with how much that is going to cost. But certainly things of the president is asking for i think are a Fair Exchange for what he would be getting. Ening now back on the tax reform success, finally were told the infrastructure could be a top priority. Do you think there will be any issues for the president there to get what he wants . You be, democrats for years have been is talking about infrastructure theyve run campaigns on this. They like their union voters. But there are going to be some difficulties here as well but democrats have to remember going into 2018 if they want the wave election they claim is coming they immediate a win legislatively to go back to their district and states to be able to say what theyre bringing home, so to speak, so people in Michigan Union workers there are all about Infrastructure Spending but there are going to be some kin k to be worked out in terms of how this is implemented piferl a story out of new york city that showed 1. 5 billion were spent for one mile of subway track and it was as a result of Government Union Government Union sorry contracts and so theres going to be a lot of making sure and combing through that there is excess of waste with so this isnt success but another trillion surplus package like over Obama Administration. Fnlings katy thank you so much. In d. C. , thank you katy appreciate it. From politics to money lets bring in barron Senior Editor positive stock open year at the future to see my hand sorry about that. Do we hit 25,000 jack, it seems like were almost there. But as we start is rite there 25,000 pretty early on . We do. I mean you can get a little correction in the stock market any time for any reason, or for it no reason. So theres no predicting that but when i look forward over next year lets say, i see high single digit Earnings Growth and weve gotten sharing that have been running ahead had of the Earnings Growth rate. I think that can helicopter because prices arent mutty yet an they get nutty before the pepgd you get high single earnings greet a low double digit stock return out of this year. Ashley growing number of analyst and a broken clock is rights twice a day. That correction is due and it will come had year but ultimately it is healthy for the market. What say you . Sure. You can have that early in the yore and i dont think that would dengt investors and enthusiasm going forward. But bottom line if they see spending pretty good but Consumer Spending good but more wage increase. I see that savings rate getting too low that worries me a little bit as low as it was before last recession i would like to see wage growth. Also leads me to fed when you you talk about savers losing out in zero percent swres do we get to a 2 funds rate this year . It doesnt you very well could but it doesnt matter. At the bottom we had lending spread compression we should have had negative rates on savings accounts but banks didnt want to bring them below zero but as they raise rates banks are paying will stay at zero for a while banks dont have to eat any of this money until later down o the roads and when people see 2 and 3 on Checking Account thats when they have it for that. So president tweeting this this morning, quote, peel of iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt iranian regime. All of that money, the president obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism into their pockets but people have little food, big enflags and no human rights u. S. Is watching. Jack as a result of this, as kind of an impact if you like it seeing oil above 60 a barrel. 6044 thats fair. Barely a move right, barely a move but been a while sings weve seen 60 ma is going on in iran and if it continues does it put more upward pressure on oil . I dont know it does but i would love to believe that they have a carefully thought out 4 a. M. Iran tweeting strategy. But i think you can fire one with off. I think what this does if youre government in iran you say to people look these protesters are, obviously, a puppet of trump and americans. This is protected by brutal Security Forces and they have had numerous protest where people are are thrown in jail and human rights abuses so they have seen hundreds of millions if not measure a billion from the Obama Administration plowed into iran, when they have double digit jobless rates, and 24 jobless min in iran agrees on if they dont concern economically breads and butter issue is in iran. One thing to agree on if they dont like american and president best thing right now is stay silent while people are talking people on on the ground, Youth Support democracy. You found unemployment is above 24 . Above 40 . Next one for you jack look at what the president tweeted about, quote, why is the United States post office which is losing many billions of dollars a year while charges amazon so little to deliver their packages making amazon richer an post Office Dumber and poorer should be charges much more. He has an amazon obsession because he run us amazon and run Washington Post and Washington Post says mean things about trump so he doesnt like amazon again i would love to believe this is parts of a carefully thought out Pricing Strategy for thes post office but i think hes trying to send this fng the box office kind of, you know, has his hands tied buzz there are ruleses in place that they cant go above a certain rate. Doesnt lose money on packages but loses on first class mail. We can say look america Fire Department when was last time they turned profits how about those firefighters theyre not there turn to profit. Post office is there to o deliver a letter. U. S. Postal service charmings half to amazon is what ups and plus thinking about 15 billion dollars in financeing from u. S. Taxpayers. Ironmy is that u. S. Post office gets taxpayer support. They raise package prices it work to amazon advantage because they have a better ability to deliver packages for themselves. When hurt competitor more than amazon good stuff is. Thank you. Lets talk about this, north Koreas Kim Jongun says he has a button on his desk oh great dont worry hes still willing to send a team to the Winter Olympics. So were all oak apparently that is next. Another quick check of the futures for you as we kick off a new trading year and all pointing upwards isnt it. Look at the dow future is point of pointing tos a we open today up 118 points. Lets have a look near s p and nasdaq also going to be moving up about half a percent. Well have more varney, next. Ed. Im not really a wall street guy. Whats the hesitation . Eh, it just feels too complicated, you know . Well sure, at first, but jj can help you with that. Jj, will you break it down for this gentleman . Hey, ian. You know, at Td Ameritrade, we can walk you through your options trades step by step until youre comfortable. I could be up for that. Thats taking options trading from wall st. To main st. Hey guys, wanna play some pool . Eh, im not really a pool guy. Whats the hesitation . Its just complicated. Stepbystep options trading support from Td Ameritrade classic, of course, new years resolution start jumping in premarket trading up nearly 5 of 4642. How long would that last maybe to the end of the year well see fitbit benefiting from new year push to lose weight get out there and run and fit bit up 1 . Now this, some l big changes in california in the new year. Emac first you can light up a dooby a much anticipated move and sanctuary cities that law is taking effect basically allowing for any place any town, any city to take in Illegal Immigrants. And you cannot basically he out federal Law Enforcement officials on that one. And theres also you know, a big push there because the California Home already to 2. 3 million Illegal Immigrants and so whether this how this play out remains to be seen because now youre seeing these signs road signs put up by people who dont like the new sanctuary state sat stoss for california felon, and democrats need vote so signs are hung under welcome to california signs along hay. Two words of injustice thank you emac. Now to deadly protest in iran demonstrators chanted death to dictator and clashed with military officials you dont normally see this in iran bringing colonel Ralph Peters Ralph both donald trump and Vice President pence tweeting support for those protesters. Whats your take on whats going on there right now . Whats going on there now is potentially very, very ornght. Ashley, we do not know where it is going to go because iran i dont know. But this compared to 2009 in 2009, in iran, or bean urban elite revolted for political right doomed to failure didnt have numbers. This these series of demonstration in connection withingly violent is about broad based economic issues. Price rises feeding families, with unemployment and corruption, meanwhile the iranian people while theyre struggling fiercely economically see the regime spending great deal of money in foreign war and yemen, syria supporting hezbollah in iraq, and they doapght like it so the key change now is that we are starting from the economic protest, turning into a broad based political protest. And even calls for the shaw, you know a chance of praise but that may sound odd but remember thats it 40 careers ago now. And times its enough time for the shaw regime. And you know, people are grandparents are telling their kids bag in the shaws days women were reted better. Back in shaw days we have hope. Back and so they so many factors are coming to the to peter out but we can be hope hoful and we should make intelligent well worded tweets or o whatever of support. But we have to avoid two things. One, giving the regime any excuse to say were behind it. And two, avoid promising making promises we wont keep i think hungary 56 and encourage to rise up and implies to help them and we with didnt this is iranian problem, we the the only thing we can do constructively and we should do it is tighten up on sanctions and then administration is already making right noise on that. Next to the issue too jim konk unextending a potential i guess olive branch to south korea head of the Winter Olympics next month. You buying any of this . Well i think it is now time to really worry because north koreans starting to do sensible things starting strategically before it is hostile rhetoric but reaching out to south korea on multiple fronts trying to drive a wedge between us and south korea. Now that is smart thinking. By the way i have to say, now this whole hinge about kim jongun having a Nuclear Button on desk and press and destroy us hes, obviously, hired former Hillary Clinton staffers that want to come up with, you know, the reset button. Like the reset button kims button is not connected to anything yet. And weve got time for this too colonel President Trump withholding 25 million aid to package. Hes accusing that country of giving safe haven to terrorists let us not forget Osama Bin Laden where was he found ks. What are your thoughts . In mid90s i warn people then that it was coming and look when you deal with poisonous stakes only thing you can do is cut their heads off in addition toes you made pakistan is helped it that connie network afghan helped they will kill american from billions and billions of dollars between 33 and 34 billion dollars in pakistan just since 2002. They are our enemies because theyve chosen to be and harbors terrorist and sponsor trismg not only in afghanistan but in india they have played into the hand of the worst lnls extremists for political reasons they do not protect the rights of the religious minority and pakistan is a bad, bad regime. We should not give them any money on the contrary i would close our enemy and throw our weight 100 behind india World Largest if law democracy. Well have to leave it right there great stuff as always. Colonel peters. Happy 2008 happy 2018 to you too ralph thank you as always. We are about to show you some video now pictures of snow and i mean snow in erie, pennsylvania. How about this for a number. 5 feet of snow. That snow blower doing some overtime and guess what more could be on the way entire country or frozen below zero. Well have the very latest chilling numbers. Afi sure had a lot on my mind. My 30year marriage. My 3month old business. Plus. What if this happened again . 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Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots. Plus had less major bleeding. Both made eliquis right for me. Ask your doctor if switching to eliquis is right for you. Retail. Under pressure like never before. And its connected technology thats moving companies forward fast. Ecommerce. Real time inventory. Virtual changing rooms. Thats why retailers rely on comcast business to deliver consistent Network Speed across multiple locations. Every corporate office, warehouse and store near or far covered. Leaving every competitor, threat and challenge outmaneuvered. Comcast business outmaneuver. We have record snow in erie, pennsylvania. How much . It is official for the full month of december more than 12 feet of snow 12 feet, 121. 3 inches of snow for the month of december concern so this is historic record snow. Erie, pennsylvania is being pound by whats called lake effect snow means lake erie stuff. Bands of snow thats right ashley i went to school in buffalo joke was you know parents put the Halloween Costume to fit it over snow suits because thats how used to snow they are. So theres concern of these cars and vehicles still in tune in snow along freeway and expecting even more snow. Of course they are. Wow thanks emac move on, of course, to deep freeze that is gripping much was country joining us now fox news meteorologist janice dean and i see those deep purples behind you and i know in winter time that just means very, very cold and we know here in the east and midwest it is brutal. It has record setting cold temperatures unfortunately as we get into you know next two weeks we dont have a lot of relief were going to see temperatures moderate a little bit over next 24 48 hours to allow a snowstorm to come towards the northeast. And bring quite a bit of snow but well get to that in due time lets looking at windchills this arctic air mass coming in from canada where it feels like minus 51 in baker lake and all of this cold air sunk as far south as the gulf coast even florida feel like 8 in atlanta. Feel like minus 15 in kansas city. Minus 25 in chicago, you get the picture so the really cold air is across the midwest, the great lakes, and in northeast. Windchill advisories for two Million People here including northern florida all along the gulf coast up towards southeast own, of course, across great lakes as i mentioned this cold air is going to remain in place really for the next two weeks. This arctic air, the po or particular express this continues to move southward so theres january 1th looking at ping and purples on the map. Now lets talk about the snow, the potential snow maker the model one of our reliable forecast models as we go further out in time this will be a thursday morning event. Most of the computers showing this offshore but we have to watch it because difference here from 100 miles west is the couple of inches of snow to two feet of snow. So thats something were going to have to monitor one thing for certain cold for snow potential with north florida so well be on it my trend and keep you posted. More busy days ahead for you janice thank you so much. Markets will be higher we believe when opening bell sounds and have that when we come back. 117 on the dow. Well be back. They appear out of nowhere. My secret visitors. Hallucinations and delusions. The unknown parts of living with parkinsons. What plots they unfold, but only in my mind. Over 50 of people with parkinsons will experience hallucinations or delusions during the course of their disease. If your loved one is experiencing these symptoms, talk to your parkinsons specialist. There are Treatment Options that can help. My visitors should be the ones i want to see. My visitors should be the ones my business was going nowhere. So i built this kickin new website with godaddy. Building a website in under an hour is easy 68 of people. Who have built their website using gocentral, did it in. Under an hour, and you can too. Type in your business or idea. Pick your favourite design. Personalize it with beautiful images. And. Youre done and now business is booming. Harriet, its a double stitch not a cross stitch build a better website in under an hour. Free to try. No credit card required. Gocentral from godaddy. We opened will you go 2018 all waving and cheering nasdaq and dow and here we go. How about that to start the new year, dow upped as we expected r 100 points up 111 to start the new year 24,824 on the could you 25,000 maybe by lunchtime. You never know. Tack a look at the s p also a strong open or for s p up about half percent of 2685. And lets finish u off with nasdaq now up 4 tenth of a percent at half a percent and 6938 and be at 7,000 possibly on nasdaq some time soon. All right so who is going to talk about all of this as we start new year joining us liz claman it is her bachelors degree by the way. Happy birthday. Thank you so much. Also joined by jack he didnt run away an david is here as well. All right very close to dow 25,000 david first to you. And we talked about this with jack earlier do we get a pullback fistsome is this market you know in need perhaps some would say for a little bit of a pullback before we start the next leg higher . Happy new year 12 straight months in a row up. I dont think weve ever seen that in market history. You can bet but i think now indicate we have a different environment now. What brought us to this party was the large Federal Reserve that punch bowl is starting to be brought away since it is certainly a different environment is good news, good news. Good news may not be so good news because that Interest Rates may be going up. Thats two very well thought out point there. David is absolutely riewght one of the rites or for 2018 could go under because ecb is brought italy bonds in 2015 as they brought it back money precincted to buy bonds so what are the real risks . I have to say we have to add wrong headed forecasters like paul krugman and plon. If you if you listen to those guys you would have missed out on 6 trillion in market wealth and dow had a run yawp of 25 . They called forarm impedden after trump was elected so did wall street post. President trump could destroy the World Economy thats the headline in the Washington Post. Did it happen no it did not. Talk about oil with jack oil sitting above 60 now. Weve seen whats going on in iran. Weve also had, you know, stuff going on in venezuela. Saudi arabia, changes there as well. All of this is put outward pressure on oil i guess if you believe it is cutting down production you know really what theyre doing but jack is this a spharkt . Upward pressure but that move there on your screen is kind of snoozer do we go up . Not much u. S. Has driefd high world price of oil i think theres a lot of capacity that could be unlocked in an instant if price moves substantially higher from here. I think theyre already bringing more capacity on so i think you can just see oil staying in had this range and i think were close to the high end of the range right now. Beauty of oil independence. All right lets take a look at General Electric if we can. Do we have to . We have to guess what sitting in high teen when is we bring that board up for you around 1762 there it is. Up 1 today. David would you be interested in g. E. At this level . Absolutely. This is one of our top absolutely this is one of our top picks for 2018. You know, people say well theyre not making the profits that theyve been projected to do. Heres the company with 129 billion dollars of revenues coming in. You cant crank up that profit machine and theyre coming 70 of the revenues 80 their profits are coming from marketses that they dominate. You know, this jet engine market this is in health care devices. But this Equality Company i think is due for a rebound. Interesting i think hes absolutely right. That this price point concern is hitting it out of the park. 17 a share. I mean thats the pretty close with the brick Balance Sheet there for the asset there is, and they have a lot of rev thew drivers at the that company. Jack you said do we have to looking at g. E. Not a fan . I want to share enthusiasm look the price is starting to look attractive. Ive been hurt hearing my heart too many times by General Electric. Too many false starts i cant go back to yeses you got the buzzer welcome to 2018 now lets talk about bitcoin we hadnt talked about it in 34 minutes that must be a record. Well off of its highs 13,886. Still wouldnt touch it with a ten poot pole jack is . I wouldnt touch it with money i was otherwise going to put in the slot machine no fund mental driving the price. I believe that bitcoin will will make a new high but thats based on nothing but baseed on it feels to me it hasnt gotten crazy enough yet. It can get crazier from here. But like it doesnt produce any profit, dupght pay you any dividend who mows. It is basically a px roxy amazon shipped 5 billion items worldwide to prime members last year in 2017. Says 1171 right now amazon up a couple of buckses today. David, do you sell it here or do you buy here . And expect it to go higher . Wouldnt get close to it with with a ten foot pole. Absolutely. So investors love amazon. This is back to late 1990s when people didnt care about profits back then looked at eyeball attracted to web screen here not profits because they dont have much. But time subscription were looking at the devices sold but amazon itself wont tell us how many prime sub subscribers are there. Tentacle of amazon are all in all sorts. But what disheartened me when they bought whole foods the grocery business that is a slow mundane business. But it is a big money business. It is a big money bees but 3. 6 3. 6 on sales for amazon i can buy it for one fifth of sales for kroger in other words im paying 18 times more than amazon bigger with kroger. Who will it be target, bed bath, beyond and Midsized Bank who knows buy anything it wants. Jack david pessimism. Ive been kuked in unkivel places by the stock immediately afterwards im done getting kicked. You know stick with amazon. You get beaten up a lot. Poor guy get to tesla. One analyst says that the breakout year for the muddled 3 tesla wont happen million next year 2019 hotches or more can you keep pushing back production a date and debuts and i mean, obviously, tesla is all about the talk but substance jack. Something that happens with stock when theres no profit to show for it. Everything is based on hope inspection, excitement and fox you do very well under that environment. Eventually this will have to turn a profit. I think it is a wonderful company. I just think ultimately it will be other companies that are made cars for many years who will do better with it. Final frontier havent had many but a quarter jack is right and this what . Tech company or car company what does elon musk want but quit tesla and go to, you know, spacex operation. L maybe with david tesla look muddle lee is supposed to be the vehicle that appealses to the masses. Starting price of around 35,000 can they finally get it together . Well thats the 64 thowrk question but emac is right promises before profits they dont have the profit to keep, you know, substituting more and more promises at some point the market is going to say giving this price perfection we need to see more. Shutup as they say. Take a look at sears they didnt buy by the way, any National Tv Ad during the Holiday Season. Which just makes no sense right, david thats got to be a terrible sign. Is it not . Absolutely terrible sign their excuse was world is moving to digital and advertising and their customers arent. Only 18 of what sears sells is online. So customerses are doing brickandmortar but not brickandmortar related advertisingening that spells not good news for sears. Interesting now theres a estimate of 40 chance of apple buying netflix start with you jack. But i want everyone to jump in here. What do you think about that . Apple buying netflix . It is way too expensive for apple. Apple look a gazillion or . But dont want to throw it away. Netflix moved into the con tengt making business that is extremely speck speculative i dt see mr. Cooke having that kind of stomach. What do you say jack is . Move for apple or not . Not enough with netflix because they dont own enough of their con tengt theyre in the business of chronically paying enough for their users such a great deal for users its underpriced. But what is apple going to do . So 1985 in its tv content aspect an very late to the game wasnt it Carpool Karaoke how do they had i know what theyre trying to do right now but are they been the eight ball do they need to make a acquisition like that because it is about tv con tengt. Interesting to talk about. Fast food chain, jack in the box now has get this, munchy meals to celebrate medical marijuana in california. Does that make you want to buy jack in the box shares . A great promotion but, obviously, were talking about jack in the box free advertising interesting marketing strategy. Munchy meals jack dont go overboard and buy Something Like sears shares. [laughter] im not sure this is enough to get me into the stock. Lets take a look now at disney big win with star wars grossing over a billion dollars. Disney right now are trading up higher today at 108, 07 do you like it at this level . We do like disney this is, one of the world best purchases ever john stein bener of yankees paid and got one billion on another star wars just you know, acquisition genius. Century fox as well for disney whats your take on the company . This is opposite of what i said about netflix this is a company with durable, valuables is the talk about how much at box office and then think about merchandising and new star wars with the park. This Company Makes money six ways in every profit properties in the business. Start streaming yeah, so all right. Thumbsup for disney. Were already out of o time david jack thank you so much. Appreciate it. Lets take a quick check of the big board for you dow up 134 points at 24,853 listening on radio the dow now 150 points thereabouts from 25,000. We will have is more varney, next. Were now craving in 2018 age guess what the dow picking up where it pretty much left off in 2017 dow up 123 points at 24,839 netflix is predidnted to produce more kid show why, to try to counteract disney lets go to Nicole Petallides with more of had story nicole. Hey, good morning thats right so were watching disney closely and netflix up about 3 pbts disney and on the dow doing well today but the idea here is that you have disney with fox, netflix is losing these disney shows because disney is doing its own streams service in 2019 so what is netflix snood they sent e more or less amount to boost its library last year and now word is that theyre going to be involved in getting more kid shows in order to fight disney this coulding syfy and kid shows medical record to take them on in 2018. So its a battle of the library. Tough battle for Netflix Nicole thank you very much. Appreciate it. The tad today show found replacement for matt lauer. And the tans and viewers that have show love hoda theyre saying, theres clapping and cheering all around the studios at nbc. The kicking off the air right hoda is officially coanchor of today and continued to that fourth hour with with kathie lee give the so launched this morning. A popular decision apparently. All right thank you. Theres a lot of pressure on companies to invest hundred and create jobs in the u. S. Instead of just returning money to investors under new tax plan in other words, you can lead a company to order but can you make them do what you want them to do lets bring in former reagan economist great to see you. Great to see you ashley and liz. Happy new year to you. Listen, what what should these companies do it is up to them they have shareholders to respond to. Would you like to see them invest in create jobs or do you think a lot of it will go back into the stock and diffed . Endz it depends on the company it depends on what investment potential is and if company doesnt have great investments to carry on they should return to the shareholders to let them invest it and other places where they get a better return those companies with horrific Investment Opportunities theyll invest it and theyll get better it is just a way it should be and i dont know why theres all of had this talk about stock buy back or dividends thats pine if companies do that. Theres no problem with it it. Its when they invest the money in losing operations that you should really worry about. Well very true listen before going into christmas we have a lot of companies announcing they were handing out bonuses left right and center. But thats fine, great too but would you rather see wage increase because thats better for vng workers and for the economy as well. Over the longterm. I would love to see wage increase if wage increase dweive by productivity and by increase after tax return to the company whats great. But theres nothing wrong with bonuses and giving the lows some money to invest on their own. You know, i dont understand all of this stuff. What really is happen haded here ashley is weve dropped the rate from 35 to 21 . That means if every dollar of gross profit instead of getting 65 cents youre now getting 79 cents. Thats a 21 and a half hkdz in the aftertax rate of return on investment thats big, big, big stuff. And then you add into it the highest personal income tax rate has been lowered thes pastor rates lowered you have 100 expensive and territory its the best Christmas Present this country has ever gotten. And everyone will benefit from this everyone will. Except for democrats. Yes many new york and california. I get you. But theyll benefit too by the way. They really will and forced to finally live up to bad on that spending. The big, big stuff is disease that mean big, big growth for the economy. Gdp where do you see that going this year, art . Now Corporate Tax rate reductions statistically takes while to have an impact on increases in output that takes two years to be fully brought into pack. But this is one of the biggest cuts in the best places ever for that. And i would expect growth rates not only to continue inching up over o next, over this this year but i expect that increase in growth rates to continue through 2019 as well and maybe well on into 2020 so i would say this this year will have three and a half percent maybe higher growth for the year. And then next year maybe four and a half percent or something so im very excited about what is going to happen to growth and employment will be up a lot, i mean, you know when you look at this country we have a lot of people who have left the labors to who need incentive to be brought back in and nothing like a good high paying job to insent vise someone to work. Weve got best on the tax reform now i want to get this in should the next priority for the Trump Administration be infrastructure . Well infrastructure is good if its done well it has to be done with good project and not just shovel ready surplus package that was it and terrible for w and obama. Fired up in the new year. Just when you left last year. Happy new year to all of you please thank you so much. All right happy new year you too and nashville great stuff. All right thank you lets check the markets first trading day as we say of the new year of 2018 still looking for the elusive 25 and u how elusive is it up initially 80 points lost a little bit of our early steam but as you can see we look at the dow 30 stocks majority of they will in the green. Meaning that they are moving higher. More people buying than selling them and is this what you would expect for the most trusted name in news . A reporter on Live National television cnn lighting a bomb of a party goers in colorado is this when weve with come to . More varney, next. Oh, thats great sarah. Lets talk about this when we meet next week. How did edward jones come to manage a trillion dollars in assets under care . Jay. Sarah. So i have a few thoughts on that early retirement. By focusing our mind on whatevers on yours. Or a little internet machine . It makes you wonder shouldnt we get our phones and internet from the same company . Thats why Xfinity Mobile comes with your internet. You get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost. So all you pay for is data. See how much you can save. Choose by the gig or unlimited. Xfinity mobile. A new kind of network designed to save you money. Call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile. Com. 23 minutes into the new tradings year, and three dow socks caterpillar United Technology and visa hit hadding all time highs on the first trading day remarkable caterpillar up 158 these are 115 unitessed tlgs up 12782. The dow by the way also on track for yet another record close. Really just picking up from 2017. To immigration mow, President Trump says dreamers can say in exchange for the wall ending chain migration and ending what visa lottery. Going joining us now is thomas thank you very much congressman for being here. Is that a deal you think that democrats support the one i just is outlined in my introduction to you. Is that something democrats could get onboard with, do you think . Ashley good morning from miami, and immigration issue is certainly front and center for all lawmakers. Now as we return to washington next week we need a compromise because we know we dont get one, the dreamers these young immigrants who came u through had no fault of their own raised here grew up here theyre going to be at rick of being deported and thats unacceptable and immoral in my view so i do think we can get a deal how ambitious that deal is that remains to be seen. But certainly the president is in a position to make some demands given the campaign that he ran. And of course, those of us both republican and democrats who really do want to o help these young people really also at a strong position. Because we know a broad majority of americans support allowing dreams young immigrants to remain in our country so i think were going to get a deal and sweet spot is to sure dreamers have a way to remain in a country. To make the rest of their liveses in this country to pursue citizenship ultimately about and also strength and a Border Security keep this country safe. Keep those drug dealers especially that are so active in that southwest border out of the country. I wanted to ask you do you believe in a merits base system where we talk about immigration from all around the world do you like the point system, and australia used do you think thats something that u. S. Should be looking at . J wing we certainly need to make adjustment to immigration system so what it compliments our economy. Look, family, immigration is important, i dont think we should do away with that. But certainly a shift towards an immigration system that compliments our economy that helps this grow more and by the way, that gives immigrants a better chance of succeeding when they come to our country. I think thats an important conversation. Im sorry were already out of o time congressman but i do appreciate you taking the time to talk to us this morning. By the way ashley i know sign of the arctic blast everyone is welcome to come down here. Enjoy it. 60 degrees enjoy it thank you so much. Hour two of varney will be back of a this. Ashley it is coming up to 10 a. M. On the east coast. 7 00 a. M. Out in california and new this hour, President Trump cutting the red tape to pave the way for his one trillion dollar infrastructure plan. Remember that huge chart he rolled out to show the bloated bureaucracy that sands in the way of getting things done. Question . Is it now easier one year into his presidency . Well be asking that question. Plus the shoppers returned for Holiday Season but thousands of Retail Stores are set to close this year. Well have the winners and losers from the man that coined that phrase, retail ice age, bert flickenger. He is next to me. A major snowstorm could follow for the east coast earlier this week. Do not adjust your tv sets. Im Ashley Webster in for stuart today. We cover it all on Varney Company. Hour two starts right now. Ashley welcome to 2018. Lets take a look at the big board. Wow, the dow off and running in 2018 at 24,833. About 170 points thereabouts from 25,000. The big tech names we like to check every day. The amazon effect, if you like, look at that all green arrows. The amazon, see where amazon is up, 1181. It is up 1 . By the way amazon saying more than five billion items were shipped using their prime membership in 2017. Sounds like a lot. Well have more on that in a bit. Three dow stocks hitting alltime highs, caterpillar, United Technologies and visa. Caterpillar and visa were top boosts for the dow in 2017 as well. So theyre just carrying on into the new year. Mcdonalds top boost for the dow after getting a price target boost from nomura to 190 bucks from 180 bucks. Mcdonalds stands at 173 per share. Were keeping an eye on oil prices. Slightly lower, still hanging in there, 60. 32 a barrel. We have unrest in iran and on going issues in venezuela. Changes afoot in saudi arabia. Opec trying to keep their production costs in check. All of this is putting some upward pressure on oil. Right now pretty much stalled out at 60 bucks. Back to retail, a flood of store closes about to hit the u. S. In the new year. Estimated 12,000 stores will close this year. That is up from 9,000 last year. Bert flickenger, Strategic Resource Group managing director joins us right now. He is mr. Retail. Bert, you have been right every step of the way. Talk about winners and losers you see in retail. Begin with the winners. Winners, walmart, tiffany, tractor supply, tjx and other lower priced players. Heroic effort on the rocky balboa comeback story, jcpenney, joe mcfarland, mike ullman. They will survive even though bill ackman and the Pershing Square bad people left them on deaths door. Jeff cole vert, 99cent stores. Saved them from the brink and brought them back. You have winners to invest in and comeback stories to watch like penny and 99. Ashley now on the other side, the losers. Ashley, as you and liz reported for a long time, great people working in the stores at sears and kmart. Horrible the people who control them, eddie lampert, and esl, wall street geniuses dont understand main street. Sears, kmart, bonton group, from the herbiger stores in north dakota to carsons in chicago and bonton in the east. That is really problematic. Ashley look at the last Holiday Season pretty strong, right . Yeah. Ashley shoppers came back and they spent. What is really great, Business News reported with deflation in apparel, prices were down 1. 3 but unit sales were up almost 5 . So, as you and liz and nicole reported earlier, macys big comeback under new leadership. Ashley yeah. In addition to off priced, Neiman Marcus seems to have found the footing. With the Royal Wedding coming up on may 19th and macron in paris, there is some civility in fashion and style coming back to retail that is bringing up everything from the highend to off price. Ashley how did brick and mortars do this Holiday Season . Did they hang in there . Brick and mortar did very well. As you reported a few minutes ago, fedex hitting new highs overups. What will be proverbial battle of the bulge for amazon, infrastructure through the post office and ups cant get all the packages out. Theyre going back to brick and mortars. As you reported well, disney a billion in star wars, wonder woman. People have going back to the movies shopping before and after. Ashley tweeting this, quote, why is the United States post office which is losing many billions of dollars a year while charging amazon and others so little delivering packages and making amazon richer and post Office Dumber and poorer . Should be charging much more. What is your reaction. Completely correct. Amazon and walmart gotten giveaways and subsidies. It is unflair Playing Field as liz reported and trish regan reported very well. Ashley amazon says it shipped five billion items, five billion items to prime members last year. Dont want ashley impressive . Very impressive but dont want viewers and taxpayers, working people, particularly bluecollar and Single Parents to be paying for that. Ashley no, that is a good point, but the post office is hamstrung a little bit by some federal rules, right . It can only it cant raise prices beyond a certain level. Right. Ashley even if they did, that would play to amazons advantage because they are putting in place a big Distribution Network whereas amazons competitors may not be able to do that, would really get hurt bit extras. You could get somebody like my alma martyr, pricewaterhousecoopers to do direct price, amazon costing more than the average momandpop owner, shipper. Ashley great stuff as always. Burt. Liz, happy birthday. Captain bobs marketplace hall of fame coach, ritchie moran, send you autographed copy of his bestselling new book, great to be here. Liz just in time for mardi gras. Thanks. Ashley burt, thank you so much. Liz thank you, burt. Ashley big meeting on capitol hill tomorrow, congressional leaders sitting down with Top Administration officials, one of the topics coming up infrastructure. Talk about it a lot, time to talk about in detail. Jay timmons, National Association of manufacturers president and ceo joins us now. Jay, all right. Good morning ashley. Happy infrastructure year to you. Ashley infrastructure year to you. To that point, is this something both the democrats and republicans can agree upon . Is there going to be some big issue that divides them . I think they absolutely can agree. One thing that 2017 showed us, we can take on big things. Granted it wasnt done in bipartisan way last year, but if you look at three things most important to manufacturers we outlined right from the start in 2017, taxes, regulation and infrastructure. Taxes we took care of that last year. Regulations are being dealt with right now. Were in the middle of that process. Infrastructure is the next big thing. Democrats and republicans alike have talked about the need to improve our crumbling infrastructure for decades. Nows the time to act on it. Ashley a private, public kind of sector deal is one you would prefer. So, look, i think everything should be on the table, ashley. Look, weve got, there has been a longstanding discussion about whether to raise the gas tax or not raise the gas tax. To manufacturers that is one possible solution. There is a gas taxes. There is the figuring out how to, how to charge for vehicle miles traveled. There is the Public Private partnerships. There is tolling. There is a ton of Different Things that can be considered to pay for what we have called for in our building to win proposal, somewhere between 500 and a trillion dollars in need out there. I think we can do that in a very logical, bipartisan way. And i think nows the time for to us really focus on that. It really is impacting our ability to succeed and compete in the World Economy. Ashley would i agree. Jay, when the president pitched infrastructure showed a chart all the bureaucracy required to build something. A long roll of regulations people have to overcome. Is it any easier with the president being in place for over a year . I think that it is easing up. So certainly permitting was a huge, huge i impediment to start these projects. I used to work for a governor, george allen, in virginia, that is one of the things he took on very early in his tenure, making sure prompt permitting for infrastructure projects. It really resulted in a big explosion of Infrastructure Investment and spending in virginia. We can do the same thing in the United States, across all 50 states but weve got to make sure that the regulatory impediments arent there and the president and his administration have been very focused on reducing those behavior yes, sir. Manufacturers are very excited about that. Again it can cost millions of dollars to small manufacturers like it did on the i65 emergency closure recently. One manufacturer lost a Million Dollars in business because of that one closure. Ashley hopefully that will change. Anything to improve laguardia will be gratefully accepted, jay timmons. Let me tell you. Thank you for that, and happy infrastructure year. Jay, thank you very much, appreciate it. Thank you, ashley. Check this out, the latest installment of star wars the last jedi, topping one billion dollars in the box office in three weeks. That passes beauty and the beast as the biggest blockbuster of 2017. Coming up almost five million borrowers defaulted on student loans. Next one professor whose solution is simple. He says college isnt for everyone. We knew the Mainstream Media was against the president but now we know by how much, especially compared to president obama. We have a lot ahead for you. Youre watching the second hour of Varney Company. At fidelity, trades are now just 4. 95. We cut the price of trades to give investors even more value. And at 4. 95, you can trade with a clear advantage. Fidelity, where smarter investors will always be. Ayou can feel safecan trade with a clear advantage. For only 49. 00. That includes security panel, keypad, key fob, entry and motion sensors and for a limited time, get a camera included and installed at no additional cost. Ashley lets get a check of the big board for you. Were showing the dow up 104, 102 points right now at 24,831. We were up as much as 130 points as we got out of the gate this morning. Nevertheless a strong start for the new year. Green arrows for the big banks. Wells fargo, city group, jpmorgan, all up for today. Certainly the fed going up, putting Interest Rates up, means more money back on loans for the banks and less regulation. Nordstrom, jpmorgan, and nordstrom to open a standalone mens store in new york city this spring. Nordstrom up 4 , up two bucks, nearly 50 a share. 49. 45. To california, it just became a sanctuary state. Emac here with the details. Liz you know, comes at a time we were just talking at the break about major outbreak of crime south of the border on the baja peninsula. Crime rates, homicide rates going up. Crime rate doubled or triple last couple years. California, it is official it is a sanctuary state. Meaning that the locals, Law Enforcement are not allowed to cooperate with federal officials detaining an illegal immigrant. It has gotten people so upset, ashley, youre seeing signs put up in arizona, nevada, and areas in colorado, welcome to california signs, these signs read, were now a sanctuary state. Come on ms13, come on in felons. Democrats need the votes. People are angry in that area of the country. Ashley there is some truth to that. So, we knew it was coming but that is insane. They wont cooperate with the i. C. E. Officials . There it is. Liz youre seeing the sign right there. Ashley oh my goodness, it sass it all. Thank you, emac. Liz sure. Ashley get to the student debt crisis. 1. 36 trillions in student debt hanging over the heads of borrowers. Why a George Mason University professor, the world would be better off without college for everyone. That professor, the case against education. The Education System a waste of time and money. He is brian kaplan. He joins us now. Brian, make your case. College isnt for everyone, is what youre saying, basically. Yeah, thats right. One of the main problems is a lot of people have trouble finishing. So if you know for sure youre actually going to finish college, its a pretty good investment. But on the other hand if you strug felled through high school your odds of finishing are very poor. Ashley brian, were told if you want to get on in the world, get a decent job, starting salaries will be pretty decent you have to have a degree otherwise you just cant compete but we found out there are not enough jobs for people if your super qualified. Thats right. Look at jobs College Graduates get, teared to what they would have gotten 50 years ago. Waiter and bartender are common jobs for College Graduates to get. So the degree in no way a passport to a collegetype job. Ashley so who is at fault . Is it the colleges selling a bill of goods that is not exactly truthful . They put up their tuition fees too much . I would say it is more high school and parents that are really telling kids that anyone can do anything, which is simply not true. Is much better tell a kid, based upon your academic record, here is likely to happen, steer them something realistic. In my book i have a chapter on vocational education. You see countries like germany and switzerland, kids in the u. S. We push to college, maybe youre better off auto mechanic, plumber, electrician. You see how little of an underclass in countries like that. The kinds of kids pushed into the college, fail along the way, get frustrated, turn to crime, whatever, they become skilled craftsmen. Its a better system. Ashley we dont have the votech system in place. The president has talked about he is impressed to what germany does. How quickly do we get the system in place . If you become a plumber or electrician, they make good money and ones they get certified, they can write their ticket. To replicate the german or swiss system. Very basic things, stop pushing college for all. Stop assuming everyone should have a college prep curriculum. Right now you have a lot of kids bored out of their minds in classrooms today. They have come back from christmas break. Kids 13, 14, have never been very interested in academics hey, there are other vocational options here. Why dont we try that . A whole change in attitude what is worthwhile in doing. The idea that it is terrible for a kid who is 14 to be getting a job in plumbing, learning that as apprenticeship, so ingrained, yet, it would be much more realistic and much better for a lot of kids, look, this seems like a good match for you. May not be a good match for everyone. But for you it seems like it would work. Ashley youre a university professor, brian. What kind of reaction have you had from the colleagues and school . I consider myself a whistle blow. Neil. Out of my Close Friends i get a lot of pushback, but at same time a lot of nodding heads. When i go out of my bubble and talk to people elsewhere there is kind of horror about this how can you possibly say . I just feel like as insider i really do need to say, look, we are telling a lot of kids, that are not likely to succeed its a decent bet. When it is not, i think, when you see something say something. Ashley i think a lot of people agree with you, bryan kaplan, appreciate you talking with us. Thank you. Ashley all right. President trump and Vice President pence both backing protesters in iran. Mr. Trump this morning tweeting, the people of iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt iranian regime. All the money president obama foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their pockets. The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. We are all over this story next. Attention homeowners age sixtytwo and older. One reverse mortgage has a great way for you to live a better retirement. Its called a reverse mortgage. Call right now to receive your free information kit with no obligation. It answers questions like. How a reverse mortgage works, how much you qualify for, the ways to receive your money and more. Plus, when you call now, youll get this magnifier with led light absolutely free when you call the experts at one reverse mortgage today youll learn the benefits of a governmentinsured reverse mortgage. It will eliminate your monthly mortgage payments and give you taxfree cash from the equity in your home. And heres the best part. You still own yohome. Call now take control of your retirement today ashley now this. Oil holding right around 60 bucks a barrel level. This as unrest continues in iran which may explain some of the raising of oil prices. Emac, do you have the details . Liz yeah. This is the strongest start for oil in about four years. We havent seen oil break above 60 opening a year. Since, 2014, oil hit 120 a barrel that year. News coming in, Oil Officials in iran are saying that the protesters have not hit Oil Production sites. So Oil Production will proceed pays. Ashley right. Liz it is the worlds Third Largest oil producer. They have been going, protesters went after military and government buildings. A dozen people died in unrest in iran. But again the oil outlook, there is a real Battle Royale between the bulls and bears in the oil pits. Will we see even higher than 60 a barrel . Some calling for 80 a barrel. You point out opec production cuts but russia is seeing an historic record year in oil output for that country. A big battle between the bulls and bears in the oil pit. Ashley steve cortes, Fox News Contributor, former wall streeter joins us now. Steve what is your take on all of this . Could we see oil creep up into the 80 per barrel range . Ashley, i dont know if we will get that high but i think Higher Oil Prices are here to stay. Perhaps 40s, a 50s as a floor. People might say it could be bad news. To some extent it is. If it can curtail the consumer if they fill up. I think rally is good news. It is not just oil in isolation. Aluminum soared in december. So did copper. Were seeing increased demand. Transport stocks, for instance are flying that is great news. They need a lot of oil to run literally. What i think were seeing something industrial demand is picking up. Confidence is soaring. We know that. This is the beginning of the trump boom. It is happening here and not just all over the world. China is critical. China big gap up. Ashley and, steve, very quickly, you know President Trump has often talked about oil independence. Although were looking what is going on in iran, surely those types of headlines dont have the impact they used to have on the United States . Right. Isnt that a great thing . Amen to that. It Still Matters for oil prices. Were not nearly dependent on opec. By the time our children are middleaged, opec will be a thing of the past. I say good riddance. Couldnt happen to nicer bunch guys this they lost control over Global Markets and politics. Ashley steve, stay there for you. Well have more. More varney after this. nadia white the moment a fish is pulled out from the water, its a race against time. And keeping it in the right conditions is the best way to get that fish to your plate safely. dane chauvel sometimes the product arrives, and the cold chain has been interrupted, and we need to be able to identify where in the cold chain that occurred. tom villa we took our world class network, and we developed devices to track environmental conditions. This device allows people to understand whats happening with the location, but also if its too hot, if its too cold, if its been dropped. Its completely unique. dennis woloshuck if you have a sensor that can keep track of your product, it keeps everybody kind of honest that way. Who knew a tiny sensor could help keep the food chain safe . Ashley frankie valli. Where is stuart when you need him. Quick check of the big board. Dow up 115 points at 24,834. A great start to 2018. Facebook, amazon, microsoft up to 86. 20. Alphabet google, apple, all moving higher as the market continues the march upward as well. Look at weight watchers. Class new years resolution stock. Nice pop. People vow i will lose weight this year. Liz im not doing that. Ashley the stock is up 5 . Liz you know you have to lose weight. You know you have to lose weight, when you push away from the table and the table moves. Ashley i just did that. Same story with fitbit. Also benefiting of course from the new years eve, new years push to lose weight and stay fit. Fitbit up a modest 10 cents at 5. 81. Good luck to everyone vowing to lose weight. Look at that, about 178 points away as we speak. Steve cortes stuck with us, god bless him. Steve, do you think we have a little bit of a pullback . We said this last year. It never happened. Some people say, well get a 5 correction. Dont panic, it is healthy for the market before we take the next step up. What is your belief. At some point there will be a pullback. What will cause it . I dont know. Geopolitics, north korea, iran, unrest in the middle east. But this is the most important factor here, i believe its a pullback to buy. I truly believe were in a new paradigm in this country with the tax cuts now, signed and confirmed, taking effect in the new year, with confidence soaring in the country, with deregulation, so many tailwinds for the economy, i think the real economy will see kind of growth we havent seen since the 80s or 90s. The stock market priced some of that in. We have to pass even those lofty expectations and i think we will. Ashley steve, what about the Tax Advantages the big corporations get now . Where does that money go . We know some will be reinvested in shares and dividends, what have you, but what kind of impact will that have on the economy . Right. I think it is hard to san rate how beneficial this might be to the u. S. Economy, including repatriation of capital trapped all over the world, trillions of dollars that should be here. To your point, i worry, i wish the tax code necessitated they not spend it on Financial Engineering on buybacks and dividends. We didnt do that unfortunately but it is possible they will. Im confident they will invest in capital expenditures, capex, plants, people, software and equipment. The reason i think they will have confidence to do that now, the lessening of the Regulatory Burden from washington, d. C. I think that will be magnificent. A critical part of this tax reform, Small Businesses can immediately deduct, fully deduct expensing for expenditures for purchases. I think that will unleash an to much purchasing in this economy. I believe when you talk to businesses large and small, there is a new sheriff in town. There is a new confidence in town. Ashley talk about confidence, what about the stimulus plan that is the infrastructure effort to spend a lot of money to get the infrastructure in this country up to where it should be from the airports, highways, bridges all of that . That has to be a good, big, stimulus for the economy, right . I think so. By the way, badlyneeded. Ashley yes. Anybody who flies, for instance, i am flying tomorrow, coming in to see you folks coming into laguardia. I am dreading it. It looks like a third world bus terminal. It is embarrassing for the capital of the world. Liz joe biden said that. Ashley you know it is bad if joe biden says it is terrible. Thats right. Infrastructure investment is needed. I dont love government spending. I think spending is out of control in many ways but i think some smart Infrastructure Spending, with this major difference. When obama did infrastructure, most of it was wasted, gobbled up by unions, not really spent. We have literally a builder, an entrepreneur, in oval office. Somebody that knows how to do these projects. I think well have difficult results this time. Ashley steve, i want to bring this to your attention. President trump, fresh tweet out on the immigration and dreamers. Quote, democrats are doing nothing for daca. Just interested in politics. Daca activists and hispanics will go hard against dems, will start falling in love with republicans and the president. We are about results. Your thoughts . I say the president is right as supporter of his, as an hispanic and immigrant son, i love legal immigration. But we have to do it really, respect the rule of law, it is disrespectful to legal immigrants like my father who went through the hard process to become an immigrant. Regarding dems and daca, the they are exactly right. The dems are not interested in compassion and daca, they are interested in votes. They feel more amnesty, the more votes. It is crass. I do want daca protections made into law, done the right way, not by executive edict. He cant wave his scepter and pretend set king the way obama did. Do it through law, with compromise and end to chain migration and end to visa lottery system. Ashley couldnt agree more, steve. Youre a big hit on Varney Company. Steve cortes, thank you very much. Thank you, ashley. Ashley happy new year it to you, steve. Thank you. That time of the day and time of the week, lets go live on the radio, Brian Kilmeade coming up at 36 minutes past. Brian kilmeade, host of the Brian Kilmeade show. How appropriate, the name of the show. Brian, weve been talking about immigration. Big meeting taking place tomorrow on capitol hill. The president said look, if i get the wall, if i can end chain migration, if i get rid of those visa lotteries, that is maybe a Good Exchange for daca, for dreamers to get a permanent place in the United States. An official permanent place. Do you think that is a good deal no. I was also very interested in seeing there is pressure on democrats to go along with democrats to do a deal. They may not do everything he wants but bipartisan meeting among senators led by durbin and lindsey graham. Theyre not dug in on chain migration. That could come to a close or changed. The lottery system is travesty and train wreck. That should be adjusted a long time ago. Where the rubber hits the road is the border wall. The only reason democrats want to do it, because it would give President Trump a victory. There is pressure on schumer and pelosi to get daca passed. I dont think they can sit back on their hands, say im waiting to take back the house and maybe the senate. I think they have got to do something in january. I want to get this done now. I think the president will start doing some deals, and if he is going to do deals, now is the time to get it done. Ashley with that said, brian, would you say the president has the upper hand then in these discussions . Thats tough. The only the thing that really hurts the president , a lot of conservatives like steve king, dont want to do anything, even daca. There will be damage either way. If he does nothing, small contingent much his base will be happy but the government will shut down. If he goes to cut some deals, there will be a lot of people saying wait a second, is this the true conservative we elected . That is more trumpian. I think it would set the groundwork and put a lot of pressure on democrats to do something if they begin to compromise. I dont know about you, a lot of people are telling me they want to get stuff done, even if theyre republicans or democrats, they want to see some type of compromise. Ashley i agree completely, but i want to change gears, alabama beat clemson. Smothered them completely to move into the playoff, the championship game against georgia, i know if you saw any of that game, georgiaoklahoma. Double ot. Georgia comes through. I love college football. I have got to be honest. This time of year. I love the fact we finally have a playoff system where we get to a true champion. There is big argument who the final four should be, especially two and four win and pull off upsets. Alabama goes into the postseason somewhat after slump. Put together a defense to throttle clemson. Clemson was favored going in. I think theyre favored by the oddsmakers as the favorite because of their defense. Hard to imagine georgia getting over 50 points against that clemson, excuse me, that alabama defense. If you cant do that, cant outscore them, you wonder if georgia without the experience. They havent been to the championship game since 1983 i love the pregame. I love the celebration with the national anthem. Finally patriotism happening. Ashley the rose billion, with the the b1 bomber going over. It gave you goosebumps. New years resolution, are you one of those guys that likes to do resolutions . My resolution to be on Stuart Varney more. Maybe two or three times a week. Do it a hostile way. He will be in middle of a conversation and i pop in. Ashley i would pay good money to see that. Okay, you must keep that resolution. Brian kilmeade. Thank you very much. See you in the hall. Ashley he waves to me in the hall. Brian kilmeade love that guy. First supermoon lighting the skies. It was like a flood light in the backyard. This phenomenon happens when the moon becomes full on the same day as it is the closest point to the earth and its orbit. There will be a test later. Okay. Ashley no worries there will be a another full moon on the 31st. Look at that picture. It is remarkable. Coming up, we knew the Mainstream Media is against the president but now we know how much, especially comparing it to president obama who they loved. We have a lot for you. Stick around. Building a website in under an hour is easy with gocentral. From godaddy in fact, 68 of people who have built their. Website using gocentral, did it in under an hour, and you can too. Build a better website in under an hour. With gocentral from godaddy. Whcold sore. Et you . Grab lunch . Cold sore. When a cold sore takes over, campho pheniques topical anesthetic plus antimicrobial action soothes pain fast. Whats for dinner . Meat loaf. Camphophenique on, cold sore pain gone. Liz last hour we asked former reagan economist art laffer about the taxcutting bill. He says it is the best Christmas Gift ever. Roll tape. There is nothing wrong with bonuses, giving employees some money to invest of their own. You know, i dont understand all of this stuff. What really has happened here, ashley, is we dropped the rate from 35 to 21 . That means every dollar of gross profits, instead of getting 65 cents, youre getting 79 cents. You add into it the highest person fall income tax rate is lowered. Passthrough rates have been lowered. 100 expensing, you have territoriality. This is best Christmas Present we have ever gotten. Everyone will benefit from this thing. Everyone will. Ashley all right. Take a look at amazon. Says it shipped five billion items worldwide to prime members last year. Thats a lot. Amazon up another 13 bucks to begin the new year at 1183 per share. Up more than 1 today, amazon. The media bias against donald trump, guess what . It continues. Media Research Study says 90 of the trump coverage in the last three months has been negative. Mead yeah Research President brent bozell joins us now. Brent, i thought the tide against trump was turning maybe a little bit but apparently not . No. The numbers dont budge. Ashley yeah. We were looking at this during the campaign. It was 91 negative during the campaign. Then during the honeymoon period where things get nice, it was only 89 negative. It has fluctuated, 91, 92, 90 since then we look at it. It is rather remarkable. Almost, almost unanimously they hate this man. Ashley they do, and because of that, they will jump on anything negative they can find but they dont give him a whole lot of credit when he does get a victory, do they . No, they wont. Look at the tax debate. You just showed art laffer a minute ago. Ashley yeah. What he had to say. The media spin has been the exact opposite. Anything, any discussion they threw cold water on it. Cnn on a regular basis, whatever they could, they found something negative to say about it. Which goes a long way, by the way, in explaining why so many of the American People believe they werent getting a tax cut. Ashley well thats true, but in some perverse way, does this all play into, in President Trumps hand . That he is against the establishment, that he is against the swamp, that he is against the media, and that, and so by tweeting over the head of the media, he appeals to his base directly, and the fact theyre always negative is not really have any impact on his base . The, look, youre right. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Ashley right. The public cant stand the news media. Ashley yeah. When he goes after the news media they lost it. His base is on fire because of his attacks on the niece mid yeah. It will continue and torqued up even worse toward the end of the race. You will see one thing very interesting, when the president pushes an infrastructure bill, which is at its core, liberal, what are the media going to do . Ashley very good point. Another one for you, brent, during new years eve celebrations, cnn reveled in pot smoking from denver where marijuana is legal. That picture says it all. A gas mask full of pot smoke i guess. Is this cnn we now know and you know, people love and hate today . Cnn is trying to trademark the debauchery as its brand for new years eve coverage. I mean that quite seriously. Go back to Kathy Griffin in 2008, using obscenities live on television. Cnn said they werent going to use her and bring her back and of course they did. They started dropping fbombs. If you recall, last year she was performing simulated oral sex on the anchor during her new years broadcast. So this year theyre doing pot and getting stoned. Ashley [laughter] theyre negative and theyre stoned which is unusual. Brent bozell, great stuff as always. Brent, thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Ashley varney regular and tech watcher gene munster predictions amazon will buy who this year . Target. As a result, target shares up 3 . Liz interesting. Ashley target up to 67. 35. That is another name being thrown out there. Erie, pennsylvania, seeing more than, get this, 100 inches of snow, since christmas eve. Liz it is now 12 feet. Ashley 12 feet. Liz for the month of december. Ashley guess what. More is in the forecast. Theyre not the only ones. Well head to Weather Center next. Is this a phone . Or a little internet machine . It makes you wonder shouldnt we get our phones and internet from the same company . Thats why Xfinity Mobile comes with your internet. You get up to 5 lines of talk and text at no extra cost. So all you pay for is data. See how much you can save. Choose by the gig or unlimited. Xfinity mobile. A new kind of network designed to save you money. Call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile. Com. Liz welcome back. Much of the United States is in a deep freeze erie, pennsylvania, getting a record amount of snow and more might be coming as the east coast preps for a winter storm now on the way. Janice dean at the Weather Center. Janice. Can we send jeff flock to north florida, because north florida actually might have snow tomorrow morning. Liz wow,. Yes. It is cold enough for snow across much of the country, into a deep freeze. Recordsetting temperatures. Parts of north florida under a windchill advisory which hasnt happened in years for them. Look at these temperatures, below zero, single digits, teens, 20s, 30s, for the gulf coast. For the windchill feels worse than that dangerous cold among the Northern Plains and upper great lakes and northeast. Windchill advisories up for 200 Million People, including north florida, parts of the gulf coast as well. Then, that cold air is going to remain in place really for the next seven to 10 days with waves of arctic air moving southward. We head into monday next week, another piece of that cold arctic air will move southward. Here is the storm well be watching tomorrow and thursday. It comes very close to the i95 corridor. Still yet to be determined the exact track, but self inches of snow, really from d. C. Up towards boston, very possible, even more than that if this low trap as little bit more inland. Stay tuned. But this time tomorrow, north florida could be seeing some snow. Liz north florida . Holy toledo. Cant even escape it in florida. Great report, janice dean. Of. Love having you on. Come back soon. Comming up we have Companies Facing a big tax break. Will they be closely watched this year . Basically this is their chance to show they care about investing in america and americans. Were talking about the companies reinvesting their tax cut in their own operations. What is Bernie Sanders going to have to say about that . Coming up. Dont go away. Ashley i am Ashley Webster in for Stuart Varney, he is feeling a little under the weather. Donald trump back at the white house as the administration prepares to take on several key issues including infrastructure, Immigration Reform during his second year in office. Donald trump will meet with Republican Leaders at camp david this weekend but ahead of that meeting, a quick get together tomorrow on capitol hill, on both sides of the island was the Trump Administration will all be there. Is there any hope for bipartisanship in the new year . Dont hold your breath. The first big test of the new year will come from iran. Deadly antigovernment protests, 20 reportedly dead. The ayatollah calling the protesters, quote, enemies of iran. The price of oil holding at the 60 level. As for stocks, looking for another record year, look at the chart here. That is heading straight up to 2017, the longest monthly winning streak since february 1959. The dow 25,000 watch continues, only 200 points away. If you are feeling like a grab a lotto ticket, the combined jackpot for Mega Millions and powerball combined together, nearly 800 million. We kick off the new year with our varney allstars. The third hour of varney and company starts right now. Take a look at the big board, 340 points on the first trading day of the year. Lost about half of that up 65 points. Lets bring in jonathan koenig, capitalist Big Hedge Fund manager, that is not my own opinion, just wanted to go that out. Do we see another leg up on the market or a pullback coming ahead of that. We are due for a pullback. The Record Number of months now with even a 3 pullback. The bull market continues, many more 52week highs and lows. And given the immense run of 2017. I risk getting the buzzer but the fed will raise Interest Rates, general consensus three times this year. It is good for the banks to get more money back on the loans. Does that do anything to the overall scheme of things . The fed creates uncertainty. They told us what they are going to do in terms of policy. If i had to buy money in, behind the curve. And Interest Rate sensitive stocks like longterm bonds and preferred stocks, things that do well in periods of Interest Rates, that is the trend that is changing into 2017. Now is not the time to be betting on bonds. Ashley bit coin is down again. What do you expect from bit coin . The way this goes, more wild swings. This is a bubble, even more, bubbles dont stop going up until someone says this is not a bubble. Despite the 1500 return, we could see one more leg up before a final downturn in bit coin, this is not the end on the upside. It has gone up a lot but not brought in enough yet. Ashley you need peptobismol, General Electric, the biggest loser on the dow, can this turnaround . 1778 as we speak. Would you buy in at this level . Week stocks tend to stay week. That is the best indicator General Electric making new lows, the stock is at all low doesnt mean it is at the low, one to avoid. This is a company that wont look the same as it does 12 months from now whether it is spinoffs, acquisitions, divestitures, and heavy prescriptions and i dont think it is a turnaround. Ashley a 40 chance, does that make sense, do they buy on that news . Apple, all the money, sitting on as we know, hundreds of millions, billions of dollars of cash, the reduction in Corporate Tax rate. To put money to work. Investing, stocks, new innovations but positives, sounds amazing, could happen in 2018. Ashley great stuff. Thank you very much. Happy new year to you. The politics, keep trump off the trail in 2018. Joining us now Fox News Contributor karl rove, great to have you. I am assuming you think donald trump could actually hurt the gop during the midterms . That is one way of putting it. Another is the best way to help the republicans to do what white house if indicated in Washington Post, the president wants to spend 2018 campaigning, holding big Campaign Rallies in state after state, race after race and my point is it helps his partys cause better by staying off the campaign trail and focusing on being a good president. The midterms are always a chance for people to vote against the guy who is in power in a way to lower that is to have the president focus on doing things and making a difference in peoples lives to make the case. He can help but cant beat the positive factor. Across the finish line, and low Approval Rating stick to the candidates he campaigned for when he dries numbers up by doing a good job, all political vote in 2018. Ashley that sounds sensible indeed, those tell you more of that and the president is the president , pretty thinskinned and if you suggest his support will actually hurt the gop candidates it is a little uncertain how people react im sure there will be a slew of tweets. Can you keep them off the campaign trail . Ultimately it gets down to what they are campaigning for and when. The president can do a lot politically. He can go in now and hold fundraisers close to the press and raise a lot of money to help them in their campaigns but if he is trying to get people to have him come in and campaign for him. They are in such read republican districts, or people who have no chance of getting elected. The president of the national figure. And if he does more politically and spend more time being a president that helps drive up his numbers. Ashley one thing that could help is democrats certainly spend a lot of time opposing the tax bill. If the economy takes off and does everything the gop hopes it will that will blow up in the democrats face. As republican candidate, make a principled case for lower taxes are better for Economic Growth but these things dont happen on their own. Was not wellreceived. It has to be told. And paying attention to what it is doing to the economy. Ashley appreciate it. Happy new year to you. New laws in effect in several states, california, Recreational Marijuana is legal, the state will treat part like alcohol allowing people 21 and older to possess up to 1 ounce and grow six Marijuana Plants at home. California you should dozens of permits for retailers to begin part sales. California becoming a sanctuary state barring police from asking about their immigration status participating in federal immigration activities. In response to the new law some artists posting signs on state highways that read official sanctuary state, felons, illegals, welcome democrats, need the votes. Workers getting a pay raise, minimum wage hikes in effect in 18 states. Most of those increases are the result of Ballot Initiatives, minimum wage workers in maine will receive the biggest increase from 9 an hour to 10 an hour. Listen to this. Donald trump cutting regulatory red tape. According to one watchdog donald trump issued the lowest amount of federal red tape and a quarter century. More on that in a moment. Remember when donald trump showed this charge . Example of all the regulations that make gaining approval for Construction Projects nearly impossible . We are asking now that the tax plan passed will be easier to get those projects done. A big meeting tomorrow on capitol hill, democrat leaders, paul wright and other key congressional leaders will be there. Any hope for bipartisanship in the new year . We are asking the rnc that question next. Building a website in under an hour is easy 68 of people. Who have built their website using gocentral, did it in. Under an hour, and you can too. Type in your business or idea. Pick your favourite design. Personalize it with beautiful images. And. Youre done and now business is booming. Harriet, its a double stitch not a cross stitch build a better website in under an hour. Free to try. No credit card required. Gocentral from godaddy. Ashley much of the country remains in deepfreeze, winchell advisor, free warnings in place in south texas to canada and montana across new england and south dakota temperatures plunged to new years day, a new record low. Also monitoring potential for a big snowstorm along the east coast including new york and boston could see several inches of snow tomorrow night into thursday. Forecasters say the storm abstract is still uncertain. It could be more, it could be less. A big meeting happening tomorrow at the capital. Nancy pelosi and paul ryan among congressional leaders who will be there talking about a possible deal on immigration. Donald trump tweeting about it this morning saying, quote, democrats doing nothing, just interested in politics. Hispanics will go hard against dems, start falling in love with republicans and their president. We are about results. Kaylee, great to have you, happy new year to you. Is there hope for bipartisanship on immigration . Could a deal be worked out that will satisfy all parties . It can be of democrats come to the negotiating table, donald trump has taken a step towards democrats say i will sign a permanent fix for the aca but they need to take a step towards him and agree to funding a border wall. Giving and taking negotiation, donald trump has given a democrats only taken up to this point. Ashley do democrat support the deal . For the border wall, the end of chain migration, doing away with visa lotteries if they get that come are they prepared to compromise on the aca . Republicans have been clear, we want a permanent fix because it is worth mentioning obama denied he had power to grant daca the executive action 22 times. When he got frustrated with congress he did unconstitutionally. Republicans are seeking a constitutional fix. Ashley karl rove said moment ago donald trump should stay off the campaign trail. You agree with that . He draws crowds, excitement and energy. The heart of this party. To get the base to show up, get them to rally around republicans we need the leader of our party, and senators across the country. Ashley correlates point is the president should stay in washington and become a good president with success and his Approval Ratings too low to go into marginal races that are hotly contested and doesnt need to be emboldened. To his point he can do a better job being a better president racking up wins for gop candidates. He can do both. The president s schedule very demanding, he will have to select which races to wade into in which races are worth taking a moment to go and show up in campaign, a strategic decision. Chairwoman mcdaniel says any candidate should invite the president , ultimately a win in their column. Ashley they get the tax reform bill through, and other issues, is the time to rack up victory that of the midterm elections . Absolutely. The couple on top of what was extraordinary historic year, we havent seen in three decades, in modern president ial history, this is the time to build on that with infrastructure and bipartisan action coming to the table. Ashley thank you so much, happy new year. Donald trump having major success in red tape. Donald trump issued the lowest amount of federal red tape and a quarter century last year, it was 35 less then president obama in his last year in office, donald trump has made cutting regulations a central part of his presidency. He signed an executive order the promised to kill two obama era regulations for every new ones that his team wanted. A computer glitch led to long lines were fixed, and two hours last night. And entering the us encountered big delays in jackson and at manta and customs and Border Protection hasnt said what caused the glitch but they do not believe it was malicious. California becoming an everincreasing problem, texas to immigration hanging over the state and midterm approach, we will deal with that shortly. The first supermoon arrived right on new years day. Supermoons occur when the moon is closest to the earth and appears larger in the sky. More varney ahead. Retail. Under pressure like never before. And its connected technology thats moving companies forward fast. Ecommerce. Real time inventory. Virtual changing rooms. Thats why retailers rely on comcast business to deliver consistent Network Speed across multiple locations. Every corporate office, warehouse and store near or far covered. Leaving every competitor, threat and challenge outmaneuvered. Comcast business outmaneuver. Ashley new years eve celebrations and one russian city turned chaotic after a giant Christmas Tree caught fire. The 80 foot plastic tree was destroyed in minutes and music continued to play as the tree became engulfed in flames, no word what caused the fire. No one was injured but quite a spectacle nevertheless. Samsung admitting trump customers having problems with her batteries in the galaxy phones, customers complain their phones wont turn on after the battery became drained. Samsung says limited number of phones are affected and it is working on the issue. The Powerball Jackpot revealed the ninth largest in history, no winner for saturdays 304 million jackpot, the prizes climb to 440 million. The next trying is tomorrow night. The Mega Millions jackpot sitting skylight levels is that jackpot 343 million. If you want to buy it ticket for that jackpot you better hurry. Are all your best friends remember that. The next drawing is tonight. Take a look at this. Group of people in new Zealand Built an island out of stand in order to avoid a local been on drinking in public places. And an estuary of the coast they install the picnic table and ice box for drink, the group claimed they were in International Waters and exempt from an official liquor been. The ban was put in place to cut down on excessive drinking during new years. Is that a varney thing . There are enough of them. Could be a end of the year playboy. The iconic magazine considering ending the print edition to focusing on branding and licensing, the private equity firm that owns playboy plans to put the name on more businesses including nightclubs and restaurants and to release more favorably Branded Products including perfume and jewelry. To iran the president weing this this morning, quote, the people of iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt uranian regime. All the money president obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their pockets. People have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The us is watching. Right now we are seeing oil above 60 a barrel, maybe due to us going on in iran but nothing happening in the oilfields but oil still 60 but down slightly today. We will head to the cme, jeff flock will break this down. Take a quick check of the big board, we were up 130 points, 140 out of the gate, but we lost a bit of wind in our sales, the dow 54 points, 24,773. We will have more varney next. The big board, we were about the gate up 12340 points but we lost a bit of that steam but we are up 41 points, on the dow, laggards, travelers, Procter Gamble but record highs for caterpillar and others. The dow has given up a lot and oil too has given up a little bit down . 27 down almost half of 1 but at the 60 level the deadly protests in iran, driving the oil price higher, jeff flock in chicago with more. Not the only factor but today we are poised for a pullback, the 6month oil chart, right now we are down . 27 still fighting to hold on to 60, look at that 6month oil chart and oil has been on a long run and wisdom had been we would get a pullback today, not so much, we are still above 60 and the situation in iran is fueling is at and oil reports from the eia, have not been accurate, they seem to think theres a lot less oil out there in storage than the government is reporting but traders are betting that data may be wrong, we will talk about that in the next hour or so trading at 60, the low was 6013, at the low. So there you go. Ashley jeff waving to his fans, they dont believe in the eia or anything open. Dont believe the government . Out to be. Ashley go figure, thank you very much. Joining us, moodys managing director, great to see you, your take on rising oil prices, 60, we are up to 120 so 60 no big deal. I wouldnt worry about oil at 60 a barrel. Marginal cost of production, 62 a barrel, that doesnt worry me at all. Ashley are we oil independent as the president likes to say . Just because they have street demonstrations in iran should that have a big impact on our oil prices . Less than it did in the past. The golf of hormuz doesnt matter. Ashley you did prior to fracking. Incredible to stop and think the impact of technological change, Technological Progress in the form of fracking has had not only on the economy and the price of oil the geopolitics. Ashley talking the economy what is your outlook for the year . In particular gdp growth, tax cuts coming, corporations are a big benefit of that, discussion of what they do with this, is it all systems go for the economy . This could be the first year since 2005 real gdp grows by 3 annually, pretty good shot of that happening. We will be in range of 23 4 to 3 , that is a safe bet. The important thing is we continue to improve the labor market, get faster wage and salary and income growth. Ashley how do we improve the labor market . Keep growing the economy. Just came across the data point. The net percentage of Small Businesses the plan to increase staff over the nearterm is at its highest level on record, this record begins in 1985 under ronald reagan. Optimism is flying high, businesses love this environment of less regulation. Ashley back to the tax breaks. What will happen to that many . Some companies will reinvest in stock and increased dividends but there are those that say they are going to expand. Would you like to see wage growth pick up a little bit . Could be part of it if companies expand production capabilities, that will lead to more hiring activity and faster wage growth. Ashley i want to ask you this. Will we see the minimum wage going up from yesterday onward that 18 states . What are your thoughts on that . One of the reasons the economy is doing better we are beginning to see 3 growth with site is because of deregulation, the federal government taking his hand off the us economy. We have a vacuum here and state governments trying to regulate smaller businesses by hiking the minimum wage, current rate of growth is to at half , these minimum wage increases range between 41 2 to 7 . If you mandate wage increases at a rate that is double, triple that of the underlying rate of growth for wages you will end up with fewer entrylevel jobs. Ashley there is proof of that that other states have done this, these are Ballot Initiatives and when you ask do they want the minimum wage to go a people say yes so it is difficult to argue against. These people see the economy is a 0 sum game, dont understand how the labor market works, how important it is to provide an opportunity for somebody who didnt go to the best college to at least get into the labor market, get a job, develop skills and expand and grow. Ashley thank you very much. Happy 2018. I am encouraged. 52 in london, england. Ashley balmy london, thank you very much. This headline is an opinion piece in the wall street journal, quote, too many flags in trumps first quarter, joining us the author of that piece, ari fleischer, to explain, you are saying what . Too many errors in the first year . He has done a great job moving the ball down the field when you look at the economy, some of the outright ways to measure president s gdp growth, low unemployment, stock market but then he keeps moving backwards because of what i call unnecessary roughness penalties was when he moves forward seems like he tweets something, says something that causes him to get a penalty thrown and moves backward that is a problem if you are donald trump. So many opportunities but penalties too. Ashley as you know, donald trump is donald trump and you can tell him dont tweet or dont do something but that will just encourage him to do it more because he likes to tweet because it goes directly to his base, the media cant get their head around it and his base kind of likes that irreverence. My argument is theres nothing wrong with tweets. Im all around for donald trump going around the Mainstream Media but tweet smarter. There are times he has made inflammatory tweets and statements that only serve to hurt himself and that is my point. I try to examine why president with so many things happening in the economy has such a low Approval Rating is what the impact will be in 2018 and 2020 and my conclusion is he has made himself too hot to handle. Despite the good in the economy there is too much personal disavowal of donald trump among many people in the middle who he is capable of getting and winning and i want them to win those people, important for republicans in the nations future governing in a way he becomes positive. Stuart ashley do you think from day one to today he has learned anything and has gotten better in some ways or not . I think you can find periods of discipline, you saw that when he was asked about north korea over the holidays at mara lago when he said we will see, he didnt take the bait and get into a fight with north korea on new years eve. He does have moments when he does that. I would like to see those moments last longer because i am encouraged by what is going on, created a Strong Economy the fact that we are going to jesus 3 gdp growth, a huge change and that is how your middle income workers but my biggest fear is the economy comes roaring back, low income workers and middleincome workers all get salary increases but donald trump and republicans get no credit for it because the president is too radioactive outside the base. Ashley midterms are not that far away, great stuff, thanks for joining us. And now this. Numbers on real estate, new study shows us home values stored reach researching 32 trillion, a new record. Texas helped lead the charge with dallas, fort worth houston Housing Market seeing the biggest increases in home values would analysts attribute this to an influx of families and Companies Moving from high tax states like california. That may continue. Speaking of california becoming an everincreasing problem for the republicans from taxes to immigration hanging over the status midterms approach, we deal with that shortly. Do you remember when donald trump showed this chart which spoke volumes, an example of all the regulations that may gaining approval for Construction Projects nearly impossible. We are asking companies now that the tax plan has passed, will it be any easier thanks to deregulation . We will be right back. snap achoo achoo feel a cold coming on . Zicam cold remedy nasal swabs shorten colds with a snap, and reduce symptom severity by 45 . Shorten your cold with a snap, with zicam. Well, itsonce again. Eason yeah. Lot of Tech Companies are reporting today. And, hows it looking . I dont know. Theres so many opinions out there, its hard to make sense of it all. Well, victor, do you have something for him . Check this out. Td ameritrade aggregates thousands of earnings estimates into a single data point. That way you can keep your eyes on the big picture. Huh. Feel better . Much better. Yeah, me too. Wow, you really did a number on this thing. Sorry about that. Thats alright. I got a box of em. Thousands of opinions. One estimate. The earnings tool from Td Ameritrade. I am nicole pedallides with your foxbusiness brief. Star wars fans can rejoice because star wars was number one in 2017 right at the end of the year, the last jedi wins 2017 collecting 68 million over the four day weekend, surpassing rogue one, expected to lag behind the force awakens in 2015, rogue one did so well and so did the last jedi, last jedi, you can see stock is higher by 21 2 , the last jedi is the eighth highest gross domestic film of all time. Certainly a winner for disney which is helping keep the dow in positive territory today. Ashley the today show named its coanchor who will anchor alongside Savannah Guthrie who has been filling in since matt lauer was fired over Sexual Misconduct allegations with this morning at announcement makes it official, the today so seen its ratings rise since matt lauer was fired. Corporations will be under pressure to make Big Investments because of the gop tax plan. Joining us is catherine munson, a regular guest of the show. A lot has been said about the tax reform bill. You are more in the Small Business arena and if that is true. Absolutely right. Ashley did you get enough out of his tax bill to make you happy . I have to tell you this is a real exciting taxcut, it will help american businesses particularly Small Businesses that have been held up by a burdensome tax code for 30 years. Maybe i wouldve liked to have seen more benefit for Small Businesses. Section 199, 20 deduction is a good step in the right direction. There is a lot of complexity behind it but any tax cut is a good tax cut, more money left over by the end of the data reinvest and grow their businesses. Ashley what do you do with those savings . Do you reinvest, expand, create more jobs, raise wages, what do you think is the best course for the extra money at hand . Every Business Owner will make their own decision. For myself, that lower tax rate for us will give us more money to invest, hire more employees or pay higher wages and that when i look at franchisees, 600 and the United States, 90 of them are passthrough entities talking about these tax savings allowing them to buy a new piece of equipment putting people to work that make the equipment, higher than normal employees operating the equipment, and more employees and grow their businesses as the number of jobs increase there will be more demand for workers meaning wages will go up. This is a fantastic, progrowth tax cut that will raise wages of all americans because there will be more job growth good for everybody. Ashley that was the selling point for the gop that those on the left are going to be watching like a hawk and if they dont see that reinvestment, they are convinced this is a tax break for the rich and that money will not trickle down or have an impact on the overall economy how would you answer that . They are probably going to be looking for that but a year from now, two years from now when the economy is booming, Wages Authority voters are happy about that. The gops message was right. We shall see as they say, the proof of the putting in all of that. Thank you, really appreciate it. Three dow stocks, hit alltime highs earlier on this first day of trading in 2018. The dow as we have been pointing out has pulled back, lost their earlier gains. Now to california, becoming a problem for the republicans from taxes to immigration. The golden state not so golden. We will deal with the next. Building a website in under an hour is easy with gocentral. From godaddy in fact, 68 of people who have built their. Website using gocentral, did it in under an hour, and you can too. Build a better website in under an hour. With gocentral from godaddy. Thats it. Im calling kohler about their walkin bath. Nah. Not gonna happen. My name is ken. How may i help you . Hi, im calling about kohlers walkin bath. Excellent happy to help. Huh . Hold one moment please. [ finger snaps ] hmm. The kohler walkin bath features an extrawide opening and a low stepin at three inches, which is 25 to 60 lowr than some leading competitors. The bath fills and drains quickly, while the heated seat soothes your back, neck and shoulders. Kohler is an expert in bathing, so you can count on a deep soaking experience. Are you seeing this . The kohler walkin bath comes with fully adjustable hydrotherapy jets and our exclusive bubblemassag. Everything is installed in as little as a day by a kohlercertified installe. And its made by kohler americas leading plumbing brand. We need this bath. Yes. Yes you do. A kohler walkin bath provides independence with peace of min. Call for a free kohler nightlight toilet seat with consultation. Or visit kohlerwalkinbath. Com for more info. Ashley the gop may have a california come midterm elections, several of the president s policies dont sit well with those residents in california. Joining us politics editor chris firewall. Republicans in california are a rare breed anyway but those that are on the republican side to do claim to come from california life is tough especially when you do away with state and local taxes. For sure. We should point out this is not new republicans, the schwarzenegger governorship, the 1990s were the beginning of the end for a viable Republican Party in california, then they switch their system in california, digital primary, top two finishers in every primary balloting go on, increasingly you see democrats facing democrats in general elections, not much room, no country for the grand old party. Ashley you have high taxes and the sanctuary state. There is a sense of a movement out of california elsewhere, maybe texas, to a low tax state, does that have political ramifications for democrat leaders in california . It has ramifications for democrats in california and republicans in texas. One of the things when people move to texas, they take advantage of texass climate and all that resmed as but they bring their politics when they arrive so talk to people who work in a tech startup in austin who have come from all over the country will be voting like people in california or massachusetts or those places and that is a consideration for texas putting out for your question is how long is it sustainable . The weather is so good, that life is so good they have been able to cover a lot of sins. Do they reach a Tipping Point where people get frustrated . Ashley it was a state that elected Arnold Schwarzenegger and ronald reagan. There is history there. There is an exterior is republican in california, when you have missed enough times in a row, your base, your voters become despondent, they quit participating, democrats see it in the deep south and places like that. Republicans miss long enough they became disheartened. Now the danger for republicans is in those enclaves, house seats republicans hold in the state, they are looking at 4 or 5 or 6 of those falling away in 2018 and those are seats republicans, may not matter governor politics but there is a great deal for the majority in the house. Ashley one point offtopic, we had karl rove on earlier who wants donald trump to stay away from the campaign trail for the midterms. Would you agree with karl rove on that . Generally yes but there are places where trump could be helpful to a specific candidate in specific places. We end up with 12 or 15 senate races and governorships. Them in places where donald trump can help. When it is your first midterm as president that is where it goes. Ashley have tax reform success if they get another couple under their belt. There is muchneeded momentum going into those midterms. Passing stuff does not always make you more popular and republicans have to see how the taxcut works, see how that goes. It does not equal positive voter response. Ashley hard for democrats to argue against. Happy new year to you. More varney after this. Ashley and now this. North Korean Leader kim jongun extending, well, a possible olive branch to south korea ahead of next months Winter Olympics. Emac . Ashley president tweeting out, rocket man wants to talk to south korea for the first time. Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not. Sanctions and other pressures are beginning to have impact on north korea. Soldiers are fleeing. South korea is suggesting having talks ahead of the olympics as possibly ashley they responded. Liz south korea may sit down for the first time. North korea sent two figure skaters to, to south korea for the olympics there. Is debate that going on. Lindsey graham says if that happens that would basically legitimatize an illegitimate regime. He is against that. Ashley maybe the talk from the president is having impact. Liz he says sanctions and other pressures having impact. Ashley this story not given enough attention, it is lizzie macdonalds birthday today. Happy birthday to you. Liz thank you so much. Ashley january 2nd liz i get christmas reject presents, closet full of potpourri, scented cancandles. Im waiting for my olive garden pasta pass. Neil happy birthday, lizzie, i have your Hickory Farms meat of the month. The gift that keeps on giving. Thank you very much. Dow in celebration of lizzies birthday pushing towards 25k. It is off earlier highs in the day. There. Is lot of back and fourth about the very busy congressional agenda. They have a lot to do, folks, before january 19th. You know the drill. Well presumably be out of money they because of deadlines they put up something, but sometimes it is not worth putting up. Adam s