‘Bad News All Around!’ Fox Business Host Stunned By ‘Highly Inflationary’ Prices in Total Bummer of an Economic Analysis

Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney sounded the alarm on the state of the economy on Monday morning, with the veteran host pointing to higher gas prices hitting other aspects of the economy amid the war in Iran.

“We’ve got oil this morning at $102 a barrel, and we’ve got gasoline at $4 a gallon,” Varney said. “What’s the effect of these high energy prices on the housing market? It’s bad news all around, isn’t it?”

His guest, Circle Squared Alternative Investments CEO Jeff Sica, agreed.

“It is bad news, Stuart. “High energy prices are kryptonite for the housing market,” Sica said.

He then called the housing market a “blood-stained hellscape” because of interest rates — a comment that drew a chuckle from Varney. “I’m being a little overly-dramatic,” Sica said, before continuing with his analysis.

“If you look at what we were hoping for — we were hoping for rates to come down and for mortgages to be affordable, and we were also hoping for construction cost to come down,” Sica said. “Now we get hit with this double wave of negatives, which are construction costs are going up — because when oil goes up in price, everything goes up in price — and mortgage rates are not going to come down.”

He added, “affordability, especially for those first-time home buyers, is now an elusive dream until oil prices come down and interest rates come down.”

Varney then marveled at the surge in diesel prices since Operation Epic Fury started.

“The average gallon of diesel is $5.41 — that is up $1.66 in a month,” Varney reported. “That’s highly inflationary.”

Sica said those higher prices will soon be reflected in monthly reports on the housing market.

“When diesel prices are up, when oil prices are up, it affects everything,” he said. “So you’ll see in the housing numbers, you’re going to see a slowdown in construction, which is very, very negative.”

Watch above via Fox Business.

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