maria: yeah. i just want to point out we've got a strong rally underway, liz peek. the dow is up almost 400 topoints right now, 30 minutes away from the if opening bell. the nasdaq's up 217, ands this is the kind of rally you want to see because it's on strong the fundamentals. we've got strong retail sales, retail sales up 1% month over month, biggest increase since january 2023, and look at some of these stocks that have reported today. walmart is up 8.5% on its earnings. cisco, also a major winner. liz. >> it all looks pretty good, maria. i would note that last month's retail sales were revised down like almost every government report, and i also wonder why does warren buffett right now have the biggest cash holding he's had in 32232 years? just -- the 32 the 22 years. just wondering. maria: thanks for that, a little caution in the wind. mark tenner the, liz peek, great to see you. "varney & company" picks it up. stu, take it away.

stuart zero good morning, everyone. we're getting the first indication after what candidate -- of what candidate harris will do about inflation. she will call for a crackdown on price gouging. it's not wild government spending that creates inflation, she says, oh, no. it is excessive profits. tomorrow harris revealings hersc policy. walmart offers lower prices and still makes a good profit. their report morning very positive, especially its e-commerce business, up 21% globally. that this stock going up $5, that's about, what, 8.5. now listen to this, retail sales overall double expectations. up a full 1%. the market likes walmart's results and definitely likes the strong retail sales. good news is good news. the dow up maybe 400at the opening bell, s&p up 50, nasdaq on a tear up another 220 the points. that reflects the continuing big tech rebound. interest rates are moving up in

participant because jobless claims came in less than expected. the 10-year's moving back closer to the 4% level, and the 2-year is back above 4%, you're now at a 4.09. how about that? bitcoin, $58,000. theres it is, yeah, 58,6. oil, 77, $78 a barrel. 77.53. we keep hearing that an iranian attack on israel is imminent. that's not moved the price of oil up much this morning, 600 cents. no change for the price of gasoline, 3.44, no change for diesel at $3.74 -- 3.76. donald trump is on message looking to the future, and new fox polling shows trump has a 1-point lead over hearst nationally. better yet, he has an 8-point lead with independents. 81% of voters rate the economy fair or poor, not good for incumbents. trump will give another press conference today. it has been 25 the days since

kamala harris became the democrats' nominee, and she still has not held a press conference or given an in-depth interview. today she joins president biden for a campaign event in delaware. on the show today, violence in new york city last night. pro-hamas demonstrators attacked a democrat campaign event. their convention opens in chicago next monday. one of the delegates was arrested at a pro-hamas demonstration in ferguson, missouri. he has resigned. but are there others who will bring the pro-hamas message inside the convention arena in and we will bring you the story of disgruntled gen-z males who are now leaning to trump. thursday, august 15th, 2024. "varney & company" is about to begin. ♪ ♪ can't bye buy me love. ♪ everybody tells me so.

♪ can't buy me love -- stuart: that's a lovely song. [laughter] >> of course you like it. stuart: no, it's the beats. >> that too, right. stuart: i remember hearing that for the first time. it was so refreshing. it was 1963, a long time ago. i just loved it. anyway, let's get right to the this. a rather different subject. fights between pro-hamas protesters and police broke out after a rally for kamala harris in new york city. lauren, there was chaos on the streets. lauren: yeah. stuart: what happened? lauren: anti-israel protesters crashed a rally and an after-party for kamala harris and her supporters last night. so the nypd had to be called in. the group pushed their way into this restaurant, they caused a ruckus and spilled out into the streets where the protesters literally shoved and circled police. smoke bombs went off in the crowd at a one point. at least 14 people were arrested. i wanted to tell you this -- stuart: can i just interrupt for one second? the mayor of new york, erin

adams -- lauren: was there -- stuart: and the governor -- lauren: was there. stuart: they were at that event. so they were attacked. lauren: you could say that. stuart: my premise is what happens if that happens next week in chicago? it's pro-hamas people disrupting it. lauren: democrats are going to do the everything they can to prevent that from happening, but there's a good chance that it does because what we saw on the college campuses is spilling over now into the streets and politics and could spill over into the if convention. president of columbia university has resigned. the school was a hotbed of anti-israel sentiment throughout the year. encampments took over the campus, jewish students felt threatened. she's the fifth ivy league president to step down in the past year. stuart: okay. i prefer to use the expression pro-hamas demonstrators -- lauren: i know. stuart: -- rather than anti-israel. just the way i am. you've got another one for us. the new fox polls on the race between trump and harris. this is good news for trump, isn't it? lauren: yeah. he holds a 1-point lead on

harris and also held a 11-point -- 1-point lead over biden. 7% -- 73% say the economy is in fair or poor condition, the same as last month but worse than june. what can kamala harris say tomorrow when she gives her economic plan that will make voters feel richer? stuart: i don't know, i cannot answer that question. >> she can't. lauren: -- corporations stop gouging the price of strawberries. stawfort stuart let's listen to the this, this is what trump had to say about a harris and biden's economic policy. roll it. >> i gave harris and biden an economic miracle, and they quickly turned it into an economic nightmare with a nation-wrecking agenda ripped straight out of kamala's san francisco, liberal playbook. you don't have to imagine what a harris presidency would look like. you're living through the misery right now, except it will get worse, and you're paying the price, a price like nobody's ever paid. stuart: all right. todd piro joins me now.

he's at the iowa state fair in des moines. well done, solid. harris is set to deliver her plan for the economy tomorrow. how will she pivot away from bidenomics? >> clearly, she is going to adopt as many of trump's policies or policies light as she can while not labeling them anything close to what donald trump has labeled them. but, in effect, they are going to be a push to the middle. the question is do the voters believe it. and i think republicans going forward -- not just donald trump in that sound bite, but every single republican needs to drive home this point, stu: even though you were appointed as the democrat queen just three weeks ago a, that does not mean that you get to to ignore your last three and a half years as part of the biden-harris administration and the economic problems that you wrought on the country. you don't get a blank slate just because you say so and the mainstream media is also going to give you one.

republicans need to be diligent about driving that point home. stuart: governor tim walz, minnesota, has agreed to the the debate j.d. vance on october 1st in new york city. vance has not yet responded to that. how do you expect that debate will play out, todd? >> i think that the debate is really where you are going to see the dichotomy between the republicans and the democrats probably more so than the kamala harris, donald trump debate was i really think tim walz literally on the ground in miniminnesota has put these -- in minnesota has put these policies for the far left in place, and he continues to propagate them. he is not making as farah push to the center occupy at least is not trying to as kamala harris', so i think you really are going to get this youngs that position, but i would just like to add, there's an implication that walz has agreed to the date, this is like the bride and the wedding planner and the groom being told about it and

saying, well, are you going to show up? it makes it look like j.d. vance has been obstructing this debate. the network works with the campaigns and they come up with a debate and they announce the debate, not the way tim walz wants to do it. stuart: hey, solid, enjoy that state fair. i've been there once, and it's fantastic. >> will do. stuart stouter let's get back to the retail business. let's start with walmart. lauren, the stock is way up this morning. lauren: wow. 9%. stuart: that is huge. lauren: they're a winner, like, all around on the essentials, right? people go in, they get cheaper food and the basics, got it. but walmart is also, and they've invested to do this, heir diversifying. their e-commerce sales, up 2322%. they have -- 22%. they have membership income, they sell data to advertisers. all of that is an income stream. how much the consumer spends, the average a ticket went up by .6%.

decent. overall, we're talking about over $169 billion in revenue. they raised their outlook for the year again and just to the fast forward a little bit, the cfo is talking, has not seen any weakness in the early part of august, and the election is not changing consumers' behavior. stuart: i wonder if harris will jawbone walmart and say you've got to get your prices down -- lauren: even more than you have. this is retail sales -- stuart: put it on the screen again, please. lauren: real good. stuart: that's a solid 1% for july. lauren: yeah. and june was negative, online sale sales were tepid here. cars, furniture, electronics, but they fell for clothing. i think the bottom line for this report is no recession is imminent. stuart: right. and that's good news on the market. lauren: good news is good news. stuart: for the first -- yeah. [laughter] good news is good news. adam johnson with us this morning. >> indeed. stuart: what does walmart's results and the retail sales

numbers tell you about the consumer? >> that the consumer is stronger than we think, that the people on wall street who are calling for recession are wrong. admittedly, there's also a political narrative here, stuart, in an election year. democrats are thrilled by this data. republicans, hate to say it, probably not, right? because if you're running on economic weakness and we need change, it's harder to make that a argument if people are employed and they're making money and spending money and that's generating corporate earnings. stuart: it's produced a nice rally this morning. does the rally have legs? >> yes, it does, and i say that as someone who is fully long and, by the way, took some hits over the down -- the past couple of weeks. you have right now corporate earnings going up because as we learned this morning from retail sales, people have money they're spending. earnings going up at the same time that we have inflation going down, and that means interest rates are about to go down which adds more fuel to this economy. the it's a wonderful scenario. again, it creates an issue for

republicans because it makes it harder for republicans to make the case that the economy isn't doing well. certainly, i as an investor and i as a portfolio manager on behalf of my clients and fully invested -- am fully invested because i'm comfortable with the economy. stuart: all right, sir, thank you very much, indeed. we have exciting program news, the democrat national convention kicks off monday in chicago, our show will be there live. yep, that's right, i'm going to chicago, we'll be there. "the bottom line" will also be there. fox business will begin airing full speeches starting at 7 p.m. eastern time each night. that's what we're doing, we're going to chicago. coming up, donald trump laying out his plan to fix the border crisis starting with this: >> if i win, you will have the largest deportation operation in american history starting at noon on inauguration day. [cheers and applause] if 2025. stuart: mass deportations, that's a promise. can trump keep it? we'll can ask border expert art

del cueto. a stunning scene showing the taliban parading american military equipment left during the botched after -- afghan withdrawal three years ago. lieutenant general keith kellogg is here on that. he's next. ♪ what will you do when the power goes out? power outages can be unpredictable and inconvenient, but with a generac home standby generator, your life goes on uninterrupted. because when your generac detects a power outage,

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stuart: strong retail sales figures encouraging the market this morning. you're up about -- just shy of 400 points on the dow, just over 200 points up on the nasdaq. the u.s. is taking part in the ceasefire talks between israel and hamas today t. trey yingst in israel. trey, do we know if hamas will attend these negotiations? >> reporter: yeah, hey, stuart, good morning. we don't know, but we do know those ceasefire if talks have reportedly resumed in qatar

today the as the middle east waits for an agreement. these meetings are considered to be high stakes and a last ditch effort to reach an agreement for gaza and end the war there. overnight israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu gave his negotiating team a wider mandate to bring to the table though analysts remain pessimistic about the possibility of successful from israel the heads of intelligence with agencies will be part of that a team along with the top adviser ott prime minister. the americans, egyptians and qataris are participating, we simply don't know if hamas will engage in the talks. cia director william burns also in attendance. we're still looking at the possibility of a three-phase agreement. the first phase would see up to 303 living hostages -- 33 living hostages released, the -- if these talks are successful, it could give the entire region an offramp amid escalating tech across the middle east. stuart?

stuart: thanks very much, indeed. retired lieutenant colonel if keith kellogg joins us. why the delay in iran's attack? >> yeah, stuart, thanks for having me this morning, good to be with you. 'cuz they're scared. look, here's what they know. they know that the israelis will respond in kind or worse. the israelis have a philosophy, and it basically was a suburb in beirut that hezbollah occupied, and in 2006 they leveled it. and what that means is the israelis have always believed in what is called december proportion may not's -- disproportionate if escalation. instead of going a tank for a tank, a village for a villager they go up the escalation ladder really fast. so what i'm saying is if iran and the supreme leader, khamenei, says we're going to attack with a lot of missiles and hit tel aviv, you can expect the israelis to respond by either going after the supreme leader, after their nuclear

sites, their infrastructure. this is how the israelis fight. and because of that, i think they've paused. when this first started over two weeks ago, i said, oh ors they're going to come back, here comes arm questioned done knocking at your door, but they're really nervous about the israeli response. i'm not too sure they are going to respond. it's sort of like what they did when we killed soleimani under president trump, and they responded with hitting a lot of dirt around an air a base. nobody was killed. some people had some concussions, but there was no damage and they said they're done, and the president said, we're done. and walk away from it. stuart all right, general. new video shows the taliban in afghanistan parading our military equipment. if they're celebrating the botched withdrawal which happened. three years ago. already, general, has anyone been held accountable for this debacle, and should they? who should be held accountable? >> yeah, stuart, you know, look, we lost a 20-year war, and

there's a lot of people who should be held accountable both military and government as well. primarily, it falls on joe biden and kamala harris because they walked away from the if doha agreement. that was the agreement that president trump put in place. it wasn't a perfect agreement, no agreements are perfect. but it was pretty darn good to set the stage for a good conflict ending time in afghanistan, and it was a conditions-based agreement. and bind just walked away from that -- the biden just walked away from that. most importantly, what president trump had done is he had established a personal relationship with the lead taliban negotiator. so we had that relationship as a well. and when we -- when president trump talked to him, and i was in the oval office when that happened, he told him what would happen if they didn't fulfill their agreement. even though it was translated, i kept thinking to myself, boy, how is this being translated, because it was the pretty stern. after that discussion not a single american was killed in over a year in afghanistan, but

biden walked away from that agreement. that was the biden and harris agreement because, remember, kamala harris said she was the last person in the room when the afghan decision was made by biden. she owns it. but we had it in place and the embarrassment you see today with them parading around with the equipment we left behind. oh, by the way, never forget ever those 13 great americans we lost at a ab a by gate when we had the withdrawal. stuart: got it. general, thanks so much for joining us. see you again real soon. google has confirmed that iran-linked hackers targeted both presidential campaigns. do we know what happened? lauren: so, yeah. iran hackers tried to infiltrate the personal e-mail accounts of roughly a dozen people linked to both the biden and trump campaigns including their cam campaign staffers, both former and current government officials. no names were released. google's threat team, they say these hackers are still at it. they're trying all the time. google's confirmation backs up the microsoft if report and also

a trump's claims that his campaign was hacked by iran. the fbi is investigating. scary times. stuart: it is, indeed. thanks, lauren. check the futures market. we're going to see how high we're going to go at the opening bell. we're going up, that's for sure. the opening bell is next. ♪ meet the jennifers. each planning their future through the chase mobile app. hellooo new apartment. one bank for now. for later. for life. chase. make more of what's yours. introducing new advil targeted relief. the only topical pain reliever with 4 powerful pain-fighting ingredients that start working on contact to target tough pain at the source.

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stuart: take a look at the the futures, please, because we're going up. dow's up about 400 points. the market opens in three and a half minute ifs. k.r. barton joining us. d.r., that's a pretty nice rally this morning. does it have real legs? >> oh, i believe it certainly has legs, stuart. and there's a couple of reasons why. i sent you a few charts with my notes. one of them was just some technical stuff showing why the nasdaq is going to keep bouncing up, but the other one was really important. we have to to go all the a way back to 2022 to find a time where the year-over-year -- actually, the quarter-over-quarter reports from individual companies had fewer mentions of a slowdown. that's huge, stuart.

that number of time it is companies have been saying -- times companies have been saying the economy's going to slow down has been cropping and dropping, and it's at the lowest point in who and a half years. that shows what real companies are look at day-to-day, month to month and what they're seeing on the horizon, not what they're reading from some tea leaves or getting from the economic reports. stuart: you have two the stock picks for us this morning. first off, domino's pizza. is there that much money in pizza? [laughter] >> there's a huge amount of money in pizza. and domino's pizza has that a really great run up until the middle of this year, and then they got slammed. i love stocks that are on a big pullback for just a small earnings hiccup that they had, actually looking forward they said we're going to have slower growth in the third quarter. i love where they are right now. there's a ton the of money in pizza, and they are still a go-to around the globe.

they're adding new stores, they're adding new franchises. they are, have a great business model and a really good cash position. stuart: you really like 'em, don't you? all right, asml, another stock pick of yours. it's up 22.5% today -- 2.5% today. where's it going? >> yeah, dutch company, stuart, that has a near monopoly on chip-making equipment in their sector. and they had another big pullback when we had the big tech crunch here just over the last few weeks. i think they have a lot more upside, back into four digits. they're up around the high 800s right now, i think we could see them back testing that $1100 high next year. stuart: are you all in with stocks right now? >> i think it's the time to be the all in. i heard adam say that earlier. yes, indeed, stuart, i am thinking that that is where everyone needs to be right now. that's where monies are going to

flow, and we have to be able to ride out these little ups and downs and not get too worried about a hem especially into the election -- about a them especially into the election. i think we're going to be a little bouncy, but i do think we're going up. stuart: you think that the market prefers a trump win to a harris win? >> it's tough to say from a purely objective level, stuart, but i think every time we've gotten good news out of the trump side of the red versus blue battle, we have seen a better reaction out of the market than from the harris side. stuart: all right. d.r. barton, thanks very much, sir. we'll see you later. by the way, the dow has just taken another step up. we were up about 450, now we're up almost 470 to, 4800 -- 480 to. press that button, and we'll start this market moving. we're off a, we're running and the dow is going to be up almost 500 points at the opening bell. well, up 4000 -- they all open,

we'll get 'em -- we're up 1% on the dow right now, 4202 points, and there's only one -- 420 points and there's only one loser, and that is verizon. everything else on the upside. caterpillar is so far unchanged. the s&p 500, that too has opened higher. look at the percentage there, almost 1% higher. that's a strong the move. the nasdaq composite, almost -- 1.15, another strong move. we always show you big tech at this time, that's where the money is. amazon, apple, microsoft, meta, alphabet, they are all a up. the best gain is for amazon. it's up 3%. let's get back to walmart. they reported early this morning. strong earnings, indeed. take me through it, please, lauren. lauren: comp sales both in store and online up 4.2, more than the prior two quarters. they're keeping market share with lower income, gaining market share with higher income. they are firing on all a cylinders. they even saw a slight uptick in

discretionary, think home goods, tough like that, they had been in decline for 11 straight quarters. not to burst the bubble which is 8%, the ceo said they don't expect notable deflation in the future, so steady as a she goes price wise. stuart: adam, the consumer is not tapped out. >> the consumer is not tapped out. this is evidence that the consumer is not tapped out. this is a wonderful report for those of us who are long stocks and who believe that recession is a word that we should not be uttering with regard to the next 18 months. stuart: all right. we have earnings out morning from john deere -- no, it's just deere and company these days. tractor people, obviously. the strock is up -- stock is up3 %. lauren: it was a well executed report over a good report card. farm segment sales are down 25% in the quarter for that category. but because they're keeping their prices high and their costs low, cutting jobs, cutting salaries, keep your job and make less, they've protected their profits. so it was a well executed report. stock the's up 3.5%.

stuart: tapestry, coach, right? lauren: most of their business comes from each can, the handbags and accessories. look, they're affordable and chic, so this was a great report card. stock's up 88%. they are concern -- 8%. they are trying to buy michael kors. they want to beep up their luxe -- beef up fir -- their luxury unit. stuart: what do you make of that that, adam? >> i normally don't discuss women's accessories. i only buy what i'm told to buy -- lauren: the tabby is apparently very hot. your daughters would know. >> what's the hot color? lauren: i don't know. stuart: now, here's a story. i find this one intriguing. i'm not sure what it's all about. apple, they've got a new tabletop robot that they're working on. do we know -- lauren: according to bloomberg who says you have to wait 32-3 years -- 2-3 years to get it, and it will cost $1,000 when you

can. think of a big ipad that sits on, like, a robotic arm. so it's a computer that has a neck and ears. does that make sense? it responds to your voice, to your movements kind of like a smart home command center. can tell you where people are, where things are. it's not the iphone. it's a new product category. apple needs that. they have to diversify. it's a way to the use artificial intelligence. stuart: well, is -- do they think that robotics is the big new thing? lauren: yes. stuart: or will be the big, new thing? and they mean a command center with arms and ears and all this -- lauren: i eventually think that ipad that has a neck will eventually have wheel, and that robot can go around your house. stuart: really? lauren: right now, it can sit on your table. stuart: do you have mig to add, adam? >> i do. i was in dubai about a year ago a, and they have these little robots that deliver food, and it's amazing to see these things just going along the sidewalks -- stuart sidewalks?

>> yeah. and because it's dubai, everyone's very respectful, you get out of the way, it has a little horn, it's not new york where they try to steal it is and get the food inside. [laughter] stuart: let's take a look at trump media. i believe a couple of organizations or big investors have take a position. is that true? lauren: institutional buy-in. vanguard bought some 3 million shares in the second quarter, blackrock, about 2 million. state street about 400,000. djt, it's in the russell 1,000 and 3,000 so we actually all might own -- stuart: does that mean they think trump's going to win? lauren: that was in the second quarter, and the answer might have been yes, but a lot has changed in the past couple of weeks. and what did we say a couple of days ago? djt has lost a quarter of its value since camilla harris entered the race -- kamala harris entered the race. stuart: let's get back to the starbucks. i want to to know how much they're paying the new ceos -- ceo, brian nichol. how much is he getting? if. lauren: must be nice.

$85 million in cash and stock. here's the breakdown. $10 million cash, $75 million in a grant to replace the equity he forfeited by leaving chipotle. $11.6 million -- 1.6 million salary, a bonus of up to $7.2 million and an annual $23 million, stock award, and he does not have to relocate to seattle. they're going to outfit him with a remote setup in newport beach. >> wow. lauren: he deserves every penny of that, because when he was at chipotle, he doubled their sales and trimmed their stock. stuart: -- tripled their stock. stuart: ask senator elizabeth warren if she thinks he is worth that much money. adam, is he worth it? >> well, if he can do what he did at chipotle, the answer is, yes. lauren: and if he can't -- >> he'll be out of job. [laughter] lauren: i'm almost nest for him. >> if i make in money, my clients give me more money to run. if i lose money, they pull it. stuart: i've never heard of

this, intap. >> the number one company in the world for process software. you're an accounting firm, a doctor's office, a law office, think of all the paper pushing that needs to happen in all those professions, martialing all the stuff along the way. that's what these guys do. yesterday they reported earnings. they had a double beat. they beat on earnings, they beaten on we've news, they also -- revenueses. they also raised their guidance. they're growing 35%. love it. stuart: next one is -- you've mentioned this one before -- super micro computer. >> yeah. and i i want to -- look at it. 583. it got as low as a 475 only about two weeks ago, stuart. and i'm not coming on to take a victory lap, nobody does that -- [laughter] but my point -- stuart: stick the around, son. [laughter] >> when we talk about these company, it's not just for yuks, you know? these are opportunities to make money, and here's a great example. this is the number one company in the world for assembling platforms for artificial intelligence. they are the an nvidia partner.

and, by the way, they're trading at 16 times earnings with 35-40% growth. where else can you buy an a.i. company for 16 times? i said buy it at 4755, $100, two weeks ago. it's 583 today, i think it's a double from here. it's cheap, it's a.i., buy it. you herald it so, please, listen when we talk. stuart: so long as nvidia's earnings come through online as we are expecting -- >> which is two weeks from now, and i own nvidia. yeah, i'm a little nest going in because -- nervous going in because it's been very volatile, but i'm comfortable owning nvidia. certainly comfortable owning super micro. stuart: okay. coming up, we're going to turn to politics. hunter biden reportedly sought u.s. government help on a project while on the board at ukrainian gas company burisma. the white house denying joe biden knew anything about it. watch. >> what's biden's reaction to this, and is he concerned about what this looks like to the

american public? >> the president has never, has never done business with his son, and he was not aware of this. stuart: doesn't looked good. congressman james comer will have much more to say about this. we'll be back on that. and battle columbia president -- embattled columbia president resigning. jon levine will be here to take that on. ♪ it's gone that be a long, long time til touchdown brings me round again to find -- ♪ i'm not the man they think i am at all ♪

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stuart: all right, we are 12 minutes into the trading session, and that rally is certainly holding at least in the very early going. the dow is up 450, nasdaq up better than 200 topoints. we received two insights, i'll call them, into the state of the consumer this morning. we had retail sales numbers and walmart's earnings report. kelly o'grady covering for us. the consumer is not tapped out, right? >> reporter: no, it's not. i mean, this was way better than

i think really anyone expect. there's been a lot of anxiety about the health of the consumer, but today's data shows they're doing okay for now. walmart is a bit of a bellwether for the economy. they beat on both top and bottom line. the big excitement though was the company raised guidance for the rest of the year. that is not something we've seen many retailers do thus far. on the commentary side, they're not seeing a weak consumer overall, but they are seeing a deal-conscious consumer. they worked really hard to roll back prices, but the really great thing is not at the expense of their margins. really important nugget, the share was driven by upper income households, so that indicates good news for walmart but potentially at the expense of other higher priced retailers. the other big news was retail sales, big beat here. we were expecting an increase of 0.3 including auto, 0.1% excluding, instead you saw 1% and 0.4%. that 11% mostly driven by a rebound after that psycher a--

cyber attack that hit auto dealers. overall, better picture than expected, and it indicates the consumer is not as a bad as some feared. listen to this. >> they're doing all of those things that says i'm worried about things, but they're also able to say to you right now i still have a job, and i don't think it's going away, and i'm getting a raise. so their comfort level is down, but their actual ability to to spend hasn't changed all that much. >> reporter: so, stuart, so what here? if you're walmart, you can provide lower prices, you're given the bread and butter necessity item, but i think today's data together with what we've seen from other earning, the consumers are maybe being more cautious on those bigger ticket the items. stuart: just a little. kelly, thank you very much. what do walmart's earning tell you about the consumer? >> hey, yeah, thanks for having me. yeah, i mean, walmart's

typically a bellwether for consumer spending, and if they're doing well, consumers are being more mindful in their spending. one thing i'll point out is everyone knows walmart to be primarily a grocery retailer, a food retailer, but they're actually doing pretty well in their general merchandise category, something we don't talk about much with walmart. but with the growth of their e-commerce if platform, they're able to now start growing their general merchandise if categories. people are shopping not just for grocery, but also clothes and home furnishings, things like that, and those are typically higher margin items. stuart: if walmart is firing if on all cylinders, where's the stock going? it's t at $73 a share right now. do you have a target price? >> yeah. i mean, we haven't updated it yet today, but as of yesterday it was $75, but we'll be updating our target price today. but, yeah, we think that that the stock has room to go higher. like you said, walmart is really firing on all cylinders, and

this is not the walmart that most people have been accustomed to know. this is a wall walmart that's really changing. it's not just known for its retail business anymore. walmart's also growing its his thing business, it's growing its health and wellnesses business, it's selling data. these are much higher margin business streams, and that's allowing the company to, for one, lower prices while also growing the all all margin profile -- overall margin proif final over the next few years, we'll likely see operating income grow father than sale meaning margins -- faster than sales. stuart: okay. arun, thanks for joining us. hope to see you again soon. >> thank you. stuartout former google chief executive eric schmidt is walking back his criticism of the company's work from home policy. what did he say then and what's he saying now? lauren: he told a group of stanford if university students that google is plague defense to openai because too many of their workers work from home.

he said, quote, google decided that work-life balance and and going home early and working from home was more porn than winning, and the reason that start the-ups work is because the people work like hell. well, company policy allows workers at a both companies to work remotely two days a week, so they have to the go in three days a week. the video of him saying that was posted online. he then asked that the school take it down, and he walked back his comments. he said he regrets his error. [laughter] i think what he said is how most ceos feel, but they can't say that publicly because they got their workers for the most part to come in three days a week -- keep the peace. stuart: i wonder if you'll get them all to come back in five days a week. lauren at this point, no, i don't think so. stuart: lauren, thank you. we just got this in, j.d. vance has agreed to the vp debate with tim walz. in a tweet moments ago he said, and i'm quoting, the american people deserve as a many debates as a possible which is why president trump has challenged

kamala to three of them already. not only do i accept the cbs debate on october 1st, i accept the cnn debate on september 18th as well. i look forward to seeing you at both. the walz campaign has only accepted the october 1st debate as of now, but a october 1st, that's going to happen. coming up, to solve the inflation problem, kamala harris will blame big corpses and go after them. harris is trying to distance herself from guise mommics. that -- bidenomics. that will be my take, top of the hour. critics accuse the administration of covering up increases in medicare premiums ahead of the election. the full story is next. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ what does a good investment opportunity look like? at t. rowe price we let curiosity light the way. asking smart questions about opportunities like clean water. and what promising new treatment advances can make a new tomorrow possible.

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stuart: the administration is accused of trying to cover up medicare premium increases just ahead of the election. grady trimble with me now. grady, by how much are premiums expected to go up? >> reporter: stu, could be up to 60% by some estimates, and that's why the biden-harris administration is rolling out this plan. it would cap the amount premiums for medicare part d which covers prescription drugs can go up from one year to the next at $35. that might if sound good, but it

comes at a cost of $5 billion to taxpayers for what they're calling a demonstration project. and the reason the federal government is implementing this project in the first place is because of changes to the way the medicare system works brought on by the so-called inflation reduction act. that legislation sought to lower prescription drug prices for older americans, but now insurance companies are on the hook for what patients used to pay, and these companies are expected to pass those new costs on to patients in the form of higher premiums. this $5 billion project seeks to blunt huge yearly price spikes. >> now they're having to take money from the general treasury funds and throw it into medicare part d so that seniors aren't faced 90 days before the election with premium increases of 40, 50, 600% this year when they already face premium

increases of 21%. >> reporter: and republicans in congress are fired up about this. senator bill cassidy, who's a doctor, by the way, says the biden-harris administration is using the federal treasury for political advantage. he goes on to say the treasury's going to borrow more money for this. i don't think it matters to biden and harris, but it should matter to us as tabs payers. another group -- taxpayers. another group of lawmakers wants the government accountability office to take a look at this so-called demonstration project which they say shifts costs from plan sponsors to us, stu, the taxpayers. stuart: oh, ye. -- yes. grady, thanks very much, adam johnson, i can see why they'd want to cover up those premium increases. >> you better believe it. trump will destroy kamala harris on 60% price increases? he'll say health care for all is price hikes for all. that's what you get under kamala harris. he will destroy her on this. that's why the democrats are trying to cover it up and queen

it quiet -- keep it quiet. stuart: got it. thanks very much for being with us. >> oh, anytime, stuart. stuart: check that market, please, we've got the dow up 400 to, the nasdaq is up 2600. all those indicators up better than 1% -- 260. still ahead, congressman james comer is going to be here to discuss hunter biden. is there proof that hunter and his dad did business together? we'll find out. we'll also ask about trump's so-called secret weapon, the disgruntled gen-z male. if congressman darrell issa is not happy. minnesota, a small business owner served jail time over governor tim walz's extreme lockdown mandates. that woman, lisa hanson, is here to share her story. the 10:00 hour is next. ♪

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