production is sending natural gas prices lower. now down about 40% from their october peak. at the same time, your other gas bill, the one at the pump, is also stabilizing. after a relentless crime, recent drops in crude oil prices, they're translating now at the pump. the average per gallon is at a seven-week low, 3.34 per gallon. down about a nickel in just the past few weeks. cooling energy costs if they last offer critical relief for household budgets. we're going to get another read on inflation later this week, but in terms of just that real feel indicator of driving your car or heating your home, a little bit of relief here. >> do we know why gas prices have dropped? is there -- i imagine it's not a simple answer. >> you're right. >> is there a main driver here? >> it's a big global oil market, and it crashed last year when we stopped driving and our factories shutdown. now as we're revving back up, those prices went up. now we're starting to adjust a little bit here. supply is starting to catch up a little bit better with demand. we'll watch this pretty closely here, but i think the peak for the year might be in in terms of gas prices. >> all right. that is certainly good news for the consumers. all right. turning now to the capitol riot investigation, and this cnn exclusive reporting here, the january 6 committee has subpoenaed the phone and text records of more than 100 people including former trump associates and officials like former white house chief of staff mark meadows. phone providers have already handed over some of what's known as the meta data. it's not the actual contents, but it includes the date, the time, the length of the messages. meadows himself has already provided reams of documents to the committee. >> his lawyer said he has decided to stop cooperating. if he doesn't show up for a scheduled deposition, they will move for contempt referral to the justice department. >> it's ridiculous that he is now having refusing to answer questions about it. he needs to come in. if he defies the law, then i don't think we have a lot of choice but to refer this to the house to refer to the department of justice. >> we will evaluate whether, after he shows up or doesn't show up, what the next steps are. but clearly as the chairman and vice chair cheney indicated, we're prepared to hold him in contempt if he doesn't show. >> we get more now from cnn's ryan nobles on capitol hill. >> reporter: laura, chris tiechristine, the committee thought they made progress in their negotiations with meadows and his attorney for him to come forward and provide information about what he knew about the january 6 riots. he had already supplied them with thousands of documents, and they were hoping that this information would help them to glean more information. but meadows has had second thoughts. in the letter to the committee, he expressed a reservations about what may or may not be covered under the executive privilege as part of that interview. he suggested, perhaps, that he may invoke his 5th amendment privilege. he expressed concern about the fact the committee had requested phone records for not only him, but for others that are connected to this investigation. now, the committee is obviously frustrated by the fact that they've run into roadblocks with not just mark meadows, but jeffrey clark, steve bannon and others. but they have also expressed some optimism that even though there is this small group that's been resistant, that they are still getting cooperation with a lot of other individuals. listen to what adam schiff told me last night. >> we have interviewed in excess of 250 people. these are the outliers. now, these outliers still have very important information, so i don't want to minimize the fact that we should hear from them. we're going to do everything we can. but nonetheless, the fact that we are moving with expedition to hold them accountable is already bearing results with others. >> reporter: there is, of course, a time line that this committee is working under. and they did receive the news that the criminal prosecution, the trial of steve bannon won't take place until july 18th. now, that does not leave them much time if they hope to wrap this investigation up before the midterm elections. and there is a belief here on capitol hill that they do need to get it done before the midterms because if republicans were to take back control of the house, it's likely that this committee's investigation would come to an end. laura and christine? >> ryan nobles on capitol hill. thank you for laying all of that out. let's bring in former federal prosecutor michael zelden, host of the podcast. help me out here. what is meadows up to? we report last week that he is cooperating. the exact contours of that were never clear. now all of a sudden after providing 6,000 pages of documents voluntarily, he says, no, i'm actually not going to cooperate, after we also learned that the house has subpoenaed all of their phone records. what do you think is going on? >> well, i think that he's really falling back on his original position, which is trump asserted executive privilege. y i don't want to defy trump. so i'm going to stand silent until the executive privilege claim is litigated in the courts. and we know now that december should be the date when the court of appeals rules on that executive privilege claim. >> and we'll see whether he complies after that or whether he still tries to fight it and tries to say, actually, my position vis-a-vis is different because bannon was a former white house aide. i was actually there on january 6. let's put that aside for a second. the committee says they still have questions for meadows. his attorney, george terwilliger, a very well known defense attorney, said i would like to answer written questions, or my client would like to. i'm sure that's true. you can imagine a host of reasons why it would be easier to have lawyer-answered questions. why would the committee ever go for that, though? >> they shouldn't. and if we've learned anything from the mueller investigation is you don't let people like meadows or trump answer in written form because, as you said, the lawyers write the answers. they are very obscure sort of non-transparent answers. and you don't get any value from it. so i don't think the committee is going to fall for terwilliger's office. >> where do you see this going? just taking a step back, we're almost a year out from january 6 now. i just wonder do you feel like the committee is making enough progress for the american people to really get down to the bottom of what happened that day? the highest level person that seems to be cooperating right now is marc short, somebody obviously intimately, you know, can speak to where pence was on that day, the pressure that he was under. do you see enough progress really being made or all the delay tactics working? >> well, yes and no. these types of investigations require a link analysis where you put together the various parts of it in sort of a spider web of information. and from that you can distill what happened. so what they're getting here, especially with the meta data from those phone records, they're learning who spoke to who and when. they don't know the content, but they know the communication pattern. and from that you can really distill down to the essence of what's going on here, and then hopefully at some point when this executive privilege falls by the wayside, then these individuals will come in and fill in the missing parts. so i think, laura, they are getting what they need to get at this early stage and then hopefully in a little bit more time they'll get to the heart of the matter. >> yeah, for folks at home the meta data is critically important. as you said, it can show sort of the temporal links, who was talking to who regularly, and then they can be more targeted perhaps in their requests for more information. michael, thank you for all being here to make sense of it all. >> my appreciator. >> appreciate it. thank you. breaking overnight, police say they have arrested a man who set a christmas tree outside the fox news studios in manhattan on fire. you can see from the video a fully decorated tree going up in flames. the fire broke out just after midnight. firefighters were able to put out that blaze. no injuries reported, and you know, no word at this hour on a motive. we'll bring you more details as we get them. >> very scary. glad everyone is okay. all right. still ahead for you, president biden warning vladimir putin things we did not do in 2014, we are prepared to do now. more to come on this pivotal call between the two world leaders next. enjoying chocolate cake. now, she can have her cake anand eat it too. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? it's the winter jewelry sale. get 25% off everything. ♪ ♪ this is how 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call in the white house situation room. president biden warning russian president vladimir putin that if he invades ukraine, the consequence would be severe. this video conference lasting two full hours. jake sullivan said mr. biden looked putin in the eye and said the things u.s. did not do in 2014 when russia seized crimea from ukraine, quote, we are prepared to do now. >> we still do not believe that president putin has made a decision. what president biden did today was layout very clearly the consequence if he chooses to move. he also laid out an alternative path and ultimately we will see in the days ahead through actions, not through words, what course of action russia chooses to take. >> sullivan says that the president made the cost of an invasion clear to putin. he warned the u.s. would provide additional military equipment to ukraine and nato allies in the area as well as impose a range of painful economic sanction. >> all right. let's put this all in perspective with dave sanger, cnn national security analyst. thank you for joining us bright and early this morning. the president making clear that should russia invade ukraine, the response would be greater than it was in 2014. of course, after the annexation of crimea. do you think the call was enough to hold off putin from invading ukraine? do we have any sense of what his motive is here, putin's motive is for massing those troops near the border? >> good morning to both of you. it's a great question, because the troops could be there to invade, or the troops could be there to get joe biden's attention to say that putin will no longer tolerate ukraine's very strong drift to the west. this is, of course, being a recurring issue throughout the post cold war era because putin has always believed, as many russians do, that ukraine is rightly a part of russia and never should have been independent. so there are a couple of possibilities here. one is that when the ground freezes and the tanks actually could roll between russia and ukraine over that marshy border, that he'll do that. the second option which might be a little more likely is that they are there both to get our attention and to give the cover for an effort to destabilize the ukrainian government with this information. >> david, in a matter of 24 hours, the president confronted two of, let's call it two of the more complicated relationships we have, both russia and china, after announcing this diplomatic boycott of the beijing winter olympics. what do you make of the president's clear push here against uh autocracys? >> he said in his time in office as far back in march, the struggle of our time would be autocracy and democracy. the test was whether democracies could deliver. and this was in a time when, of course, it looked like some of the autocracys were doing better on covid. the bigger question implicit in your observation, your accurate observation that we are once again at odds with our two biggest geopolitical adversaries fits into this washington debate about whether we're slipping back into cold war, or cold war-like behavior, even though the era is quite different. and i think the events of the past couple of days would make you think that we're going to spend the next few years really focused on dealing with these two adversaries. >> yeah, incredibly important situation with both of those, both of those adversaries. and a president who has got a lot of foreign policy chops, and now he's going to be able to -- try to show the world he can use them in this situation. >> a lot of chops and a lot of troubles. >> exactly. david sanger, thank you so much. >> thanks, david. >> great tosh with you. in just a few hours, closing arguments will begin in the trial of former empire actor jussie smollett. and in new york, more horrific details in this ongoing trial of ghislaine maxwell. what one survivor says maxwell did to her when she was 14 years old. fewer asthma attacks. nucala is a once-monthly 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expected to start later today. cnn's sarah sidner has more on the story from chicago. >> reporter: christine and laura, fireworks in the courtroom as jussie smollett took the stand for a second day. he has maintained his innocence throughout, but he is charged with six counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly perpetrating a fake hate crime against himself, blaming it on trump supporters, and then lying to police about it. he says he is innocent of all charges, but prosecutors trying to poke holes in his testimony on several different levels. today they looked at a particular piece of testimony and video. the video of him in the news. the prosecutor asked him if he had taken that noose off and put it back on when police came to his door. smollett said he had done that, but taken off the noose and put it back on. not to show the crime was particularly egregious that someone tried to lynch him, but he said he was doing it because he wanted to make sure that he was preserving evidence as he was told by a colleague to do. the prosecution saying, well, if that is the case, then why did you say this to abc "good morning america"? >> so, when the police came, i kept the clothes on. i kept the rope -- >> so you had the rope on the entire time? >> it wasn't like wrapped around, but yeah, it was around, because i wanted them to see. i wanted them to see what this was. >> reporter: smollett acknowledged what he said during that interview, but did not acknowledge the inconsistencies with what he testified to during the trial. and then there is the issue of the osundaiaro brothers, one of whom was smollett's trainer. they testified that, indeed, they were hired by smollett in order to carry out this fake attack on him. smollett responded to what they had said on the stand, calling the two of them liars. christine, laura? >> sarah sidner in chicago, thank you. in new york, more disturbing testimony at ghislaine maxwell's sex trafficking trial. a familiar pattern is emerging here. young women lured into giving massages to this wealthy financier, only soon to be caught up in a web of abuse. a third accuser now testifying tuesday that when she was 14, maxwell inspected her body, giving her approval for jeffrey epstein and his friends. we get more on this trial from cnn's kara scannell. >> reporter: a woman testified that when she was 14 years old, ghislaine maxwell touched her naked breasts, her hips, and her buttocks just before she gave jeffrey epstein a massage. she alleged that maxwell told her she had a great body for epstein and his friends. the alleged victim who testified using only her first name carolyn is the third accuser to appear at the trial. maxwell has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. carolyn testified that she was introduced to epstein and maxwell by virginia roberts, another young woman who told her she could be paid hundreds of dollars in cash for giving epstein massages. carolyn testified beginning when she was 14, and until she was 18 years old, she gave epstein over 100 massages. seeing him two to three times a week, each time she was paid at least $300 in $100 bills. in details and at times emotional testimony, carolyn said that initially she wore her underwear during the pmassages, but ultimately took the clothes off. it included sexual activity every single time. sometimes she testified they turned into group sex involving a mix of epstein, his friends, or other women. she also said she told maxwell and epstein her true age because they wanted her to travel to epstein's caribbean island, and she said her mother would never let her leave the country. in addition to cash, carolyn also received gifts, lingerie from victoria's secret and concert tickets. epstein asked her to bring friends her age or younger but she told him she didn't hang out with younger people. she did bring three friends around her age and was paid $600 for those massages. she said the massages stopped when she was about 18 years old, after the birth of her son when epstein asked again if she had any younger friends. he said i became too old, she testified. carolyn said she was called by maxwell and others to set up some of these appointments to give epstein a massage, but she acknowledged she initiated some of them on her own. she was young and $300 was a lot of money. she said that she used that money to buy drugs to block out her experiences during the massages. prosecutors said they expect to rest their case this week. christine, laura? >> cara, thank you so much for that. all right, good news for american workers. come the new year, you could be in for a raise. i don't just play someone brainy on tv - i'm an actual neuroscientist. and i love the science behind neuriva plus. unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, please! neuriva. think bigger. when it comes to autism, finding the right words can be tough. finding understanding 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is intra-cellular therapies. the best things america makes are the things america makes out here. the history she writes in her clear blue skies. the legends she births on hometown fields. and the future she promises. when we made grand wagoneer, proudly assembled in america, we knew no object would ever rank with the best things in this country. but we believed we could make something worthy of their spirit. all right, good wednesday morning. this is "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm laura jarrett. it's about 31 minutes past the hour here in new york. >> the house has passed a new debt ceiling plan. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell cut a deal with the democrats to create a one-time fast track process allowing the dems to raise the simple majority. the house passed that new legislation in a 222-212 vote. the measure now goes to the senate. cnn's daniela diaz joins us live from capitol hill. good morning, daniela. does this fast track plan have an expiration date? >> reporter: it does, christine. the way this legislation is written, which is folded into a bigger bill on medicare, it expires january 15th. this deal by mcconnell and schumer would allow democrats to raise the debt ceiling without any republican support. and as you said, it passed the house last night with just one republican voting for it. that republican being adam kinzinger of illinois, and now it goes to the senate where they are likely to vote on this tomorrow. so how does this work? well, this bill would not raise the debt ceiling. this is not that bill that would do that. this bill is the process so that democrats could raise the debt ceiling with just 51 votes, which would mean they have to pass a separate bill that would do that. this bill, however, still requires ten republicans to support it when it goes to a vote in the senate. now, mcconnell has said that he is confident that this bill will have ten republicans to support it so it would break the filibuster, 60 votes total. but some republicans, more conservatives namely, of course, senator lindsey graham of south carolina, had said they don't believe ten republicans will support this bill which could be detrimental toward trying to raise the debt ceiling. but the bottom line here is, christine, that the clock is ticking. democrats and republicans need to pass this bill before, of course, sdecember 15th, which i when treasury secretary janet yellen said the nation would default on its debt. christine, you know that would have an economic catastrophe which is why they need to work on this as soon as possible. so they're trying to get this through congress as soon as possible. >> yeah, the calendar, the calendar, very cruel here for lawmakers here as we head into the end of the year. also the house last night authorized $770 billion in pentagon funding. what can you tell us about that, daniela? >> reporter: this is part of the national defense authorization act, christine, which is -- sets the priority for the pentagon spending. it's not actually a pentagon funding bill, but it does have some funding toward several issues. it was a priority for congress to pass this at least before the end of the year. you know it had been stalled in the senate because senator marco rubio had actually wanted to add an amendment that would punish china over its treatment of muslim chinese residents. however, now that it passed the house it will go to the senate and it's mandatory, of course, christine, that this pass before the end of the year. but, of course, this funding is super crucial toward pentagon funding and sets the priorities for the pentagon. >> all right, daniela diaz keeping track of all of it for us in washington. thank you. alrighty. let's do a little three questions in three minutes, shall we? let's bring in "washington post" reporter tolu. so nice to have you. mcconnell and democrats finally make a deal on the debt limit at least for now, as always kicking the can down the road. this is now the second time mcconnell has essentially had to make a deal with the democrats. what does that signal to you? what is his motivation? >> well, he does have a motivation to not let the economy tank. we're in a precarious situation with covid numbers going up, with the economy still fragile. but he has a motivation to not let his political career tank. donald trump has been attacking him over the fact that he cut a deal with the democrats a few months back. he has not let him forget that and he's tried to turn the republicans against him. he tried to figure out some way to thread the needle. we'll see if it works. he's trying to distance the republicans from this while not letting the economy tank. >> threading the needle. >> he has 60 votes to let them pass the legislation to let them pass the legislate ace by a simple majority. >> let's talk about the -- white house chief of staff mark meadows rescinded his cooperation. trump ally steve bannon looking to delay his contempt trial. is the committee's work moving fast enough given these headwinds here? >> it's tough for them to get their work done and talk about threading the needle, mark meadows seems to be on all sides of the aisle. originally saying he was going to cooperate, give a little bit of cooperation, then essentially cutting off the talks. he seems to be a man on an island because former president donald trump is not happy with his former chief of staff for cooperating or entertaining the idea of cooperating with the january 6 committee. and now that he's cut off talks he's trying to work his way back into the trump camp, but it's not clear that that's going to be able to work. and for the committee, without having, you know, some of these key voices, people who are in the room with the former president when he was making these decisions, it may be difficult for them to answer some of these key questions about what the president knew, when he knew it and what he did when the country was under attack. >> i also want to ask you about republican congressman dan crenshaw calling out members of his own party yesterday, something that only seems like five republicans basically are willing to do right now. list tone this. >> two times the members of congress, there's performance artists, there's legislators. performance artists are the ones that get all the attention. and the ones you think are more conservative because they know how to say slogans real well. >> performance artists. christine calls them bit players often because they do take up all of the oxygen. but is he simply just screaming into the void here? the bottom is the fact republicans, the vast majority of them, are still not willing to confront facts, like january 6. what are statements like that from crenshaw really do? >> not much. in part because there's not much legislating going on, especially bipartisan legislating. if you're in the minority in congress, what you do have is performance artistry where you are trying to get the attention of the news cameras, try to get the attention of the former president, and it's really become a party that's really focused on attitudes and vibes sort of being negative and being willing to attack your opponent. and that seems to be where the cache is on the right right now, especially with the former president really boosting some of these voices. not because of their legislative prowess, but because of what they're able to say and how they're -- >> and fealty to him. >> i like how crenshaw said they do slogans real well. i don't know, almost like twitter kind of bumper sticker politics just so you can get clicks and so you can raise money off of outrageous behavior. they are bit players. you have three or four names out of 400 -- oh, my god. all right. nice to see you. thank you so much. >> thanks. >> thank you. all right. 39 minutes past the hour. paychex are about to get fatter. in 2022 than at any point since the recession. highlighting a conference report due out later today, the labor market is tight. workers are job hopping for better pay. companies have to pay more to attract or retain the talent they need. retailers like the gap and big lots confirm higher pay rates are already baked into their budgets. the average company setting aside 3.9% of total payroll for wage hikes. higher wages mean bigger paychecks, but they can also raise prices for consumers if companies decide to pass those wage increases along. the biggest wage increases go to the job hoppers, by the way. if you switched jobs between august and october, you saw a median wage increase of 5.1% as opposed to 3.7% hike for those who stayed in their current job. this is an unusually large gap, but it will likely mean higher paychecks for everyone next year. to covid now and michigan shattering records for covid-19 hospitalizations and now leading the nation in per capita case rates. the state recently reported its highest 7-day average of new daily cases. more than double the rate at the end of october. the delta variant remains the biggest threat in the u.s. more than 99.9% of all cases in the u.s. still delta. and we are still learning more about the new omicron variant. researchers in south africa now raising more questions about the protection offered by the pfizer vaccine. whether the pfizer vaccine can stand up to omicron. more now on all of this from cnn's jason carroll in new york. >> reporter: christine, laura, the delta variant continues to take its toll across the country with 120,000 new daily cases reported. the midwest and northeast particularly hardhit. the highest case rates in states including michigan, minnesota, rhode island and new hampshire. the u.s. now averaging more than 1600 deaths each day, one of the highest rates in more than a month. and a troubling sign among the nation's youngest as covid cases among children rise again with 133,000 new cases last week alone. >> we have cold weather. we have holidays. we have all the kinds of things that the virus loves. and our best ability to fight that off is to take full advantage of the vaccines and also don't forget to wear your mask when you're indoors with other people. >> reporter: new polling gives insight into americans' behavior when it comes to responding to omicron. 62% of americans say they would mask up when inside in public spaces, but then you see a real disparity along political lines. 82% of democrats saying yes, they are likely to wear a mask indoors, versus 67% of independents, and 38% of republicans. christine, laura? >> thanks, jason. programming note for you here is that time of year when the stars come up to honor some of humanity's best among us, now more than ever the world needs heroes. joined anderson cooper and kelly ripa live as they name the 2021 hero of the year. the 15th annual cnn heroes all-star tribute. subbed at 8:00 p.m. eastern only on cnn. how much better? ranked #1 1 in network reliabily 16 times in a row 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today. hey, angie! you forgot your phone! hey lou! angie forget her phone again? yep. lou! mom said she could save up to $400 on her wireless bill by switching to xfinity internet and mobile. with nationwide 5g at no extra cost. and lou! on the most reliable network, lou! smart kid, bill. oh oh so true. and now, the moon christmas special. gotta go! take the savings challenge at xfinitymobile.com/mysavings or visit an xfinity store to learn how our switch squad makes switching fast and easy this holiday season. it is the end of an era. in germany overnight olaf scholz is the country's chancellor. he replaces angela merkel who chose not to run after 16 years as chancellor. he becomes official shortly when sworn in as germany's new leader. let's go to fred pleitgen. what are some of the challenges as he takes the reins from angela merkel? >> reporter: you're right, the end of a long era in germany, 16 years of angela merkel. olaf scholz stepping into some large footsteps there. there are a lot of big challenges that germany has to overcome. first and foremost, tkeeping th economy on track. and also fighting the pandemic. germany right now in a difficult situation. a lot of new coronavirus infections. quite frankly a lot of deaths as well. we have the highest death toll since february coming out today. but then, of course, you have foreign policy challenges like, for instance, the current situation there with russia and ukraine. i think one of the interesting things that we need to point out is that olaf scholz is definitely a chancellor who is very much in favor of strong transatlantic relations. he is a fan of president biden. he yesterday at a press conference once again praised biden and his new multilateralism that the u.s. president has brought to the office. obviously president biden speaking to many of the u.s.'s allies as far as ukraine is concerned. you will see strong transatlantic relations under this new government. and finally, germany now no longer has a female chancellor, but will soon have a female foreign minister from the green party. she is also very much in favor of good transatlantic relations and she's also someone who is pretty tough on russia as well, christine. >> all right, fred pleitgen for us. breaking it all down, end of an era and beginning of a new one. thank you, sir. all right, lebron james and the lakers put on a show against their rival celtics. coy wire has it all covered in this morning's bleacher report. hi, coy. >> they've won 17 championships apiece. met in the nba finals 12 times. stars coming out in l.a. including j-lo and bennah affl. he liked what he saw early. jayson tatum scored, including four three-pointers. a game high of 47. lebron james with three days of rest under his belt keeping it close with 16 of his 30 points coming in the first quarter. second half was all l.a. finally looking like they're getting some chemistry, roussel westbrook dominating the third including this vicious dunk. the lakers win 117-102 splitting the season series and getting their record a become .500 at 13 and 12. >> we had a lot of good moments torrent and we want to continue to build off of that. thursday we can clean up, but this is one of the best 40-minute games we've had so far. >> and looked like the first place nets were in danger of back to back losses for the first time this season. down by 17 to the mavericks and sharp shooting luka doncic in the third. doncic finished with 28, but james harden, kevin durant turned it on. beating doncic with a layup, 1:23 to go. seconds later k.d. hitting the faye away to put the nets away. that put them up by three for their largest lead of the night. brooklyn holds on to win 102-99. hands them their fifth straight loss. now to one of the most incredible passes you'll see with the hockey stick. put your coffee down. anaheim ducks rookie behind the goal. the puck is in the back of the net. take a look, scoops the puck over the net to sunny milano who knocks it in for an incredible alley-oop in hockey. ducks beat the sabers 2-0. and just in overnight, serena williams will not be playing in the australian open next month. the seven-time aussie champ says she's not where she needs to be physically to compete. serena hasn't played since injuring her hamstring at wimbledon over the summer. she's been stuck on 23 grand slams since 2017, one shy of tying margaret court's record. she turned 42 six months ago. we want to see her play and finally crack that record. >> absolutely. >> if anybody can, she can. i have a lot of faith this her. nice to see you. >> thanks, coy. >> let's check on cnn business this wednesday morning. looking at markets around the world, checking in on asian shares they closed higher. london opened mixed. stock futures turned mixed in the past few moments. after an omicron frequak out, t nasdaq up 3%. the biggest one-day move, a good day for tech since march. s&p 500 grossed 2%, the dow climbed 1%. investors are less fearful the new omicron variant will hurt the economy. shifting back to inflation, investors get new information on that later this week. striking workers at four kellogg cereal plants have rejected a tentative labor deal, voting to extend their two-month-long walk out. union officials say the vote by members was overwhelming. the company says it's disappointed the contract was not ratified and has no choice. at this point they will hire permanent replacement workers. the four catalog factories are in battle creek, michigan as well as pennsylvania, omaha and memphis. they produced some of the most popular cereals including corn flakes, frosted flakes, fruit loops. two long lost sisters managed to find each other once again. their reunion the result of a perfect accident. both signed up for ancestry.com and they were a perfect gentlemgenetic match. that was nearly two years ago. covid like everything else kept them apart. their first face to face meeting came at the denver airport. >> you do look like me. >> i do? >> yeah. i can't believe how much you look like mom. >> your mom? >> our mom. >> wow, harriet carter was given up for adoption at birth. their parents died decades ago, taking the secret of their sister hood with them to the grave. isn't that incredible? >> those ancestry stories -- >> you never know what you're going to find. the good and the bad in some cases. in this case very, very good. yet another billionaire has jetted into space this time around, a japanese entrepreneur. he blasted off in a capsule this morning. it will dock at 8:41 eastern time. joining him on his 12-day journey aboard the iss is russian cosmonaut alexander. the cost for the fashion mogul a mere 50 to $60 million. it's the fifth time a wealthy civilian has been launched into orbit. timely an extreme home make over for the ages. i hope you remember the story. it has stuck with us. a house in colorado springs sold for $580,000 this past summer. but let's just say it needed a little work. okay, a lot of work. it was the house from hell by a real estate agent. it was filthy. it had a freezer full of rotting meat and the walls were covered in spray paint. >> this is what it looks like now, completely transformed after nearly $200,000 remodelling and renovation. the house goes back on the market this week. location, location, location. even if it's a dump i'm telling you if it's in a good school district which this house was, we're told, real estate is just, you know, it's just the best -- >> that is the most amazing transformation i have ever seen. >> it really was the house from hell. but it looks great now. thanks for joining us. i'm christine romans. >> i'm laura jarrett. 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