After working as a reporter for Radio Hong Kong, he began his broadcast journalism career at KEMO-TV (now KOFY-TV) in San Francisco. He was then recruited to join the Manhattan bureau of the newly formed 24-hour news network CNN, which launched on June 1, 1980. He hosted the CNN shows Business Day, Business Asia, and Moneyline with Willow Bay. In 2001, he left CNN to host CNBC’s “Wall Street Journal Editorial Board with Stuart Varney.”

Prior to joining FNC, Varney served as the host of CNBC’s “Wall Street Journal Editorial Board with Stuart Varney.” Before that, he was a co-anchor of CNN’s “Moneyline News Hour.” Varney helped launch CNN’s business news team in 1980 and hosted many of their financial programs including, “Your Money,” “Business Day” and “Business Asia.”

He joined Fox News’s business team in January 2004, and joined Fox Business Network as an anchor when the network launched in October 2007.

Varney has appeared on and guest-hosted “Your World with Neil Cavuto.” Varney joined Fox News in 2004.

As of 2010, he lived in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, with his wife Deborah and their six children. On October 29, 2014, The New York Post reported that Varney was served with a divorce complaint by his wife of 21 years. The complaint alleges that Varney conducted a nine-year adulterous affair with a woman from Orlando, Florida.

In an interview on June 5, 2013 on Fox News, Varney said “We hand down $79 billion dollars every January on these so-called poor people.” “You’re not being mean to poor people?” host Gretchen Carlson asked Varney, who responded, “I am. I am being mean to poor people. Frankly I am.” This exchange of words gained brief popularity when it was cited on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central, with journalists from The Washington Post reporting on his comments afterwards.

In 2013 Varney generated controversy for his commentary on Pope Francis, who had criticized the wealth gap and denounced unfettered capitalism as a system which “rules rather than serves.” Varney stated, “I go to church to save my soul. It’s got nothing to do with my vote. Pope Francis has linked the two. He has offered direct criticism of a specific political system. He has characterized, negatively, that system. I think he wants to influence my politics.”

Varney has lived in the United States since 1974. In November 2015, Varney became an American citizen.

On August 30, 2019, Varney claimed that President Donald Trump had never lied to the American public in conversation with Republican presidential candidate Joe Walsh on Varney & Co.