jackie: quick market check before we go, the dow jones, s&p 500 and nasdaq said to close the year out in the green making that the third straight year for gains for all the major averages sue. thanks for watching. happy new year. now to ashley webster in for charles payne. didn't i see you before? >> i was going to say tag on it. good afternoon everyone. i'm actually webster in for charles paul-- charles payne and this is "making money" breaking right now, the last trading day of a volatile year. is the santa claus rally delivering our expectations, plus market washers-- watchers share what you

need to know to prepare your portfolio for 2022. the us surpassing 2 million covid cases in a single week for the first time during the pandemic as people wait in line for hours just to be tested, but are we finally nearing the peak? we will get into that with doctor marty makary who will be here with advice. plus, should we look to the polo seat household for stock tips? mere days after nancy posey insisted nancy-- lawmakers should trade stocks because it's a free market she and her husband loaded up on options. we will have all of that and much much more on "making money". ashley: markets are slightly lower and have been that way since the opening bell on this last trading day of the year, but that said, all three major indexes are expected to finish 2021 with serious and on the

precipice of a new record, so did the santa claus rally deliver expectations? let's bring in our market panel from king's view wealth management scott martin. and chief market strategist of global investment victoria fernandez. victoria, good afternoon. scott, how are we feeling about the markets as we wrap up 2021? >> not a bad gift from santa claus, actually if you go back a couple three weeks ago, three weeks ago everyone was panicked coming into the new year, i mean, this will be the big unwind as you mentioned with the big rally we have had an that's frankly because that's typically what happens in markets is when people start to call for the experts quote unquote calling for the great rollover, it doesn't happen in the market goes back in their face so i think we should be relatively full of gratitude with what happened because the market has shown itself to be resilient and being able now

pushed her a lot of these same old problems that we have laid out with say the covid variant, with promises of tax hikes and things the federal reserve that is scary for the market and seems to not scare us anymore and there's a lot to be positive about 2022 in my opinion. ashley: victoria, we have had a lot of analysts say you can expect higher interest rates next year, lower stocks and certainly count on volatility would you agree? >> yeah, i think actually all three of those are probably accurate. santa claus came in with a bang and we have been a little lackluster the last couple of days, but the santa claus rally should continue into the first couple trading days of next year and then we refocus a look at some of these items you are talking about. we do think rates will go up on the longer end. we think there will be consolidation in the equity market and as the federal reserve starts to lay out their plan of when they will raise interest rates. that's going to cause volatility so i think we

can anticipate that for 2022. ashley: victoria, i'm going to follow-up with you. talk about the cruise lines, cdc says don't go cruising these days. so, where do these and other reopening stocks go from here? i know that's difficult to predict, but what you think? >> i will have to look into my crystal ball to see what it tells me i think one of the things we have always taught our-- talk to our clients about his don't make a huge play on fewer reopening trades look at the longer-term perspective in these names and see if it's a business model you like. see if there is growth potential. look at the balance sheet. it's what we always talk about. with cruise lines it's not a place where we want to be right now. we are not in airlines right now either. i think you can look at the reopening trade more towards the consumer side in regards to consumer discretionary and consumer staples. i would stay away little bit more from the highly

volatile names of cruise lines. ashley: scott, to you. scott, peloton sliding on a downgrade. one of the great pandemics law-- a stocks, will they be able to turn it around or is it more bad news for balaton? >> i hope so because i own some. i own some so that's okay. what an interesting tale for peloton. when you think you hit rock bottom when the girls from sex in the city take shots at you and then you get downgraded after that so i think the bad news i mean like the bad news is pretty much everything has happened to peloton that can possibly happen i mean the girls of the view might attack them or something. there's bad news and a lot of stocks right now to victoria's point same with the cruise line and at some point the airlines also, you have to pick these up because it can't get much worse. feels horrible, but i think peloton is a buy here. ashley: victoria, very good. victoria, treasury

yields dipping today, a bit of a yo-yo the 10 year do you still like financials? >> we do like financials. one of our favorite sectors going into 2022, we think the longer end of the curve had been probably mispriced a little bit when you look at where inflation has been, where credit spreads are and so we think that longer into the curve it will move higher, but it's not the only reason we like financials. their balance sheets have been extremely strong especially compared to where they have been historically and we think there will be low growth. financials have been hit and they have taken a hit the last month or so so it's a good place to go in especially for the big money center banks and maybe start to position if you don't have one already. ashley: very good. we have to leave it there, folks. victoria and scott, stellar stuff. thank you and happy new year to you both. meanwhile, americans again facing issues finding covid tessa throughout the country.

testing shortage pitting teachers union against parents again. some schools are already going virtual. lydia who is live in dc with the very latest. reporter: hello. just this morning the massachusetts teachers association, the union and the state, as to the school they are to stay closed on monday the union wants to use monday as a testing day for teachers and staff. they say that the tests intended for teachers have been delayed in the supply chain. in a statement given to foxbusiness state of massachusetts massachusetts is making it clear they will not close the schools monday , telling us quote it is disappointing that once again the mta, the union, is trying to find a way to close the schools, which we know is to the extreme detriment of our children. this exchange, actually, cruise the return of the tension between unions and parents and students here in washington dc, students are required to test negative before

they can return to school on wednesday. tests are being made available to students at their public or charter schools, but the mayor's announcement which was made on twitter grew higher when she said she expected schools will need to return to virtual learning throughout the semester. already about two dozen city public schools are in virtual learning in the past month. meanwhile, chicago public schools 150,000 covid tests to 300 schools that have been hard-hit by the pandemic in areas with the low vaccination rates. they are asking families to voluntarily test to students before the return to the classroom. parents were told to return the test for processing by fedex and they were outraged this week by the overwhelmingly backlog at drop boxes. it first was to leave their covid tests piled up unsecured waiting for pickup. the photos were shared by the chicago teachers

union, ashley, which we know clashed with the district over returning kids to the classroom. chicago school district announced that it may go back to remote learning on a classroom by classroom basis. right now, avoiding district wide return remote learning. ashley: thank you, lydia. what a mess i want to bring in from john hopkins school of public health doctor marty makary. good afternoon. for i get into the school issue i want to get your take on the testing shortage. how did we get here? >> it was poor planning and maybe that was understandable. it's happened before i think it's because the white house is getting bad medical advice from a very small group of doctors who are like-minded and have shut out other medical opinions, but regardless you can tell everyone to go get tested universally and have a limited scarce supply. we are creating a black market and price gouging is rampant and people

are frustrated. ashley: i'm not surprised. back to the school issue. the teachers union say schools should remain close right now what is your thought on that especially as we know virtual learning is far less effective than being back in the classroom. >> it's going to take years, ashley, for us to truly comprehend the profound damage to the cognitive, motor and learning deficits that we are seeing now in the performance. by the way, these issues are related, the lack of testing on the school issue. testing is going on in schools. they are burning through a lot of the nations tests on the lowest ultra low risk population. they are burning through tests for immune super low risk individuals at a rate of two tests a week at some colleges and so we have to get back to some basic principles of equity especially since many of these institutions parade around the banner

-- ashley: i went to get to this issue, based on what we have seen in other countries omicron should likely peak we think in the next few weeks. do you think that will happen and if so, then what? >> first of all, actually, have to be honest. i'm very disturbed that many of the media headlines that i see throughout, omicron is a gift from god. it is nature's vaccine for many people in the world who will never get the virus and we really do not see severe illness, nothing like what we see with influenza. i tell people there is a strain going around that's prominent. it's everywhere. think of it in terms of most of your friends and family will get this, probably in the next few weeks, but the peak is regional and we have seen it peak already in some parts of the northeast and the predictor from the uk in south africa is that we are headed towards a rapid decline, but don't

be surprised if the south takes a little longer. we have seen coronavirus harbor for a few months unexpectedly and rear its head later than we expect. ashley: last one for you, the cdc causing a bit of a stir you could say saying some workers can go back to work if there are positive after only five days, but michigan's become the first state to say no, not following that guidance. what is your thought on it? >> i just learned the district of columbia is not following the guidance. we cannot have the cdc adjudicating on every aspect of american life. it's just not feasible, we can do it moving forward. people are sick and tired of all the boundaries they are forced to tiptoe around. the good news that we got out of south africa is that omicron gives cross immunity to delta meaning it's actively displacing it and the only people that really need to worry now are not immune adults and they need to worry about delta, not omicron. ashley: very good.

so much information. doctor marty makary, thanks again for giving us the very latest. we appreciate it. coming up, one new york city business owner shares how covid is putting a strain on his businesses on this new year's eve and his bottom line. it's not easy when you have so many mandates in place. crypto going mainstream this year being embraced by banks to even mayors taking it in their paychecks. will digital currency exploding in 2022 or get stopped in its tracks by government regulation? that is next. ♪♪

ashley: crypto going more mainstream than ever this year while hitting new highs. we are looking back at crypto's this year. good afternoon, kelly. reporter: hi, actually. 2021 was crypto currencies coming out party reaching over 3 trillion in value, mainstream company like whole foods started to accept bitcoin and coinbase really

legitimacy and radioshack just announced its rebranding crypto exchange platform , so why was 2021 the defining years? people in group raised crypto's volatility. historically, it scared investors but this year the massive side excited the average investor more than half got in this year alone and additionally the arrival of the first bitcoin futures exchange traded fund was a positive development psychologically for the market. the day the etf made its debut bitcoin shut up and in fact the new study was 77% of people say they would be more likely to invest in bitcoin if an etf existed. regulation may be coming. the biden administration introduced legislation in both the federal reserve and fcc have expressed concerns, but investment leaders say even so crypto would be the equivalent of a digital gold and

everyone's should have a some exposure in their portfolio. >> i think the long-term incredibly bright, i mean, this is amazing foundational technology that will migrate all financial services into the digital age, unbelievably positive, unbelievably good, against wealth creation opportunity i will see in my lifetime. reporter: actually, i would keep an eye on bitcoin because 130,000 options are set to expire today which experts worry could cause a 6 billion-dollar earthquake, but mark tells me if you can play the long gain there could be a huge upside. ashley: very good. great stuff, kelly. thank you and for more on this i want to bring investment diva ceo kiana daniels. good morning-- good morning, it's not, it's afternoon. good afternoon to you. what is your outlook for the next year with regard to bitcoin and just that sector overall it's growing in

acceptance, but do you fear the overhang of regulation? >> good afternoon guy definitely see the volatility because the market continues and i also see it growing even more from 2021. not really something new. it's been around now, for over a decade, but more and more people and institutions are getting involved which only indicates it's going to be here and it's going to continue to grow. the one thing that people are getting into crypto currencies right now need to remember is to get in with proper education. invest with money you can afford to lose and really educate yourself on the project before getting yourself into it, but other than that i think it's a great way to diversify your portfolio. ashley: you know, people say it won't really really take its place and tell the fcc becomes comfortable and puts in a framework. how soon do you think

that could happen? >> here's the thing, majority of crypto currency specifically bitcoin which is decentralized which means it's tokens are not set by their own body and they could not really be regulated. that's actually one of the beauties of crypto currency such as bitcoin saw there's a lot of talk about it, but they really can't do it with the centralized crypto currency they may be able to do that, but the best they can do with the majority of crypto currency is to crack down on taxes or something like that that not people many-- not many people take advantage of. ashley: right finally i want your take on by nance coin beating bitcoin in ethereum with a huge 1300% gain. >> when talking about decentralized crypto currency, it's one of

the centralized crypto currencies, so that scares me a little bit. i have not invested, not that i have anything against it, but the reason why i personally invest is because-- it's had great success this year, but a kind of has similar amount of volatility as ethereum so if you are into-- if you get into crypto currencies i would say don't get into it just because you heard about it in the past year. is it the right investment for you? you need to figure that out by yourself. ashley: very good advice, but a lot of people are making a lot of money in this sector, so certainly deserves a long hard look. thank you so much. i appreciate your time on this new year's eve and happy new year to you. >> happy new year. ashley: coming up, talking of which hope you have already

bought that champagne because many are finding it hard to get their hands on a bottle we will have the latest on that. plus, vice president harris apparently needs and refresher and economics 101 after stumbling through a question about inflation. danielle will come along and talk to us about what she thinks about the vice president and her lack thereof of knowledge. we will be right back. ♪♪ a must in your medicine cabinet! less sick days! cold coming on? zicam is the #1 cold shortening brand! highly recommend it! zifans love zicam's unique zinc formula. it shortens colds! zicam. zinc that cold!

ashley: new york city is supposed to be bustling with excitement on new year's eve, but with cases of surging and mandates, not exactly the case this year. the celebration in times square will go on with the city limiting the number of people to less than 15000 as revelers watch that 6-ton ball drop brewery-- ringing in the new year.

celebrations are adding more strain to small businesses. joining me now is the co-owner of standup new york, danny's olden. danny, great to see you. look, you rely on audiences, that your bread and butter. how are things going right now, for you? >> thanks for having me, actually. not too great. the last-- people just don't feel comfortable going out right now, which is mainly do i think to the lack of leadership by new york city politicians. they are creating a a lot of fear when they should be inspiring people to go out and be safe and they are not doing that. ashley: well, with that in mind, mayor elect eric adam says he's going to keep de blasio's private sector vaccine mandate. what does that mean for your business? i guess more of the same. >> that doesn't really affect us so much.

we are a small comedy club. so not an issue for us. ashley: i guess that is a something, but at the same time if people are not coming through the doors, have you been able to hang onto staff? tell me the running of the company, how is that been affected? >> i mean, we have some employees that they have not tested positive, but they came down with a cold, tested negative. some comics tested positive. it's really all over the place and very unpredictable right now. i mean, the fact is people-- symptoms are very mild they are not going to the hospital. they are not dying so i encourage our leaders, we have this incoming--

[inaudible] he should be inspiring people 100% of his twitter feed right now is that numbers are going up all day, breaking news, that's not what new york city needs right now. new york city is a wonderful place and there is a ton to do right now. my wife took the kids ice skating today pick central park is open. people are at rockefeller center. amazing place. ashley: but,-- well, we wish you the very best of luck, danny. we hope we can get the crowds back in. you can't be a stand up comic and have no one there to listen to your jokes. thank you so much for taking time to chat with us today. appreciate it. now, moving on, champagne sales are popping this new year's eve, but it could be hard to get your hands on your favorite bottle. bottles of bubbly are

not immune to supply chain bottlenecks. not good news especially for today. grady trimble live at a champagne bar in chicago with more. hey, grady. reporter: hey, ash. plenty of champagne here, but just like customers who went to retail stores, they have been struggling to keep in stock certain types of brands. i am with craig, the owner here. this is all because of the supply chain issues we have been dealing with across industries and product categories, but also because demand for champagne's been through the roof, not just in december, but all year long. >> everyone kind of went to the stay-at-home order during covid and like-- taste of champagne and sales have been booming. reporter: not traveling as much, have more disposable income and they are spending it on bubbly, apparently. tonight, you are all stocked up as we can see. what does the future look like in january, february because we would like a read on

your situation, which hopefully will give us a read on how the supply chain issues are across-the-board. >> our coolers are full now, but we are seeing and hearing there will be a slow down the first few months of the year as everything traveled across the ocean, but it's a good time for not only guess here, but at home to try new labels and different sparkling wines. reporter: try something new and sales are up nearly 30, 40% this year. have you had to increase prices for customers? >> not for anything we have seen quite yet this year. >> we direct order and direct import wine in that city sitting stateside now so we will see what the prices are. haven't passed them along yet. reporter: good, happy to hear. ash, if you are worried about a shortage of champagne, this seems like a good place to be this new year's eve, pops or champagne here in the windy city. ashley: i am worried, national emergency, but i feel better now

looking at those bottles and i hope we can take a couple of those home with you tonight. great job, grady trimble at a champagne store in chicago. more than a thousand us allies have been canceled so far today alone. the misery goes on. we are live on the ground to find out how covid is hurting new year travel plans. new worries about the biden administration's handling of inflation. vice president kamala harris appears to stumble through a pretty straightforward question danielle dimartino booth will give her-- us her take on what this means for hard-working families next. ♪♪

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ashley: concerns arising about the biden administration's plan to tackle inflation and the economy as vice president harris stumbles when asked a simple question about inflation. take a listen. >> is it wrong to consider inflation transitory? >> we have to address the fact that we got to deal that folks are paying for gas, paying for groceries and are-- [muffled audio] ashley: joining me now is quill intelligence ceo danielle dimartino booth. good afternoon. it's a little cringe worthy. it seems like the vice president was very unprepared for that question, which is strange because inflation is such a major issue right now per what did you make of it? >> it was really a bit offputting and confusing , i mean, it's front and center on every headline across the nation. meet prices up 22%, things all americans

know. energy policy that the biden administration has has also made gasoline more expensive than it would otherwise be because we continue to rely on imports, but she really does need to get a better grasp. i'm happy to visit with her and understand how and why inflation is raising-- raging as much as it is. a lot of it has to do with the fact that we are giving families too much money for food assistance. ashley: yeah, very true. i want to get into this issue talk about inflation as retail giant ikea is said to raise prices by 9% because of the supply chain issues and they are not the only ones. i guess my question is, is it what we can look forward to next year? >> well, i think there's a good chance the supply chain issues will persist into 2022. one of the big reasons we were talking about is that the port workers in los angeles and long beach inevitably you have a reporter at one of those two ports, they

come through for negotiations in june 30, and since 1990 they have never not gone on strike so we could have a bad situation with a lot of containers waiting to get unloaded exacerbated by a strike in the next few months so yes, i think the-- the supply chain issue will be front and center in 2022 in addition to what i was telling you about which is food inflation with the government spending on food assistance from 109 billion in the fiscal year ending september, 2021, to 135 billion in the current year, it's insane. ashley: wow. i also want to ask you about the fed, investors want to know what the fed does next year and how aggressive will it act. what are your thoughts? >> i think jay powell is starting to sound like the original j powell, talking very tough game. we know as of tomorrow that the fed will be reducing by 100% more than it was in december.

the liquidity pumping into the market i think jay powell is dead set on completing this tapering process by the middle of march and there are people on the board of governors and their district presidents throughout the country saying march 17, should be the rate hike it it wouldn't surprise me if he tried to get there and this economy is not well prepared for the cost of borrowing to also start increasing against this backdrop of a runaway inflation, much of what has been caused by the fiscal-- by the biden administration. ashley: very quickly, danielle, we are battling omicron now, who's to say there won't be another variant. is there a danger that they could act too soon? >> well, there is certainly a danger. we have seen some conferences get canceled, but we've also seen a lot of events continue to take place with better safety protocols, so i don't think the economy will be as hampered in 2022, because i think businesses and schools have figured out the

protocols to stay open and to keep the economy running and i hope that is the case. ashley: i do too. great stuff. danielle thank you for joining us and happy new year to you. >> happy new year. ashley: breaking now by the way, spirit airlines to triple the pay for their flight attendants through january 4, as airlines are scrambling to maintain their schedules after mass cancellations. this is due to crew shortages despite the cdc guidelines and with a surging covid cases and high holiday demand the airline industry is facing more hurdles in trying to get back to normal, so the question is, where could the relief come from. maybe it's jeff locke who joins us now from philadelphia international airport. jeff, i want you to solve these problems. reporter: i think that's an excellent idea. i would love to solve them. i would make a lot more money than i am right now, but there you go.

never got into tv for money. not only can i not solve the problems for you, not only can i not give you good news, i'm going to give you worse news that i gave you this morning on your first broadcast on the air this morning because the faa now says it's having problems just like the airlines in finding enough workers who are sick with covid. take a look at the statement they just put out this afternoon. whether an heavy traffic likely to result in some travel delays in the coming days, like the rest of the us population and increase number of faa employees have tested positive for covid. to maintain safety, traffic volume at some facilities could be reduced, which might result in delays. behind me, perhaps you can see these are the faa employees, tsa folks excreting people through end of the, that means longer lines and all of that. already we have a messed up you look at the numbers. here the cancellation

numbers and the delayed numbers to date: 1432 cancellations today, 2300 plus delays, worst airlines it is a skywest 312-- 312 cancellations, united is up there, jetblue which says it's canceling flights through january, today canceled 145 flights, 14% of its flights. delta 109 cancellations. it's a mess out there and it's not that these employers are gravely ill, it's just that if you have a positive test any work for the airlines you can come to work. this is how aaa put it to us at foxbusiness. >> they can't go to work and you have got airline personnel albeit flight crews or cabin crews or even personnel in the airport and they are of close with the public and they are sick and they have to stay home.

reporter: hope the new regulation from the cdc in terms of five days of quarantine for you if you don't have symptoms, but we aren't quite there yet. that's not really helping yet and i leave you with a statement from jetblue as i said canceling flights through january. they said today, like the rest-- there it is, wrong card. we expect the number of covid cases in the northeast to continue to surge for the next week or two meaning there's a high likelihood of additional cancellations the only good thing i can say for you, actually, is when they cancel flights there are fewer people at the airport to bother you, because they are stuck at home somewhere. how's that for positive. ashley: always looking for the bright side. i like it. always looking for the silverlining. i went to move on to this. terribly sad news to bring to you, just days

before she was set to turn 100 years old legendary actress betty white has died. tmc was the first to report the "golden girls" actress died in her home today. white has the longest career of any female in television ever. she's been a staple on the small screen since 1939. again, but he will-- betty white has died at the age of 99. we will be right back

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ashley: 2021 was well quite a wild year for housing with sales on track to reach the highest levels in 15 years while homeowners saw average home prices skyrocket about 20% from the year before. the question is what's in store for next year as we do, by the way, probably expected mortgage rates to go up in here with answers ceo rogers healy, ceo of rogers healy company. rogers, the story this year has been a lack of inventory, massive demand crisis-- prices moving higher. what do we expect next year? >> thus same story, may be higher interest rates. i think it's going to be a broken record and it really doesn't matter where you are at we will have the same problem in large part because of multiple demographics the biggest of which is

millennial's and when you have this many people wanting to buy their first home you will continue to have a housing shortage. ashley: we know there has been a trend out of the cities in light of the pandemic, but what are the hottest things buyers are looking for in houses these days >> cliché as it sounds i think they just want space and something they can call their own and we have seen the resurgence of stuff like the media room and stuff like dedicated office space and people that are fleeing large cities to have a more traditional layout which the last 15 or 20 years we had the open layout dominate and now, we have the more traditional layout take shape and people are requesting it more and more special with new construction. ashley: so, we are still going to see multiple people competing with each other into bidding wars or homes. you think that will continue? >> i do and if you think about it from a black-and-white logical perspective this year alone every house that came on the market in a certain price point say between three and 50 and

750 there was at least five or six people putting an offer on it and a lot of those people weren't able to find something else so they renewed their lease so when their leases up they will start again so i think we will have an influx of people, probably more squeezed in season probably between march and june whereas this year it was kind of the whole year due to covid, but i think it will be just as busy. ashley: i got less than a minute, rogers and i went to get into this, your company helped facilitate the recent purchase of market cubed and buying an entire texas town. how did that come about? >> you know, i just think the stars aligned and a friend of the company and has been a friend of ours for a while and did a solid for a friend that we are proud to say we were able to be a part of it. ashley: is it called the cuban town it now? >> not yet. i think there is still kind of figuring somethings out, but i wouldn't be surprised. it has a nice ring to it.

it would be a good destination for people. ashley: wouldn't ever. when you have that much money, why not pick rogers healy, thank you. appreciate your time on this new year's eve. we will be right back. >> rest in peace, betty white. their car insurance. ow! i'm ok! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ only in theaters december 17th. - i'm norm. - i'm szasz. [norm] and we live in columbia, missouri. we do consulting, but we also write. [szasz] we take care of ourselves constantly; it's important. we walk three to five times a week, a couple miles at a time. - we've both been taking prevagen for a little more than 11 years now. after about 30 days of taking it, we noticed clarity that we didn't notice before. - it's still helping me. i still notice a difference. prevagen. healthier brain. better life.

ashley: days after house speaker pelosi defend lawmakers' rights to make stock trades, she and her husband purchased millions of dollars of call options to

stocks including salesforce, row blocks, disney and cry micron technology. should people with insider information that can move the markets be able to do this? let's bring in heritage capital president paul schat dis. lawmakers have come under fire for things like this before and have been accused of insider trading. is that fair? i mean, is there a problem here? >> ashley, great to be with you. it is definitely a problem. if lawmakers are supposed to lead by example, how can it be okay -- and it's not a partisan issue, it's on both sides, right? we've seen pelosi do it, feinstein do it, john boehner, darrell issa. it's all over the place. so either take out all the rules and let it be the wild west, or this is one of the few times where, clearly, you need laws like the stock act of, what,

2012 where lawmakers shouldn't be trading individual securities. the fed changed their rules. if you're in the west wing, the administration, congress, supreme court, the fed, you shouldn't be able to trade individual securities. it's unethical, the optics are terrible. and if they really want to reap the rewards of capitalism like the speaker says, let 'em buy into a blind trust or an index fund. it's not that hard. ashley: right. >> this is greed, and rules are for thee, not for me. ashley: yeah. which is always the way, is it not, when you're talking about politicians. i wanted to move on if we can, paul, talk about some of the names you are buying to close out the year. what are you liking and, by the way, how do you feel about next year? >> sure. listen, every few percent this year i was pounding on the table to buy. the fed had our back, the economy was going to continue to heat up and things were really good. yesterday and today i've taken

more risk off the table. december 20th and then the first couple days of december we had over 100% exposure to equities. we have dramatically ratcheted that a back. i don't think 2022's going to be a bad year. i don't think we're going to lose 10%, but i think you're in that range of down a little bit to up maybe 5. so i can't say i'm all rah, rah, turning the page as we walk into what's going to be a much tighter and more restrictive ped. given that -- ashley: well, a lot of -- yeah, go ahead, i'm sorry. >> i'm not going to go on to the large cap tech bandwagon. ashley: right. >> i think the risk is too great for the reward next year. but look, i love china next year. i think china is certainly a con contrarian, anti-consensus play. look at hinges like kenny webb at fxi. china should be a winner, certainly second half of the year, last three-quarters of the year. and i think u.s., you know,

biotech, to me, that's your best risk-reward. that's had a terrible year. consumer discretionary as well. consumers, look, still more than $2 trillion of excess savings. that's got to get soaked up. ashley: all right. paul, we're going to have to leave it there. thank you, thank you so much. lots to chew on. we're going to have to move on. i want to wish everyone a very happy new year. charles payne, by the way, will be back on monday. we now go over to lauren simonetti who's in for liz claman. boy, hello again, lauren. lauren: hello again, ashley. and i have the last hour of the last day of trading of 2021. happy new year to you, ashley, and all of our viewers at fox business. it is already 2022 in dubai. the world's biggest tower ringing in the new year with a fireworks display like no other. and in 9 hours, we'll see the iconic ball drop in new york city, and america will begin to close the books on