we have two senators being sworn in at this hour. we have doug jones in alabama winning surprising the state. the and the minnesota governor filling the seat for two remaining years of with tina smith of al franken's term. by the time the money runs out on january 19th, we'll get into all those particulars here. how the markets adjust to that or not adjust to that. we take it as a foregone conclusion it will all be done. sometimes that doesn't work out that way. we have charlie gasparino. lee carter, and shelby holiday. shelby, there is a lot to do. i was surprised the sheer number of things. really if you want to include every single item they like to get done, both parties, about a dozen items. most are around immigration. most are around to keep government lights on but can they get that done by the 19th? >> some are necessary and some self-imposed deadlines. president trump says he wants to get this done and president trump given congress quite a few did he lines as well. it may still hit them but they absolutely have to fund the government. today is a big test of president's trump "the art of the deal." over the past year he used a gop majority to get a lot of what he wants. like tax reform. now he needs 60 votes in the senate and probably some in the house, because you have deficit hawks. neil: he will have more problems with republican. >> yeah. >> there is no question, republican party is fractured. the democrat party is it a party of resist right now. so, what's going to happen? everybody needs to understand despite the fact that there is resist moment movement, despite the fact republicans can't seem to get themselves on the same page, american people are asking to get these things done. american people are tired of the gridlock. they're tired of the fighting every time you see the news. they're tired of criticism of each other. they want to get things done in interest of the people. neil: they felt that way more than 10 years. >> there is no question. >> 200 years. >> why they have so many non-traditional candidates wins because there is hope somebody will do things differently. donald trump ran on the "art of the deal." we are going to negotiate. we'll get things done. that resonated with the american people. we'll see that kind of candidate is the kind of candidate that will resonate. neil: i don't want to jump on you. you're looking at vice president pence in his role as president of the senate. you're seeing joe biden with doug jones the alabama upset winner, first democrat since howell heflin. that was a few decades ago. he had clerked with him. let's listen in. >> please raise your right hand and prepare to respond. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic, that bear truth faith and allegiance to the same? do you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, that you well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you god? >> i do. >> i do. >> congratulations. [applause] neil: all right. this is formality. doug jones being sworn in as senator right now. that narrows the republican margin in the united states senate to 51-49 from fifth two- 48. that is a pretty narrow margin. >> thought it was interesting joe biden was there. is there reason for that? neil: they like him? >> maybe running for president and doug jones may be the vice-presidential candidate. you never know. jones is considered a more moderate democrat. he is from the south. would make a interesting ticket, northeast moderate liberal with southern moderate. neil: jones maybe he asked the vice president? maybe they have a history. they to back aways. >> getting back to the original question about 2018, two interesting stories. i think the markets will blow off all the stuff about shutting down the government and everything. here is the thing, when the obama administration in there there was more than theoretical chance that the obama administration in a government shutdown, right, when you don't have a budget, allegedly, they would stiff the bondholders to pay welfare and everything else. there was more than theory. they actually threatened that. the markets got a little freaky on that. this administration they will not stiff, they will stop other payments but pay bondholders first. from a market standpoint, it will not be a big deal. the markets keep going up. there may be a correction. they like this tax plan. we'll see how the individual side affects people that was a little more messy. there are some people getting tax increases based on this plan and -- neil: the narrow margins change things? >> i think -- neil: pretty busy agenda. >> yeah. here is where it gets really interesting, neil, in 2018, if the economy keeps improving and donald trump does not get favorability bounce out of that, and you get 2018 midterms, democrats clean up the house, here's. here's where it gets interesting, that is where you see impeach hearings. you will see it. they will control, the democrats will control -- neil: i don't think that will happen. >> it will. neil: i could be going against the grain. >> obstruction. neil: i don't think republicans will lose that many seats. >> they need to start running on their -- neil: here is what i'm basing it on. i have no dog in this fight. i think impact of tax cuts, particularly corporations might continue to do what we've seen southwest and american add to today, providing 1000-dollar bonuses, on top of relief, modest as it is with individual, that will resonate more than we appreciate, maybe safe republican's bacon in the house. what do you think? >> i think there is no question, democrats favorability is down as much as republicans favorability is down. there is nothing certain, just because the president's favorability is low -- >> not just low -- >> it is record low i get it. >> it is in the crapper low. neil: you're sad. >> democrats don't have a sure thing. >> i agree. neil: i get nervous with the consensus, right? when the consensus overwhelmingly says this will happen -- >> midterms always bad to the party in power. neil: not always. forge bush in his first midterm, they gained seats. you're right, most of the time that is the case. >> we're assuming smooth sailing here on out. we don't know geopolitically with could happen. we saw a nuclear button. market shrugged it off. if there is nuclear catastrophe, nobody will care about tax reform. >> if world end no one cares about taxes. [laughter]. neil: no, i'm dead. >> she makes a good point. my point is this. there is a lot of good things going on with the economy. it has not rebounded to the president's favoritability as much. >> are republicans capitalizing on that? are democrats capitalizing on unfavorability towards the president. >> really? what about alabama. >> come on. that was wacky case. >> i don't want to interrupt you here but i just did. we'll wait to hear from tina smith. she is the minnesota lieutenant governor will fill out by appointment of the governor in minnesota, al franken's i think two years left on his term, right? she will fill the term. that is the next thing we're waiting for as role of president of the senate. vice president pence will do the honors. meantime you probably heard orrin hatch is looking to retire, longest-serving republican senator in american history. mitt romney is looking presumably at that position. rand paul is saying, i don't know about mitt. he might not be conservative enough. i want you to listen to this even if mitt romney were to run you wouldn't be surprised if others decided to challenge him. >> no. in fact my good friend mike lee, went up took on a sitting senator out there. a lot of time their primary is actually a convention where only couple thousand people. so a lot of times conservatives have a bigger impact in utah than many places because the conservative activists are the ones a lot of times show up for their conventions. neil: do you think mitt romney is a conservative? >> well, i think that you know, there were people who said that, you know, obamacare was based on romneycare in massachusetts. i would say some aspects, particularly of romneycare, are really aspects of big-government health care that might not fit real well with conservatives in utah. we'll see. neil: he didn't have one good word to say about mitt romney. think about it, go back in history, richard nixon was supposed to waltz into the governor's presidential mansion after losing the presidential race. he lost that race. you don't have dick nixon to kick around anymore. pat brown won this. maybe we're getting our skis ahead here that might not be the case. >> no question we're getting ahead of ourselves. you have to look at this as marketing campaign. i don't know what mitt romney's value proposition is right now. will he be a fighter against the president? will he be a fighter for the people? will he not be a foyter at all? will he be just about traditional values. neil: he is popular in utah. >> is trump popular in utah? >> he won by a large margin in utah. >> is he popular right now? i'm not on the ground in utah. listen, he will raise a lot of money. spencer wick, old right-hand man from presidential days will raise a lot of money. he will have the infrastructure. so did jeb bush, which i don't know. romney has taken stances against trump. he actually, when trump started endorsing and campaigning for roy moore he came out against him. he has drawn big lines in the sand. neil: they have come a long way from that secretary of state. >> i don't know if average you taught verier likes or don't like trump. if they don't like trump they may hold their nose. neil: watered down because of the experience have in the past, could be tilted very, very conservative. even party luminaries could be forced out. that is how mike lee came to power. do you envision any problems? i don't at this point. i've been talking to a source to romney, romney had staff picked out. he is ahead of the game. he will raise tons of money. we don't have foreseeable challengers. the guy bannon wanted running at this point he is not not game. >> bannon's record is pretty lousy. >> that is one thing that would challenge him. >> that whole segment. that is another story for 2018. where does bannon come out? >> he lost a lot of power. i don't see him running a credible challenger to romney. neil: do you see a situation, say romney does get to the senate from utah, the president and he had a bit of a fractious relationship, the secretary of sit position notwithstanding. he has to be careful that his niece is running the republican national committee. i don't think they want to agitate each other, right? >> well i don't know if they want to and can't help themselves or what the situation is because i think they just get under each other's skin. neil: me and gasparino. we like each other. >> but i gave you a shirt. neil: can't tell you what it says. >> they both bring to the table this idea we're businessman that can be pragmatists and come in. they approach things very, very different. they can't help but ignite. >> the intangible is trump, right? every time you see the great economic numbers and he give as good speech or looks presidential he does something insane and party starts worrying about it. neil: even yesterday taking credit for -- >> i have a very, aviation, no accidents. >> you have a lot to brag about. why know why you muddy it with tweets. >> how did that pop in his head? neil: we got numbers out. it was the safest year for airline travel ever. >> he keep as list of achievements of all he says, he says if i don't tell story of all good stuff happening nobody else will because there is so much negative coverage. >> he says his hair is real. >> i believe that. >> i believe it. neil: could you be a bigger idiot? >> i'm sorry. you agree secretly. neil: that is his hair. >> he has a beautiful grandson, eric trump ap's son. his hair seems to be growing in the same way as the president's. neil: his son barron is nine feet tall. >> i like his kids. neil: well, that is terrific. >> all the news fit to print. neil: you know, exactly, shelby, says i'm not doing this again. i'm so not doing it. no, i don't know. meantime we have the dow up 48 1/2 points. we are waiting for the other democratic senator who won't affect the math. al franken was democrat. democratic governor of minnesota appoints a successor who was a lieutenant governor, who will be there along with walter mondale of minnesota. along with former vice president of the united states in 1984 candidate for president. didn't work for him, but right now walter mondale will be there to do the honors with minnesota's latest political star, a little more after this. retail. under pressure like never before. and it's connected technology that's moving companies forward fast. e-commerce. real time inventory. virtual changing rooms. that's 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. ♪ neil: sometimes i don't know where to go with stuff like this when the president uses about the nuclear button and whose is bigger, i naturally go to adam shapiro at white house with the latest. take it away, my friend. reporter: well we are waiting for the lunch to begin between not only the president but the vice president, general mattis, rex tillerson, and of course one of the discussions is expected to be the situation in north korea. we should point out too that it was yesterday we learned that the north koreans had re-established their telephone hotline with the south koreans, something that hadn't been in operation since 2015, and presumably they are going to be discussing about the potential for a north korean dellgation to head to south korea for the winter olympics. but it is the nuclear threat that everybody is on edge about and it has to do not only with the north korean leader talking about the fact that he has a nuclear button but president trump's response to that which he tweeted, quote, north korean leader kim jong-un just sated that the nuclear button is on his desk at all times. will someone from his depleted and food-starved regime please inform him i have a nuclear button but it is much bigger and more powerful one than his, and my button works. kellyanne conway was on fox earlier this morning talking about the president's response to north korea. here's what she said. >> our position on north korea has never changed. he continues to apply maximum pressure. north korea must denuclearize the peninsula region and we're very happy there seems to be a more unified international effort in this regard in that pursuit. reporter: again that lunch that the president is having with rex tillerson and general mattis as well as the vice president certainly expected to be one of the big topics of discussions. neil, back to you. neil: shah very much, adam shapiro at the white house. now the president is going tit-for-tat on this whole nuclear rhetoric. some say putting us potentially in harm's way when he ups the rhetoric himself. senior fellow at the hudson institute, rebecca heinrichs on all that. i know the president is here where he is because of his language and bluntness this is not a democrat thing or republican thing. i don't think it is wise for them to speak like this to a guy who is a certifiable nutcase in north korea. i think it ups the ante. what do you say? >> i readily admit it is uncomfortable, unsettling. i'm uncomfortable any leader of any country talks about nuclear weapons seemingly flippantly. i think what president trump has been trying to do is to communicate that the united states isn't bluffing about our willingness to use force. i will say to put this into context, president obama, president bush made veiled threats about our willingness to use military force, the strength of our military to take care of north korea. what is different about president trump of course is that he is believable. and so, but that believability is necessary if you will have a credible threat to north korea. it does seem to me to fit into his larger plan to have this pressure campaign. i understand why it makes people uncomfortable, but i think it is worth reminding folks that the real threat is the aggressor. that is north korea, kim jong-un and north korea. neil: it has a feel of "beavis and butt-head" to me, comparing button sizes, all the rest. is this the direction we want to go? if we had god forbid, another cuban missile crisis type deal, is that the way we want to start it? how do you tamp things down or is that even a goal here? >> i think at some point here you want an off-ramp. by that i mean you want the north koreans, the goal is to coerce kim in north korea to get rid of his nuclear weapons. that doesn't seem to be happening or doesn't seem to be working. there is reports that china is selling oil to north korea. you can't shoot missiles without oil, you need fuel. the chinese are not helping the united states. we're moving down toward this precarious path to military force. you do want an off-ramp, in the north koreans come to the table to say talk about the nuclear program, you want to let that happen. if i were advising the president, at some point you have to start moving in that direction. i do think the north koreans and chinese have got to understand this administration is not bluffing. i have spoken with general mcmaster about this subject, and he is not bluffing. so when you say -- neil: when you say he is not bluffing, that he is seriously considering war options? >> i do believe that neil. neil: what would they include? >> well i believe that, i don't think that the united states would do anything first, preemptively. i think it would be in response to what the united states -- neil: let's say they launch a missile and we in response try to shoot it down. is that an act of war? >> it is certainly not an act of war if you're defending yourself offer your allies. i understand people continue to make the argument. that is preposterous. we have missile defenses in place. neil: right. >> if the missile goes through the envelope they call it, through the area in which the missile defense systems are designed to defend defense, i believe that the japanese and the united states is willing to intercept that missile if it is headed towards dangerous area, if it is headed towards innocent civilians. i believe if the north koreans tested an actual nuclear weapon on a missile that would cross a line. if they were to shoot a missile towards guam, that would cross a line. so, this is my own analysis. i think there are lines that the administration is not willing to talk about or draw but if that should happen, i do believe the united states military is in place to respond. it would not be a pin trick t would be overwhelming. the faster chinese and north koreans understand this is a serious option and this is not just threats that are meaningless, the quicker we can resolve this without using force. neil: we'll watch closely, rebecca. good seeing you again. happy new year. >> happy new year, neil. neil: rebecca heinrichs. we have brutally cold temperatures. led to unprecedented behavior down south in the florida panhandle they're expecting snow. in walt disney world they're shutting down their parks and one of them is, blizzard beach. more after this. liberty did what? yeah, liberty mutual 24-hour roadside assistance helped him to fix his flat so he could get home safely. my dad says our insurance doesn't have that. don't worry - i know what a lug wrench is, dad. is this a lug wrench? maybe? you can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ >> welcome back to "cavuto: coast to coast." i'm nicole petallides. big news surrounding spotify. according to axios, spotify filed for an ipo. those documents were filed with the sec in the end of december, and this is some big news in the way that they're filing in that technology companies and how they could list going forward. in fact they have a direct listing, which means no road show. it also could mean fewer wall street fees. so wall street banks which are involved and investors overall are watching this one. they expect this to happen in the first quarter. the other big news, 19 billion. the news around spotify, wixen publishing filed a lawsuit for damages of $1.6 billion for licensing of songs such as free fall inch, by tom petty and "light my fire" from the doors. neil. neil: they're calling it a bomb cyclone. i never heard the term until now. fortunately i listen closely to adam klotz in our fox weather center. he always updates me on this. what does the term mean? >> bombogenesis, that means it will make it a more powerful storm as it moves up the coast. on top of frigid temperatures you start to see know in places that typically don't see it. the numbers are getting down into portion, even getting down into north florida. temperatures at least down near freezing. that is where this system originally began spinning up. here is the last 12 hours. you see that motion right there. it has been snowing in portions of north florida, going into southeastern georgia. this lifts up in the overnight hours. here is the hour-by-hour forecast. we put night motion. there is the time stamp, pay attention along the coast when it reaches you. everything out over the ocean. that continues to be rain, right along the coast. we're seeing that snow, some cases a bit of icy mixture as it falls to continue to climb up the coast this is overnight running into d.c., new york city, late tomorrow night. the closer it is to the coast the more snow you will see. the current tracks bring it closer and closer as you head farther north. areas like extreme long island, boston, and maine, spots that eventually see more snow from the system as it wraps up into late thursday making that move. unfortunately it stays fridge did the entire time. that is what allows it to continue to be snow. here are the forecasted highs from today, running into tomorrow, looking even colder, with spots in the 20s. as this moves through the area. i will step out of the way looking into the east coast. these numbers get colder and colder, grabbing cold air, pushing it down. a high of nine degrees in pittsburgh. three degrees in buffalo. it will be frigid on friday on the back side of this system. no surprise, we have winter storm watches and warnings from the southeast. this is running up the coast at this point. as i said, it will bring some snow. maybe a little bit more of a wintry mix to the south, in new england where numbers get more impressive, could see a foot, some cases more than that this will be one we're paying very close attention to, neil, throughout the rest of the day and running into early friday morning. neil: all right, adam. good seeing you again i think. >> always bad news, sorry. neil: meantime, this typically happens with even the threat of cold weather coming or staying, prices for everything from oil to heating oil, gas, they all go up. trader alan knuckman at the cme, whether that is still the case. that would be inflationary spiral if it holds, alan, but what do you think? >> well, i'm happy with the cold as long as we have hot, hot, markets. the market move in energies is more about the dollar than it is the weather. if you look at the forecast, it will be above freezing on sunday. that will be first time in couple of days. and we've seen actually natural gas come off. it is negative on the session. so futures markets looking forward and past this it is interesting. i'm not the weatherman as you just had on but they say winter shifted forward. it is essentially from christmas to easter. that is 100 days of cold we have to be concerned about. we've seen the dollar decline. crude oil has gone straight up. we've seen natural gas firm as well hovering around the midpoint of the year, $3, halfway mark of the 3.50 high to the low. neil: commodities are moving up of late. it is prethe cold weather, happening with oil and copper in and out of multiyear highs. what is going on there? >> we talked weeks ago and months ago, and it has been some time since we mentioned it. i was waiting for the dollar to fall one more time and that would be the catalyst for the energies, metals and miners that were lagging behind and now they're starting to play ball. people realize they have a better reward risk opportunity at discount to the other stocks that have been moving in the marketplace for the year straight up. you have seen some big turns in freeport-mcmoran, which is copper, u.s. steel obviously, energy companies have all turned the corner and that is the latest push in the stock market because they are starting to participate in the whole macro rally. look at the big picture. crude oil is up here at two-year highs, not just because of what is happening with the dollar. obviously that helps. it is global reflation you're see not just here in the united states but that is going to help demand for energy and commodities and goods as the whole economy in the world gets more healthy. neil: you're scary smart, alan, you know that, right? alan knuckman, very good seeing you. happy new year my friend. >> i will be back when we get 25,000. happened each time we talked 21,000, 22,000, 23,000,. neil: we could do that. >> so have me back. neil: i would, i would for that. you're that good. thank you, alan, very, very much no thank you. neil: we are following a couple other developments including what is going on in iran. some say that is triggering run-up in oil and related prices because it is getting more violent and fingerpointing is getting more pronounced. 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>> those claims are laughable, they're wrong, they're absurd. frankly president rouhani was insulting the intelligence of the iranian people by saying that. it is very evident who is in charge of these protests. these are average iranians. these are students and housewives. these are people who care deeply about the future of iran. it is obvious why they're coming out into the streets, because for decades the iranian regime has been wasting tens of billions of dollars to support terror around the world and arrest them and jail iranian people. the regime fears their own people. they fear the truth. that is why they're banning social media. they're locking up bloggers and journalists. it is frankly outrageous and disturbing to see the pictures. the prime minister heard the silence of european leaders saying it is not right to stay silent during the face of repression. he decided to speak out and wish the iranian people every success in their noble quest for freedom. neil: you know, were you surprised, david, that it goes on and on, that it hasn't stopped? a lot of it is the belief the sanctions put in place in iran, number were lifted under barack obama apparently heard enough and devastating enough that times have not gotten better despite the $160 billion if you add it all up that iran got off of that agreement, including a lot of unfrozen fund that made it back their way? it doesn't appear that the average iranian benefited. >> of course that is true. iran is theocratic dictate tourship has been stealing from its people. it has not been building schools and hospitals. it has been spending tens of billions of dollars to blow up jewish community centers in argentina, to try to assassinate people around the world, frankly not taking care of their own people. so it is only natural that the people are coming out into the streets, furious at what their leadership has done to their own country and frankly it's a very good thing to see? that they're yearning for people. they're incredibly brave people. the only thing that stands in the way between great relations between israelis and iranians is the iranian regime. one day when the regime falls, it will fall one day, i have no doubt, the prime minister has no doubt that iranians and israelis will be great friend once again as they were before this theocratic dictatorship took over. neil: that was around the time of the shah of iran. there was uprising that led to ayatollah khomeni, the shah was kicked out of the country. we might see the reverse happening now, right. >> look, nobody knows exactly what is going to happen in iran. of course we wish the people in the streets every success in their quest for freedom. we're obviously following the events very carefully. but to blame israel for what is happen something laughable and you know, we wish them every success. the iranian people, not the regime. neil: all this happens at same time not too far away our president has been thinking of taking away 230, $240 million in aid for pakistan. that the pakistanis can't be trusted. that other administrations, republican, democrat kowtowed to their wishes and gotten very little from it. what do you think of all that? >> well, in the same tweet he addressed the issue of aid to the palestinians, that of course is an american decision, not an israeli decision but it is outrain just what the palestinians are spending their money on. not only running away from every single peace offer we have offered, not only are they saying no to every single time prime minister netanyahu called to sit with the palestinians, to negotiate in good faith. i was at united nations with the prime minister and he invited the palestinian president to come to israel's parliament, like the egyptian leader did, who got standing ovation. of course the palestinians turned that down as they have turned down the hundreds of other calls that the prime minister has made for peace, for negotiations, in good faith. not only are the palestinians turning down every peace offer, they're spending hundreds of millions of dollars to anyone who will kill israelis. give you one example, akim awad, killed entire family. palestinian made this murderer over the course of his life as reward for murdering innocent, men, women and children. imagine if somebody said we will give a huge amount of money to anyone who murders an american, that is what this is tantamount to. it is outrageous, and hundreds of millions of dollars to incentivize murder is one of the main reasons we don't have peace today. the palestinians should cut that out because it is absolutely outrageous. neil: david keys with israeli benjamin netanyahu's office. very good seeing you. thank you. >> thank you very much. neil: in the meantime you've seen this, and it is one of the underreported issues in these tax cuts. we talked about what corporations are getting. a lot more what individuals are getting. what if i told you individuals could be benefiting from those corporations are getting? an early sign has some economists saying you know, this could be a surprise, a big positive surprise, after this. neil: when that show starts, i promise we'll have lights. [laughter] welcome back, everybody. moody's is already worrying about the effect of the tax cut and everything that is going on now, especially in the high-taxed states. you can't deduct all those state and local taxes anymore. home prices could feel the pinch, maybe big time. fbn's gerri willis is crunching numbers. they don't crunch the right way, do they? >> though don't. it will hit you and hit your wallet. think of tax reform as the grinch that steals your home price appreciation. according to moody's, home prices will decline across the country by 4%, in 19. down 4%, money out of your pocket in my view, hit to home prices by tax reform will vary across the country. no sing fell county will escape a price hit. according to moody's. look at color-coded map, very nifty, the red county, not many of them, mostly new york, california and handful of other states fall as much as 6% over and above what prices would have done normally. so if prices were going up 10%, they would go up 4%, because of the 6% difference n orange county, minority, prices are expected to fall four to 6%. blue counties, vast majority of counties prices fall two to 4%. in green counties prices fall 2% yikes! mark zandi, who conducted research had this to say, house prices will suffer under the tax plan. the impact on house prices is much greater for higher-priced homes in parts of the country where incomes are higher. i guess there is silver country. the price cost help first-time buyers get into the market. frankly neil, i don't care about them. i care about me and all my friend here in new york and we're looking at you know -- could be clipped here. neil: it stands to reason if that deduction goes and all of sudden that is unof the reasons you winced, accepted living in your house you have that backdrop, you don't have it anymore. >> not just that. mortgage interest deduction. fewer people will do that. neil: right. >> that goes away, right? you also get clipped when you sell your darn house. not going to take as much money out of it. thank you tax reform? i don't know. neil: merry christmas anyway. wait, that happened. gerri, thank you very much, happy new year. not a very happy new year what is going on except if you take a look at the understory that is really underreported here. the number of companies despite what is going on in housing you know what? we're making a ton on this tax deal which by the way they are. as i sit here, when we were telegraphing this on this show, i think we were among the first to say this, i don't like to brag, we were among the first to say this, so i'm going to brag, corporations have a feast and curse of riches here. not only is their corporate rate going down from 21% to 35%, they have all the money abroad. they bring the money back. they're swimming in it. they're sharinging the loot. individuals are getting cuts as well. but what is interesting in the corporate developments, so many of these companies, go to southwest airlines, american airlines, wells fargo, comcast, at&t, so many handing out bonuses, thousand dollar checks cumulatively to hundreds of thousands of workers. pricewaterhousecoopers's mitch rochelle. mitch, this is one of unheralded developments that surprised a lot of folks that is on top of whatever individual relief folks are going to get. spell it out. >> what is interesting, neil, it is underreported. i agree with that, in fact if you look at some of the press coming out at the time tax reform is being discussed, it was that ceos weren't going to share any of the wealth, that is not in fact what is happening. it is in part fueled by a lower tax rate, but the real thing is, it is about the labor market. we have a shortage of labor. jobs numbers come out on friday. 4.1% unemployment rate. when labor is tight, you want to retain the talent, you find opportunities when you can to share spoils with them. that is what ceos are doing. neil: you know what is interesting too? we have federal hourly minimum wage rate of 7.25 an hour, in most locales, and most states are happy to pony up, to get the talent they're paying top dollar for the talent, we're dealing with cycles of unemployment. what do you make of that? >> interesting the cost to replace an employee can be a multiple of the annual salary of the salary. what you're seeing saw airlines, saw communications companies, when it first happened financial services firms, once one industry in firm or segment does it, more have to do it. when talent gets poached from one airlines, where do they go? they go to the other airlines. i don't think it's a pr stunt at all. this is good behavior on part of ceos. they're focused trying to attract and retain the talent base. neil: but i do think they're awash in cash. it is fair to say got bulk of taxes and permanent tax cuts that individuals did not. they got more than they bargained for. not only rate drop which is precipitous, which is happening on money repatriated abroad, they have to bring it back at 15.6%, which is bargain basement return and they put it to good use. that will help individuals as well. how will it help the economy, do you think? >> the big debate is, just to be technical for a second, it is deemed repatriation. you pay taxes on overseas profits whether are or not you bring them back. if you pay taxes on it you might as well bring it back. the big debate, will boards, ceos, take the proceeds and investment them in business, whether investing in more talent or invest in plants and equipment or will they buy back the stock for purposes of pumping up the stock price. when we talk it ceos, they're still sorting that out now. but there is presumption a lot are going to invest in the infrastructure and businesses that they haven't invested in a while. neil: thank you very much. fallout for stocks up in record territories . neil: all right. these markets in record territory right now. the nasdaq has been really the big performer right now. it is the one that appreciated the most. last year, it's appreciating the most in percentage terms. this year, still early, of course. and that despite all the intentions with north korea and everybody else and the president trading button broadside and all of that. the president, by the way, is meeting with rex tillerson, secretary of state and james mattis, his defense secretary. mike pence, the vice president, of course. all of this as we're getting word right now that the north koreans could do another missile test soon or if their impeccable timing proves as past right in the middle of the winter olympics in south korea. joining us right now governor jim moore. governor, good to have you. where do you think this goes if true to form the north koreans conduct the test at or around the time of the olympics? >> well, i think that we would probably add more sanctions and probably squeeze them even harder than we're squeezing them right now. we're not only squeezing them economically with we're squeezing their allies in china and also putting military assets into the area, aircrafts and planes. they don't have any money, neil,. neil: we've been doing this one administration after another. they're the most sanctioned country on the planet. what's going on? >> exactly. and that's why they're even doing this nuclear program because they're trying to level the playing field through nuclear weapons. the key point is the president and his staff have made it very clear we're just not going to put the united states at risk here. so either they're going to respond to a squeezing and sanctioned regime, or there's the potential for a military action. but right now we're seeing a decisive foreign policy of the president of the united states, which we did not see in the past administration. neil: but what's decisive about comparing nuclear button sizes? >> well, look, as my friend said he's getting into the head of kim jong-un. neil: i don't mean to trivialize -- but i guess what i'm asking, governor, what would -- what would be a decisive response here? in other words, if they launch a missile, and we shoot it down, that i would assume the north would call a provocative move if not an act of war. >> first of all, on the button, the president is just simply pushing back and making a clear we're not going to be bullied. the second thing with respect to -- neil: would you do that? >> well, you could say something like that. but you would never -- neil: you would never say that, governor. come on. >> well, look, if the goal here is to communicate everybody to the world that we're not going to be pushed around by a punk, then you say something like that. but the main point is this. the missile test is a provocation, and we just have to keep saying if you're going to do these provocations, we're the ones that have the military assets, the economic assets. neil: no. believe me, and i have great respect for you and the office of the president. i guess what i'm worried about is when it's one thing to say these sort of flippant comments to someone in the media. myself included. but it's quite another when you're playing with fire in the middle of what could be a potential war. you've got to be careful, don't you? >> listen, no. i think this. i think that you have to be decisive. i think that you have to make it real clear that united states is not somebody to be pushed around. that we're very serious about our policy on this. and that we will do what's necessary. and frankly, our policy right now is pretty moderate, neil. what we're really doing is saying we're going to handle this through sanctions and economic pressure as opposed to military action. but i think our message is crystal clear. we're not going to allow the people of the united states be put in jeopardy by somebody like north korea. furthermore, our allies are in danger. in fact, i think the whole political play here is to try to separate out the south koreans and the japanese from america and the western alliance. that's what the nuclear weapons are intended to do. i don't think united states is going to abandon our allies or allow ourselves to be put into that kind of position. neil: we shall see, governor. happy new year. thank you very, very much. >> happy new year to you, neil,. neil: call a bluff or whatever you want to say to governor's point. the latest tranche about 230 to upwards of $300 million had senator rand paul backing the president. listen to this. >> this issue and this money, why now, senator? you just got off the phone with the president. why now? >> well, you know, i think most americans would support the president on this. i mean, we don't like to see our money going to countries that burn our flag in pakistan, they incarcerate christians. there's a christian asia bb that have been on death row for five years. they put doctor in jail for 33 years, he's the guy who helped us get bin laden. they seemed to look the other way when bin laden was there for over a decade. so, yeah, i think americans agree with the president. we ought to quit sending good money after bad. . neil: all right. former navy seal best-selling offer rob o'neill. what do you make of that? >> well, i think senator paul was almost three-quarters of the way right. they didn't -- they hid bin laden. it's not like they overlooked it. they were hiding in the pakistani intelligence knew where he was. he was living a few hundred meters away from a colonel. neil: did america know that? >> yeah. there was all kinds of different counterintelligence going on like the whole stuff with bin laden in a cave with dialysis when they would hear we would say that when we knew it wasn't the case but they would laugh at us even though we knew it wasn't the case. when the rubber hit the road when we were going to go after bin laden and we knew exactly what it was and gave us one of the operations and one of the options was the multilateral with pakistanis, it wasn't even off the table, it was laughable. if you want him gone, mention his name. he'll be gone. neil: then why did we keep giving money? billions over multiple? >> well, i think part of the problem is that we have -- we used to have at least as we want to be liked. and we really want to kill the enemy in the nicest possible way. we both have mutual interest in pakistan. they have the port where we're going to bring all of our stuff through and get them into the gate into cobble, things like that. so we need their support there. we give them a lot of money for defense, we train them, we give them armor, we give them planes. we need them and they need us. we're at the point where they have the chip on the shoulder and it's not uncommon for someone to be a fake tough guy. they're not going to be able to handle it because they need our support. neil: can't they run to the chinese or the russians? >> and that's the problem they might go into more europe asia than nonnato ally. which they're going to threaten to do and china would be all about it because china wants to expand their navy. we've seen it with the islands. they would love to have a base in pakistan. i mean, it's not as easy as a tweet. neil: speaking of tweeting, what do you think of the back and forth this president has had with north korea and the leader. i want to get that second. but he has also tweeted about the up riffing in iran welcomes them and supports this democratic movement, the iranians counter and say you're agitating things. >> i like that the president can tweet because he can get his message directly out. but i wish he would take -- like some of my advice i have if you're angry type that e-mail or text but give it a few hours before you hit send. don't be afraid -- neil: lincoln would write nasty letters and put them away. >> well, that's what you're doing. i like to tweet. it's fun for me but as i was talking about earlier i'm not the leader of the free world. he sends out a tweet like and it's retweeted millions of times. i'm used to going with people unhinged where you can't joke. come on. neil: with a button and all of that. >> yeah. i really doubt there's a button. but also i disagree when you're getting members of congress. if a missile's launched at san francisco and we have a matter of minutes, i don't want congress to get together to try to decide a solution. neil: i understand what you're saying. but what do you make of these reports? they're rumors unsubstantiated and all. but it's always risky. but that many in the white house are concerned, those working around the president that he is agitating us into an accidental war. >> i don't think we can be in an accidental war. i think we do have too many good people in place. and president trump was really good at the beginning to put people like mattis, secretary mattis, general mattis, general mcmaster who even have disagreements with each other. that's good, though, because you don't get accomplished with agreeing on the same thing. neil: the president can overrule that. >> he can but he is smart enough -- i would hope. i've been to war. i don't like war. i hope we never get into war again. neil: what would war be with north korea? >> well, it all depends because all the pundits myself included will say if it's conventional war, you get a couple hundred thousand dead in north korea, south korea. but then there's also the other stuff that we have the capabilities that no one knows about where you turn them off. electronic warfare, stuff like that. i don't know where that would go as you think it would escalate to a definitely. >> no. i think kim jong-un is doing the same thing his father did. he's all in on the fact that he gets a no kidding intercontinental ballistic weapon he can start negotiating. neil: but i don't think he was as smart as his. >> he was raised in a bubble and think so he's a superhero. he thinks he can change the weather. i've heard stories of knowing they'll get shot is on their breaks they're scavenging around the place because there's nothing to eat there. no animals around. neil: what do you think of the planned talks between the leaders and even inviting a couple of north korean athletes to participate? >> i think that's good. neil: you don't think it's triangulating the united states we can't do anything? >> possibly but i mean if someone's talking to the north, that could be at least a good thing with the realization that maybe could keep some power and become part of the world community. he would have to give up the crazy parties and free vodka and all the stuff he does and maybe get a real barber. i'm not sure what's going on with that either. neil: apparently you're inspiring that country to imitate that here. >> you have to figure everything's fake there. everything's government run. it's -- neil: the city shots look like a lego. >> well, even that masterful huge hotel they've been trying to build for 40 years. i guess inside the elevator one of the problems is they don't go to the top. so i'm not sure the architecture -- neil: they didn't quite figure that out. >> it's not that great. neil: how tall? >> have you ever seen a picture of the north and south at night? . neil: oh, it's amazing. >> the lights that's democracy and the north that's communis c. neil: it's amazing. i want to get your thoughts on this because a lot has come out now. i'm sorry on osama bin laden's son. and. >> who is conveniently enough and been shielded by the pakistanis and iranians. neil: is that so? >> oh, yeah,. neil: so he's of age and angry. >> 28, i think. 29, something like that. well, i mean, his brother was khalid was angry on the stairs and that didn't last very long. it didn't turn out too long for khalid, muhammad. neil: do you think the same of that? >> and he also knows that we have people, men and women in our intelligence services when we find him, he'll get the same fate. regardless if it's a nighttime raid like we did or a drone strike or whatever it is. neil: there's always the helicopter crowd that has come out since you killed osama bin laden that he's not really dead that he was never thrown into sea. >> of course. well, i mean, we have the pictures. part of me now -- well, i don't really care it's hard to be in a position where one person saw something happened. neil: i don't think pictures are going to come out. >> they will. and they're graphic. neil: war all over again? >> no. am i mean, what are we going to anger our enemies? so we show it to some islamists and they get mad? they're already mad at us. if we showed it to them -- i mean, bin laden's dead. i mean, again, i can't -- i can tell you what happened but i'm not going to get upset if someone doesn't believe me. but it's just proof that we meaning america and our allies, a lot of, you know, the coalition allies, we have the capabilities to find you and when we do, we can send men and women to get you, and we will, and we've proven we can do it again. it's tough to hide in a corner and video yourself about how tough you are but never come out and fight. he's -- they're trying to make him something his father was, which they won't. neil: i know you've told this a million times and written about it extensively. but he's tried to shield himself. >> osama bin laden did. when i saw him when i turned the corner at the top of the stairs, he had his hands on his wife's shoulder. he was a very close shot so an easy shot for me and he was quite a bit taller than she was. but he was -- when i want up the stairs, i assumed he would take the martyr route like he inspired so many people to do but he was a weakling. neil: did you know that this isose? >> i knew going up the stairs that i'm about to find out what a suicide bomber is like. and, for me, it's a let's get it over with. i'm tired of thinking about i i. neil: but you knew as soon as you saw him that's him. >> it was probably give or take a second in between the visual identification that's him. i remember thinking how tall he was and skinnier than i thought, shorter white beard. not the traditional long, long dark beard. and i recognize his nose. he's a threat, a suicide bomber. they're not surrendering and that's it. neil: and the pakistanis had been harboring him. >> yeah. they wrote articles after we left. they were angry. i mean, we proved to them we're actually a lot better than you. neil: amazing. it is an amazing story. you're an amazing man. rob o'neill, former navy seal i'm happy to say fox news contributor. you notice i never ask him a tough question he can kill me with just one movement of his finger. a little bit more after this is this a phone? or a little internet machine? it makes you wonder: shouldn't we get our phones and internet from the same company? that's 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. . neil: all right. doug jones from alabama is now a united states senator. also former lieutenant governor of minnesota. taking al franken's old seat. that makes the margin 51-49 from 52-48 as narrow as you can get in the united states senate. republican democratic leaders, meanwhile, are set to meet with white house officials on capitol hill with this spending impasse we've got i think it's at the 19th the lights go out or presumably around then. connell mcshane on capitol hill with the very latest. hey, connell. ashley: with all of this talk about who's sworn in, you're right. that's the business of the day with this new congress being back in session, at least on the senate side. keeping the government running past the 19th of this month. so this meeting this afternoon with the so-called big four. and when we say the big four, we're talking about the speaker of the house paul ryan, the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, the minority leader chuck schumer and the minority leader in the house nancy pelosi meeting with these white house officials. so mchull vainy will be up on capitol hill and so will mark, who is the legislative director of the white house. and they'll be talking about all the legislative issues. but there seems to be a particular focus on emigration. the democrats have been pushing very hard for a daca fix as they call it. a plan for the immigrants that were brought here illegally as children that have been talked about so much the last few months. now, republicans in the white house expected a counter with okay. if you get that daca fix, then we have to have money for the border wall. and that's where things might very well get quite sticky. here's the majority in the house. neil: if you look at the things that we have to do, it starts with trying to get a budget agreement to make sure we can properly fund our department of defense. and i do think we need to look at things not only like immigration but we also need to look at things like welfare reform. getting people back into the workforce as companies are going to be needing more workers. >> all right. so that's the kind of talk we're having here today. it continues all the way up and through this weekend, neil, as both senator mitch mcconnell and speaker paul ryan are expected to accompany president trump to his weekend get away at catcher david. and, again, the talk there will be about legislative priorities for 2018 and what we've been hearing at fox is that it might be some sort of an effort from the leadership to temper the president's expectations in terms of what can actually get done this year infrastructure and all the rest. so that continues this weekend. . neil: all right. thank you, my friend, very much. connell mcshane. told you a lot about steve bannon, some of the outlandish things he has been criticizing the president. jared kushner saying that it was treasonist and unpatriotic. well, the president apparently has had enough. just releasing a statement quoting here steve bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. when he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. now that he is on his own, steve is learning isn't as easy as i make it look. steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country. yet, steve had everything to do with the loss of a senate seat in alabama held for more than 30 years by republicans. steve doesn't represent my base. he's only in it for himself. steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party. yet, he spent his time at the white house leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was. it was the only thing he does well. steve was retailer in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue whom he held right. all right. i'm going to put him down as a maybe now on mr. bannon. holly cow. former cbo director. doug, i know when i talked to you the budget matters but i would be remised if i didn't get your reaction to that. >> well, i think it's been an astounding back and forth between the president and probably will stop with this. so as we know, things often get personally, and it has gotten about as personal as it can get. neil: but this is now -- there's no doubt the bloomers off the roads. it's all thorns all the time and they're going to go back and forth with each other and bannon of course has not given up in finding other roy moors or other candidates to run against established republicans, and he's become a pariah to the proprietary and a pariah to the man who used to like him. >> it's really -- you can't make this stuff up. it also puts the president in a position of being a curator of the establishment candidates in a way that he probably never envisioned when he ran for the presidency. so it's a through the looking glass experience for most republicans and it's early in the 2018 cycle. we'll see how it plays out. neil: you know, doug, on the tax cuts, i have a view, and i'm sure i'm wrong. but i always like to bounce it off geniuses like you. that these tax cuts might be bigger than we thought. i know they're favored to corporations. but what was not factored in was the unexpected benefit to individual workers. many of them will go to the latest southwest and american airlines following wells fargo and comcast and at&t $1,000 bonus checks on top of the money that they have coming next month when they see it in their paychecks. what do you make of this? because i think the breath of it is unexpected. >> i think that people will be surprised by the sort of front loading of the impact of the tax bill. the core reforms are longer term. they're about locating things in the u.s. better investment incentives the kinds of things we talk a lot about. but the sheer cash flow in the tax bill for the individuals and the corporations, it's about eight-tenths percent gdp in 2018. that's going to be substantial impact on the economy. and the private sector is now adding to it with these bonuses and other activities. so i think it really bears watching on what happens in q1 and q2 of this year. and that's an important part of the election cycle. performance in the first half make things a lot better. neil: i'm sorry to jump on you there. you're also a former cbo head and you've been under republicans and democrats deficits that got worse and worse and debt that piled on and on. we could be looking for a variety of reasons and a confluence of events like storms and disasters and-trillion-dollar in this next year. does that worry you? >> we were going to have a trillion-dollar deficit by 2 at the latest anyway. so i was worried before. i'm worried now. and the core of this is not one time disaster relief. it's not the tax bill. the core of this is you know, neil, the $10 trillion in deficits that were inherited from the obama administration that are driven by the large mandatory spending programs. social securities, medicares, medicaids. neil: we'll have 10 trillion out of that over the next ten years is nothing is done. >> we're going to have 10 trillion for sure and maybe more, and we have to take on those large spending programs that remains true today. neil: but the president doesn't want to do that. >> i know. think back one year. the house of representatives pass something called the american health care act. it was, yes, a trillion-dollar tax cut but it's also major reform of two entitlement programs. and it didn't get through. and i think that's a bad thin t. neil: doug, thank you. very good to see you. happy new year. >> happy new year. neil: doug, again, i tried to sort of get him into that to say something tacky about this whole bannon and trump stuff. but it is amazing. the president making it very, very clear in the bluntest of terms. steve bannon, you're nuts. we'll have more after this ♪ dad promised he would teach me how to surf on our trip. when you book a flight then add a hotel you can save. 3 waves later, i think it was the other way around... ♪ everything you need to go. expedia. >> welcome back to cavuto coast to coast. records across the board for the dow, nasdaq, and s&p. but let's focus on the tech heavy nasdaq. a new high today of 7,064. you see these tech names like google alphabet and microsoft. those have been winners and really helped to propel the nasdaq from 6,000 to 7,000. in fact, yesterday was the very first time that the nasdaq closed above that key 7,000 mark. you can see the performance since that 6,000 mark. apple's up 20%. alphabet up 25%, and microsoft 27%. more than 27%. but there were five names which really accounted for two-thirds of that 1,000-point gain. here's a look at them. amazon, alphabet, microsoft, and facebook. so the number of trading days from 6,000 to 7,000 came in third place behind 3- to 4,000 in 1999 and so many of us remember 4- to 5,000 in the year 2000 with that tech bubble. is the tech bubble here? most people would tell you "no." and today we see technology higher once again. neil,. neil: don't bet against a good thing, i guess. thank you very, very much, nicole. in the meantime two close buds are as far apart as they could be. donald trump blasting back against steve bannon right now. in case you didn't hear, i'll cut to the more popularly-quoted lines. steve bannon had nothing to do with me or my presidency. when he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. and it goes on from there. washington examiner emily. emily, i imagine this is just a matter of time. but this was not just a tweet with some, you know, wondering thoughts. this is very coherent, very clear, very grammatically specific. what did you make of it? >> yeah. i'm surprise it did not come in the form of a tweet and there's something to read into that. like you said coherent, very well thought out paragraph. it seemed this was the final statement. this was going to be the president or at least what ms. press people want to be his final statement on steve bannon. and it's so interesting, of course, because so much of president trump's base has taken its cues from steve bannon and breitbart. we saw that especially with roy moore's candidacy. so this is going to attest the loyalty of his base in a way that we have not seen happen before. neil: you know, boyd, he goes on to say that steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party and spends his time at the white house leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important to the media than he was. steve was retailer in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue whom he helped write phony books. what do you make of that? >> so i think this is the president keeping his promise about the swamp. often when we think of the swamp, we think of the elected officials. but the bigger part of the swamp is a lot of people running around thinking they're very important. chief of staff, senior advisers across the board who are running around with their own agenda trying to position themselves for a big payday. and i think part of this obviously is directed to steve but part of this is a bigger whack at the swamp to say, look, this is not about -- there's only one name on the door whether that's a senator's office or the president of the united states. there's one name on the door and those who make it about themselves are part of the problem back there, so i think the president was taking a big swipe at the political class in washington, d.c. to say you're not all that important. i won because of the little guys. neil: no. no. i don't doubt that. but i would not lump someone like a bannon in with that political class. was a renegade and a rogue guy who supported candidates equally as such. so i'm wondering, emily, whether bannon bashing, you know, the president's son jr. and his son-in-law jared kushner that that was the final straw. what do you think? >> i mean, it may have been that. we also have to look at. we've seen all the reports that president trump really gets upset when someone like steve bannon seems to take credit for any of what he's been able to do. which we know the candidacy was historic. the election was historic, and it seemed like he was very irked when steve bannon got credit for that. and i think you're right. look at the statement itself. look at this very well-crafted lengthy statement that i think was very biting, very strong. and say this is not a door the white house is opening up. it's something that they're opening and closing immediately, the chapter on steve bannon or trying to at the very least. neil: where do you think this goes? i can't imagine that bannon isn't going to reply to his replay. >> i'm quite certain he will respond. and that will definitely happy happen. but the question is does the president have the discipline to say i crafted it, i sent it, i'm going to pivot and move on. if he doesn't pivot and move on, then he's actually validating that bannon has some credibility out there with the base. i think it's to the president's advantage if he pivots and says let's get on to the elections of 2018. i don't have time for this person who came and went who was part of it but wasn't the central driver of my election and my success. he has to make that pivot. if he doesn't, he's validating bannon and that mr. split the base and cause more problems in 2018 for the president. neil: all right. the president, i imagine, is a tad more popular than bannon, but we'll see. the fall out from the fight is usually never good, but we'll watch it very closely. we're waiting for a bannon response. we might have just gotten one. i know you are but what am i. it's one of those days. more after this. [ phone rings ] hey maya. what's up? hey! so listen, i was taking another look at your overall financial strategy. you still thinking about opening your own shop? every day. i think there are some ways to help keep you on track. and closer to home. i'm all ears. how did edward jones grow to a trillion dollars in assets under care? thanks. by thinking about your goals as much as you do. . neil: wow. i mean, it is so cold, you've got two-thirds of the country enveloped in this craziness. jeff flock is in the middle of it in chicago. hey, jeff. >> you sent me out yesterday with just my suit on and a very thin jacket. you did not fool me today, mr. cavuto. this is the lakefront in chicago where we are north dakota mid-ion of what could be the longest stretch of 20 degrees or lower than 20 degrees in 50 years. you can see on the sign it says don't go down here. and i'll tell you why that is, neil. we've got snow, and we've got now ice. and the lake usually takes until, say, january or february or so to get frozen up. this is the 1st of january and already we're seeing freezing on the lake. and this right here is why they don't want you to walk down here because you go down on this, and then you slip and next thing you know you're in the drink. wind chiles it's as warm today as it's going to be all week where i think at the last check about 16 degrees. and that's as warm as it's going to get on sunday until snow comes in like i said longest stretch in 50 years of this kind of sustained cold. and, you know, at least we're able to deal with it here because we have some experience. but those folks in florida, i guess it's not so much fun to go to florida right now. neil: no. they had to shut down blizzard beach. did you know that? >> what beach? . neil: blizzard beach at disney world. >> oh, really? . neil: yeah. >> oh, jeez. well, i also heard in toronto it got so-called they brought the penguins inside. the penguins were too cold. you can look it up. neil: is that your own? >> this is a brand-new jacket. this is for alaskan sled dog racers and our good friend gwen. you know who i'm talking about got this for me. so a shout out to gwen for this lovely jacket here. which is so hot, actually. i can't get this zipper undon u. neil: i didn't get a jacket like that. i didn't get so much as a windbreaker. >> well, come on out here and maybe she'll give you one. she'll take pity on you. neil: no, never mind. >> zipper. neil: there you go. oh, it's reversible. >> no, it's not reversible. you take it off. hold on one second. and then you leave it on. because it's so hot. look at this. you can wear it like this so you can do, you know, heavy -- it's cold. but and then put it back on. neil: what would be the advantage of wearing it like that, though? what are you -- >> if you get overheated. neil: oh, gotcha. >> because it's so cold it's so hot. neil: but you just said it's like two degrees. >> man, that steal is cold. neil: sure. jeff, my friend, safe, be warm. we don't want anything to happen to you because the back up choice doesn't look good. all right. jeff flock, thank you very much. is he not phenomenal? the read on all of this with michael. chief meteorologist, you are telling me before we got up here that this is a big deal; right? so spell it out. >> yeah. i mean, it's a very powerful nor easter. some of the conditions might also resemble a hurricane more than just a pure snowstorm. neil: refers to what when i hear that? >> a rapid deepening or intensification of the storm. so rapid intensification, meteorologists call that a bombing situation. neil: and when was the last time we saw anything like this. >> i mean, we have bombing lows off the east coast at least once a winter. neil: we do? >> yeah. neil: i miss the bombs. >> anything that is an intense low pressure system with several inches often has some bombing mechanisms going on. >> well, maybe you didn't get the memo. i've been telling people this is unprecedented and historic and now you're telling mean it's a routine event. neil: it's historic in that in this decade all of our big storms have happened before january 21st. so it's happening a little bit earlier than people in history might as you remember does it involve so much of the country? i mean, we're seeing these single digit temperatures extending down to the panhandle in florida. what's going on? >> so the low is just a small cog in the wheel. basically, we have a semiblocking pattern coming down pretty much since christmastime which is the new beginning of our winter now. late december, early january our winters get going, and they now get shifted. going through march and early april. neil: this is quite a long, extended cold spell. i mean, because even after this storm, i guess, there's a cold spell behind it; right? >> the consistency has been incredible. mentioned the street 20 below in new york. today is our ninth consecutive day below. we're probably going to go until sunday, which would be 13 days. so these things happen every 40 to 50 years. so it is quite rare in that sense. the consistency. but we get a reprieve and then there's more cold air down the pike right after the nor easter. neil: does it stay crazy? >> it really depends on what kind of winter you're dealing with. and i have a feeling with some of the other patterns we're looking at that there's a ton more cold air left in the tank in canada. so january, february, march, no reason why this wouldn't replicate itself. neil: how aren't you a bear of great gnaws. michael, always good seeing you. seriously. the guy's a genius with this stuff. all right. stocks continue to be up, despite all of this. maybe because all of this or maybe because most of the trading is going on indoors where it's warm. more after this see that's funny, i thought you traded options. i'm not really a wall street guy. what's 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 you're comfortable. i could be up for that. that's taking options trading from wall st. to main st. hey guys, wanna play some pool? eh, i'm not really a pool guy. what's the hesitation? it's just complicated. step-by-step options trading support from td ameritrade retail. under pressure like never before. and it's connected technology that's moving companies forward fast. e-commerce. real time inventory. virtual changing rooms. that's 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. . neil: well, a billionaire gave some legitimacy to bitcoin, announcing that he has poured about 20 million into this and on paper has made hundreds of millions of dollars. and, of course, that can be extremity and swing all over the place. hillary with the latest on that. hey, hillary. >> well, peter is betting big on bitcoin like you mentioned according to the wall street journal. teal's venture capital fund brought up 15 million of the cryptocurrency just a year ago and now reportedly told investors that stake is worth hundreds of millions of dollars after bitcoin shares have shot up over the past year. the stateless and bankless currency has been volatile. bitcoin started 2017 trading around $1,000 and spiked to nearly 20,000. but temporarily plummeted to half that in december. so not everyone on wall street is jumping on the bitcoin bandwagon. jp morgan chase ceo james diamond called the currency a fraud. others have fears of cyber security threats against the currency dependent on block chain technology. but teal in an interview with fox business maria bartiromo says bitcoin to him is kind of like gold. >> it's based on the security of the math, which tells you that it can never be -- it can never be diluted by a government. it can never -- it can't be hacked, and it's a form of money that's absolutely secure in an absolute way. neil, i talked with one early bitcoin backer who's been in the bitcoin atm business for about a half a decade. that's how long he's been dealing with the currency. he tells me the biggest challenge is making bitcoin easy to use and hard to lose and once that happens, he thinks that bitcoin has the potential to reach half a million valuation in the future. neil,. neil: wow. amazing. on that very issue i want to go in with in a while. and i know this is not what we originally planned. but i do want to get on these other subjects. you know, the appeal of these digital currencies is to replace existing ones and down the road that's exactly what's going to happen. is the world ready for that? do you think that's even remotely possible? >> i don't think so, neil. i mean, i have to say as a conservative, you know, and a believer in tradition and i don't think you're going to see the pound sterling ever replaced, for example, and so i think, you know, this is all a bit of flash in the pan, actually, with regard to those digital currencies. so i'm the conceptic. a euro conceptic as well but a conceptic on this front also, neil,. neil: let's switch gears a little bit on north korea promising right now something that will gyrate currencies. this plan to do another missile maybe time close to if not during the winter olympics in seoul. >> yeah. we've certainly seen some interesting developments over the past couple of days or so. and we've seen signs of some sort of, you know, detaunt between north and south korea. but i have to say that any, you know, fate optimism that is placed upon negotiations with the north koreans is deeply misplaced. and i think the approach taken by the trump administration so far the north korean front has been absolutely the right one, which is that nothing constructive can come from any discussions with the north koreans number pyongyang accepts the nuclear program. until the north koreans are willing to do so, i don't see any direct negotiations with the north korean regime. so this is a field good exercise at the moment between pyongyang. but the reality is nothing fundamental is going to change as a result of these, you know, discussions and this outreach. the reality remains that north korea is a deeply-dangerous regime that is a huge threat to a u.s. allies in asia and of course to the united states as well. neil: you know, i wonder if there's going to be a need for the moment. i don't think the argentineans were planning that she would go to war overtaking these islands back in the early '80s, but she did. so you want to be unpredictable. i can appreciate that. this is a far greater and more ominous development here for the globe. but what message did maggie thatcher send them? >> well, i think over this year, sent a message of tremendous strength and resolve and it was a clear signal of, you know, british leadership of western leadership and she sent a clear message about the free world would not be bullied by dictators. and that was a message that thatcher sent very clearly. and i think with regard to north korea, of course, no one wants conflicts here. the states are incredibly high with tens of millions of south koreans basically, you know, being held at gun point by north korea. and so every effort will be made to avoid some kind of military conflict. at the same time, you cannot appease dictatorships. and morgan thatcher's view was you simply cannot bow down before dictators across the world because if you do so, they will grow in strength and eventually they would devour you. so this was the message that thatcher sent over the balkan b. neil: yeah, in her words the crazy guys are afraid you're just as crazy. nile, thank you very much. very good to see you. >> my pleasure. thank you very much. neil: dow jones is now reporting that spotify is filing confidentially with the security and exchange commission to go public. now, that is not a big shock. the timing, though, could be. we'll have more after this i tried hard to quit smoking. but when we brought our daughter home, that was it. now i have nicoderm cq. the nicoderm cq patch with unique extended release technology helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. it's the best thing that ever happened to me. every great why needs a great how. . . . . ♪ neil: well, used to be close friends. the tightest of amigos. now steve bannon and president of the united states have not ever been this far apart. the president all but saying he did say that his former friend lost his mind. i don't know. such is friendship. dagen mcdowell in for trish regan. sad right? you're feeling sad, right? dagen: i'm desperately said. i'm gleeful. neil: i knew you would be. dagen: this is trip to crazy town. neil: my goodness, we're heading there, they just joined us. dagen: well-said, my friend. neil, mr. cavuto, good to see you. neil: you too. dagen: breaking right now, the white house officials are set to meet with the big four leaders of congress to map out the president's agenda for 2018 as president trump places former white house chief strategist, steve bannon, he quote, not only lost his job but lost his mind after ban nan made critical comments about the president and his family in

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