be sure to follow me on twitter, facebook and instagram, and i'll be back next week with more in-depth interviews right here on "the wall street journal at large." thanks very much for joining us. ♪ ♪ ♪ jack welcome to "barron's roundtable" where we get behind the headlines and prepare you for the week ahead. i'm jack otter. the merger with amazon is helping whole foods cut costs. whole foods' ceo john mackey will join us. but what we think are the three most important things investors ought to be thinking about right now. the markets dipped on news of president trump testing positive for covid-19 but leveled off and ended the week with gains. why wasn't it a bigger deal? oil stock tumbled, what that

means for the energy sector and your portfolio. and sony and microsoft are set to reelite next generation video game console ahead of the holidays, is and most repreorders have already -- preorders have already sold out. on the round table, my colleagues, ben levisohn, carlton english and jack howe. ben, i thought the debate might be the big story of the week until we all woke up friday morning to find out that's president and first lady have covid-19, but the market largely shrugged it off. what's going on? >> they say that the market hates uncertainty, but investors have been planning for a lot of it. if you look at the vix, the market's fear gauge, they're expecting a heightened level of volatility all the way through january. so something like this comes along, and it shocks the market, but it doesn't shock it, i think, as much as people would have normally -- if it had just come out of nowhere. and there's also stimulus talk going on, and actually i wouldn't say in the background. that was taking up a lot of

attention this week, the negotiations between mnuchin and nancy pelosi. and that also got the market excited because it would love to see a stimulus bill get passed and have a new cash infusion into the economy. jack: yeah, they both sounded fairly positive, they were making nice noises about compromise. one other thing that might possibly push us toward stimulus was some kind of bad news about a layoffs. >> yeah. there were a lot of headlines this week about big layoffs first from disney which was laying off almost 30,000 the people, the airlines announced they're going to be furloughing a lot more now that a stimulus bill hasn't been passed. royal dutch shell announced 9,000 layoffs, and these headlines really don't look good. i think they add to this sense of unease out there about the economy. there's a lot of talk that the market may not need stimulus, more stimulus to e keep it going. a lot's already been passed. it surely wants it, and i think it would provide a lot of

comfort for investors who are watching nervously. jack: one of the great things about ben levisohn is he looks under the hood of the market. explain why you see more evidence the market is looking for a stimulus. >> it had to do with the outperformance of the dow which gained almost 2% versus the nasdaq which finished the week up almost about 1.5%. when you see the dow outperform, it usually means economically-sensitive stocks, stocks that do well when the economy's doing well are outperforming and not the growth stocks, the tech stocks that have been fueling so much of the market's rise. that's what happened this week. and the one thing that could really get those cyclical stocks going would be a stimulus plan that gets money out into the economy, gets people working and gets people spending money. that's just what these companies need. so the fact that they outperformed this week means that there's actually might be a decent chance we get something down the road. jack: carlton, always the contrarian publication, barron's takes a look at the energy patch this week which has really been

ma'amerred. hammered. >> it certainly has. you look at energy stocks so far this year, and they started -- i'm sorry, in the third quarter, and they fell 20% while the s&p 500 gained 8.5%. that's probably one of the widest spreads we've seen. but there are those income-hungry investors that look for opportunities in that sector. jack: speak of hungry, the sharks are looking around for some merger and acquisition activity when things get ugly. we've seen some of that too. >> yeah, there was a deal between devon energy and wpx that was announced earlier this week, and analysts are expecting we're going to see more consolidation in the industry possibly into next year. jack so one way to play energy is mlps, master limited partnerships. they were very popular for a while, fell out of favor, but they pay nice dividends. and so andrew barry has an interesting story about how to do that. >> yeah. i encourage everyone to read andrew's story. he he gets into a lot of detail.

but they primarily focus on these pipeline companies could be a good bit. now, they don't have those same tax consequences. up by, these funds are trading at very steep discounts, the yields are ranging from 7-17%, and andrew identified several of these funds that could be good investments. two of them, and again, i urge everyone to read the story, but two of them are keen anderson energy infrastructure and tortoise energy infrastructure. jack: thanks a lot, carlton. and one more reason to stay at home, a big story on video games. jack, what do you have on your head? >> jack, i know what you're thinking, and i agree. i do look cool now. the problem is as soon as next month we're getting new hardware from microsoft and sony that will make my family's video game gear hopelessly out of date. i'm talking about the new consoles, the xbox series x, the

playstation 5. $500 apiece. microsoft has a new pricing plan where you can pay $25 a month or $35 a month for the hardware, it includes some software and services. so why should investors care? acti havevision blizzard, electc arts, those are the video game publishers, they have a history of outperforming the markets for many months after the new consoles drop as the youngsters like to say. this is a really big business right now, jack. video games are four times the size of the u.s. movie box office. this year the top tier games go from $50 up to $70. jack: wow. well, thanks a lot, jack. i'm looking forward to reading bare ron's on that thing you've got -- barron's on that thing on your head. >> all i've got is donkey kong, but i'm looking for it. jack: coming up, when the pandemicking hit, americans were

suddenly unable to buy everyday items. whole foods' ceo john macke

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♪ ♪ jack: since its merger with amazon, whole foods has transformed into an online force. joining me now, john mackey, whole foods' cofounder and ceo to and the author of "conscious leadership." thanks a lot more joining me, john, i really appreciate it. >> thanks for having me on. jack: i'd like to start with what's in the news right now. "the wall street journal" has reported that there's been somex stations across the country toex join us. howie: this is fox news coverage. i'm howard kurtz in washington. president trump's medical team

is giving an update on his condition. we see the doctors coming out to the microphones. they will typically make an opening statements and take some questions from reporters. we're anxious to hear about the president's condition. let's listen in. >> good morning, everyone. >> good morning. >> since we spoke last, the president has continued to improve. as with any illness, there are frequent ups and downs over the course, particularly when a patient is being so closely watched 24 hours a day. we review and debate every finding, compared to existing science and literature, weighing the risks and benefits of every intervention, the timing as well as impacts a delay may have. over the course of his illness the president has experienced two episodes of transient drops in his oxygen saturation. we debated the reasons for this and whether we would even

intervene. as a determination of the team based on the timeline from the initial diagnosis that we initiated dexamethasone. i would like to take this opportunity, given speculation over the course of the illness, the last couple days, update you on the course of his illness. thursday night into friday morning when i left the bedside the president was doing well. with only mild symptoms and his oxygen was in the high 90s. late friday morning, when i returned to the bedside, the president had a high fever and his oxygen saturation was transiently dipping below 94%. given these two developments, i was concerned for possible rapid progression of the illness. i recommended the president would try supplemental oxygen, see how he would respond. he was fairly adamant that he didn't need it. he was not short of breath. he was tired, had the fever and that was about it. after about a minute, on only two liters, his saturation

levels were over 95%. he stayed on that for about an hour, maybe, and was off and gone. later that day, by the time the team here was at the bedside, the president had been up out of bed, moving about the residence, with only mild symptoms. despite this, everyone agreed the best course of action was to move to walter reed for more thorough evaluation and monitoring. i would like to invite up dr. doildr.dooley to discuss the con plans. >> thank you, dr. conley. a brief clinical update on the president's condition, i want to reiterate my comments from yesterday regarding how proud i am to be part of this multi-disciplinary team of clinical professionals behind me and what an honor it it to care for the president here at walter reed national military medical center. the president continues to

improve. he has remained without fever since friday morning. his vital signs are stable. from a pulmonary standpoint, he remains on room air this morning and a is not complaining of shortness of breath or other significant respiratory symptoms, is ambulating himself, walking around the white house medical unit without limitation or disability. our continued monitoring of his cardiac, liver and kidney function demonstrates continued normal findings or improving findings. i'll now turn it over to dr. garabaldi from johns hopkins to talk about therapeutics and our plan for today. >> thank you, dr. dooley. i wanted to reiterate what an honor and privilege it is to take care of the president and be part of such a talented team

here at walter reed. the president yesterday evening completed his second dose of remdesivir. he's tolerated that infusion well. we have been monitoring for potential side effects. he's had none that we can tell. liver and kidney function have remained normal. we continue to plan to use a five day course of remdesivir. in response to transient low oxygen levels as dr. conley has discussed, we did initiate dexamethasone therapy and he received his first dose of that yesterday and our plan is to continue that for the time being. today, he feels well. he's been up and around. our plan is to have him to eat and drink, be up out of bed as much as possible torques be mobile. if he continues to look and feel as well as he does today, our hope is to plan for a discharge as early as tomorrow to the white house where he can continue his treatment course many thank you very much. i'll turn it over to dr. conley for any questions. >> dr. conley -- >> just a moment, please. the president wanted me to share

how proud he is of the group, what an honor it is for him to be receiving her care here, surrounded by incredible talent, academic leaders, department chairs, internationally renowned doctors and physicians. i would like to reiterate how pleased we all are with the president's recovery. with that i'll take your questions. >> dr. conley, you said there were two instances where he had drops in oxygen. can you walk us through the second one. and also i've got a question for the lung specialist afterwards. >> yesterday there was another episode where he dropped down 93%. he didn't ever feel short of breath. we watched it and it returned back up. we evaluate all of these and given the timeline where he is in the course of illness, we were trying to maximize everything we could do for him and we debated whether we would even start it. the dexamethasone.

and we decided that in this case the potential benefits early on the course probably outweighed any risks at this time. >> wil did you give him a secd round of supplemental oxygen yesterday? >> i would have to check with the nursing staff. if he did, it was very limited. but he's not on oxygen and the only oxygen that i ordered, that we provided was that friday morning initially. >> what time was that yesterday? >> yesterday -- what was yesterday? >> the second incident. >> the second incident. it was over the course of the day, yeah, yesterday morning. >> the president's current blood oxygen levels, that's my first question to you, dr. conley. >> 98%. >> what did the x-rays and ct scans show? are there signs of pneumonia? are there signs of lung involvement? or any damage to the lung? >> we're tracking all of that. there's some expected findings but nothing of any major

clinical concern. >> why start him, dr. conley on the -- >> did is oxygen level ever dip below 90? >> we don't have any recordings of that. >> what about here? >> at the white house or here, anything below 90, just the to qualify herself. >> it was below 94%. it wasn't the low 80s or anything. >> the steroids -- >> yesterday you told us the president was in great shape, has been in good shape, minutes after your press conference mark meadows told reporters that the president's vitals were very concerning over the last 24 hours. simple question for the american people, whose statements about the president's health should be believed? >> the chief and i work side-by-side. i think his statement was misconstrued. what he meant was that 24 hours ago, when he and i were checking on the president, that there was that momentary episode of a high

fever and that temporary drop in the saturation, which prompted us to act expediently to move him up here. fortunately, that was really a veterans correspondent, limb -- very transient, limited episode. a couple hours later he was back up, mild again. i'm not going to speculate what that limited episode was about, so early in the course but he's doing well. >> what are the expected findings on the lungs and why is the president not wearing a mask in the videos and photos that have been released. >> the president is wearing a mask any time he's around us and we're wearing our n-95s, full ppe. he's the patient and when we can, when he'll move out into public, we move him out and about other people when he's not in full ppe, i'll assure you, as long as he's under my care, he'll be wearing a mask. >> the room is negative pressure? >> i'm not going to get into specifics of his care. >> can you answer the question on the lung function?

the lung function question, dr. conley. >> i'm sorry. >> the lung function question, can you talk about that. >> i would share, like every patient, we perform lung spirometry on him. he's maxing it out. we told him, see what you can do, it's over 2500 milliliters each time. he's doing great. >> are there scans showing any irregularitieses in the lungs? >> you disclosed that the president was administered oxygen. >> i was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude that the team, the president, his course of isness has had. -- illness has had. didn't want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction. and in doing so, it came off that we were trying to hide something which wasn't necessarily true and there you have it. he is -- the fact of the matter

is that he's doing really well. he is responding and as the team said, if everything continues to go well, we're going to start discharge planning back to the white house. that's it. thank you, folks. >> doctor conley, on his lung scans -- >> can you explain what you found on the lung scans? howie: good news as we heard from doctors at walter reed national medical sens center, president trump's condition as he battles the coronavirus said to be continuing to improve, he's in very good shape according to the doctors. dr. sean conley, more explicit this news conference saying late friday morning the president developed a high fever, that his oxygen level dipped below 94%, dr. conley said he recommended oxygen. the president said he didn't feel he needed it. nevertheless it was administered. dr. conley said he had been trying to convey an upbeat attitude yesterday. it came off -- it was not his

intent, that they were trying to hide something, that was not his intent. i think today's session was more effective at clearly communicating the state of the president's health and as i say, very good news, much more upbeat and much more definitive reception. stay tuned to this fox news channel and this fox station for continuing coverage of his story. i'm howard kurtz in washington. howie: and we're back with our fox news audience, back with the panel. i want to go around briefly to ? >> well, i love p and c long term. you've got a great management team, a dividend that's very, very safe, but i think your point about blackrock's sale is really, there's a lot of optionality around that. it's both positive from an offensive and defensive perspective. if you think about it, they now have the strongest balance sheet

in all of banks today, so if you think about a double dip, pnc's well positioned but it's also offensively attractive because they have the ability to go do an acquisition, buy back stock and really increase their earnings power that they have coming out of this down turn. so this is a high, you know, a name that we think has multiple dollars upside over the next five, you know, 3-5 years. jack: and ben's got a question. >> hey, david, your leverage lending loans benefit from rising rates and aren't prices supposed to stay low for a while? >> well, see, i think what's really attractive about leverage loans is even if rates don't go anywhere, you can still earn a 4, 4.5% kind of return. and if the market's wrong, which it often is, about rates, you know, you have the ability to participate in the upside there. and i think that's really attractive. leveraged loans are the only asset class in fixed income that

kind of goes up in value when rates are on the, increasing, if you will. and i'm a believer if you have a 3-5 year view, rates are going to be higher than they are today 3-5 years out. jack that is all the time we have. i will point out you have a mere 1% of your fund in investment grade bonds like treasuries and investment grade corporates which suggests you're not optimistic about those asset classes. david, thanks so much for joining us. >> my pleasure. jack: up next. round table members give their investment ideas for the coming week. stay right there. ♪ all otc pain relievers including voltaren have one thing in common none are proven stronger or more effective against pain than salonpas patch large there's surprising power in this patch

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♪ ♪ jack: jack, one thing you and i and all of us market geeks have been talking about for years literally is when will value stocks ever come back to

challenge growth which is, of course, been on a tear for is so long. this week you said bank of america is saying we may be close? >> i mean, i've stopped predicting the shift because it feels like rooting for the team that the harlem globetrotters play against. there's a lot of getting dunked on, sometimes your shorts get pulled down, the crowd laughs. but in september value had a pretty good month. bank of america thinks this will continue. they say the discount for value stocks is at record level. value has outperformed coming out of the past 14 consecutive recessions. if you want to make that shift yourself, they say look for a cheap stock that has high returns on equity, that's to avoid value traps. a couple of their separate just with recommendations, at&t, comcast, goldman sachs and alaska air. jack: being a value investor, i guess, is kind of like being a jets fan. now we have two actionable ideas, carlton has a deep value

stock. >> right. i'm looking at bed and beyond. more than a year ago the company had a attracted activist investors, and they made the management changes, they started the cost cuts, they really started to gather their momentum, and then covid threw a wrench in those plans. but the company recently reported its results, seems to be back on track. they have an investor day later this month, and it seems like a they're in place for that turn-around to finally happen. jack: ben, what do you have for us? >> domino's pizza, the stock is up 50 president, but it could -- 50%. this past week we saw papa john's report same-store sales above 20%, and that should mean that domino's own same-store sales will probably beat estimates. it could be interesting. jack: that's a stay at home stock with post-pan deming appeal. listen, guys, on the one-year anniversary of our show, i want to thank you for sharing your insights every week and, of

course, thanks to our loyal audience. as always, to read more, check out this week's edition at barrons.com and don't forget to follow us on twitter. wear that mask, be healthy. wear that mask, be healthy. see you male announcer: coming up next on "leading the way." dr. michael youssef: god has given men and women an opportunity to choose either the world's gold or god's glory. i pray that you'll cry, and the cry of your heart to the lord is "lord, i have disobeyed you long enough. empower me to give up my goal and for your glory." announcer: you don't wanna miss "treasure that lasts," coming up next. announcer: join, "leading the way's" newest initiative, "awake america", a call to god's people to pray for a spiritual awakening