facebook and instagram, and be sure to tune in next tuesday, october 27, for our fox business town hall one week ahead of election day. and i'll be back next week right herellllllllll street journal" at large. thank you very much for joining us. ♪ ♪ ♪ jack: welcome to barron's roundtable where we prepare you for the week ahead. i'm jack otter. coming up, tech industry funder scott galloway explains what the cracktown means for the future of google and big tech. and later coca-cola is dropping 200 of the company's beloved beverages. why barron's says it will remerge stronger. but we begin, as always, with what we think are the three most important things investors should be thinking about right now. the market finished down this week as stimulus stalled and

covid cases surged. but investors see signs of an economic recovery. paypal is embracing bitcoin, allowing users to not only buy and sell the cryptocurrency, but to use it for purchases as well. is it time to add it to your portfolio? and snapchat reported a jump in users and revenue, and it actually made a profit, sending the stock soaring. other companies that rely on digital ad sales are reporting next week. on the round table, my colleagues, ben levisohn, carlton english and jack howe. ben, let's start with a look at the market. it was down a bit this week as that stimulus offer remained just out of reach, as it always seems to be. covid cases surged. but you're looking under the hood, as always, and you think it's not all one story. >> that's right. i mean, look at the market right now, i don't see a lot of worry either about stimulus or about covid, for that matter. what i do see is some worry about technology. we had all the big tech stocks, a lot of it took it on the chin.

apple down 3%, intel dropped 11%, ibm down 3%. it was really more, i think of a tech story that people just didn't want to own these stocks. but other areas were strong, small caps, even the price of copper was rising. jack: so that, along with small caps, suggests maybe the market is actually getting a little bit more optimistic about the economy. >> that's right. you're seeing the small caps, you're seeing dr. copper, saw regional banks gain 7%, and you're also seeing companies that kind of had missed out, they weren't the covid plays that the everyone loved, but companies like invisiline, it gained 40% after reporting earnings that were twice as big as market expectations. seems that people, now that they can go back to the dentist, really do want to get their teeth straight for going to meetings on zoom. we also saw las vegas sands gain 12% after reporting earnings,

and the earnings weren't great, but they did say they see business normalizing. i think that's what the market is looking ahead to. jack: the market certainly prices things in before the rest of us can see it. interesting about the bank stocks. yeah, they add a good week, but it's been a horrible year. the opposite of bitdown and all this cryptoplay, and this week bad boy bitcoin got a stamp of approval from paypal, jack. >> yeah. and not just bitcoin. you mentioned you can buy and sell and shop with these cryptocurrencies, it also includes bitcoin cash, life coin. i know ben's been holding out for cling on, i keep trying to tell him that's not cryptocurrency, but we're well past the point where you can dismiss bitcoin as cupid of make believe -- kind of make believe internet nerd money, right? when i first wrote about it nine years ago, it had jumped from over half a penny to just over $10, this past week it topped

$13,000 after a pretty big move. and you have serious people who own it. i spoke with, you know, mohamed el-erian a while back, he has some bitcoin. the key with the paypal deal, it's made possible by a license from new york state. as you have a little more regulation, i think you can attract some more of these big commercial players. you want it to be adopted more widely as a currency, but people are excited about it because of the big price moves. and you don't want currently necessarily having -- currency having big price moves if you're wondering whether it's too late to buy. i would say, no, it's not too late to buy a scratch-off lottery ticket, i just wouldn't make it part of your core investing approach. jack: some people think as more and more central banks pump money into the economy, bitcoin will become kind of a digital gold. so i think like gold, maybe a small part of your portfolio, but don't bet the house on it. carlton, or let's go to you to

talk about the fact that while ben referred to some bad news on big tech, a certain sliver of technology did really well. those companies that rely on advertising. what's going on there? >> yeah. so if you looked at the results from snap, the parent company of snapchat this week, they had said they had seen a return to normal levels and in some cases even pick up, so that pushed the stock up more than 50% this week. and that's also been for some of the smaller players such as pinterest which was up about 20% this week. what's interesting is analysts say that people go to that site with purchase intent. they're looking at pinterest because you're about to be cooking something, planning something or decorating something. either way, that's where advertisers are going to want to get in front of that customer because they say they're going to be shopping for something very soon. jack: >> yeah, it's a really interesting dynamic. people collect pictures of lamps, couches, blenders, whatever they're thinking of

buying, and then they kind of put their ideas there. if you could find a way to monetize that more efficiently than now, that'd be pretty cool. what are you looking at in next week's earnings that might give us a clue of where this is all going? >> yeah. so next week we're going to see pinterest report results as well as facebook, twitter and alphabet. and, you know, a trend in ad buying is going to be great for the bigger names as well. i don't know that we'll see the type of return that snap saw earlier this week, but, you know, it does bode well. of course, some of these have regulatory headline issues, but any positive trend in ad spending is good for them. jack: thanks a lot, carlton. coming up, our next guest predicted this week's doj antitrust lawsuit against alphabet, are more on the way in nyu professor scott

♪ ♪ jack: the justice department filed an antitrust lawsuit against google this past week alleging anti-competitive behavior by the tech giant. entrepreneur, podcaster and nyu stern business school professor scott gal predicted this dc galloway predicted this back in 2017. scott, we've got a lot to cover. we've got to start or with google. how strong is the government's case, and in your mind, what would be the ideal outcome for this? >> so i think the case is strong as -- if you're looking at the legitimacy of their concerns, i think it's very strong. the fear is that this was purposely planned as an attempt at an october surprise which will lessen its veracity because a lot of lawyers who have left the doj claiming they weren't ready. i think they're smart to narrow it. at some point tomorrow needs to be today. this was overdue.

there's some concern that while google has been lining its troops up at the border, the doj has misprepared, but at the end of the day, it's time to get on with it. let's rock. jack so in an ideal world, would you see a separate youtube, a separate waze, a separate search company? >> i think antitrust would be a big part of the solution. letting advertisers who are really having more than one option such that if youtube is suggesting alex jones video more times than "the new york times," the bbc, the telegraph, the guardian combined, i think you'd find youtube has an incredible capacity to clean up their act in the face of competition. so i think a breakup is a great start. jack: obviously, there's a lot of thought that google was just the first big company to see something like this. amazon, facebook if, do you see them as being vulnerable does awc or become a separate

company? >> i think the next one will be facebook. i think right now there's more negative sentiment against facebook. i think amazon spins awc, but i think they do it prophylactically. my prediction is by 2025, aws will be the most valuable company in the world. the largest cloud player gets everyone buying their stock regardless of how crazy irrational the multiple is. ing i think awc will be independent, but i think bezos will decide to spin it prophylactically. jack: the stocks aren't really getting hurt, and i think it's because investors think, well, that's fine, i'd own separate great companies instead of one great company. you've also made the ca case this is more than economic, that there are actual societal benefits to breaking up. you hinted at it before with the alex jones on youtube or whatever. can you get into that a little bit more? why would instagram versus facebook be better than

instagram being part of facebook? >> well, if instagram has incentive because of more competitors to not, to insure or that certain types of content or maybe age restrictions or identity don't result in our teen depression doubling, if you talking about has incentive -- youtube has incentive to be a better citizen. the legitimacy of our elections has been questioned because the largest media company or platform in the world, facebook, continues to be weaponized by bad actors. they have no real reason to clean up their act because we don't seem to want to regulate them, and there's no competitors. i would argue as citizens, as parents, as consumers, as tabs payers, we've paid an increasingly nor mouse non-economic price at the hands of these monopolies. jack: when the democrats came out with a long report on antitrust at google, jim jordan alleged anti-conservative bias,

most recently the hunter biden story, of course, in the news. what are your thoughts on that topic? >> these are media companies. at some point, part of the problem is they have to replace the algorithms that just want more clicks or more engagement which leads them to pick normality the over fact or more enragement which is damaging for society. but, yeah, they're going to have to insert humans which will implicitly involve a bias. so far that bias seems to be leaning right, actually. 7 of the 10 most viral stories on facebook are from conservative outlets. so there's no getting around it. they're media companies, every media company from from cnbc, the to "the new york times"es to barron's has a bias, get over it. the notion that it's conservative, the facts don't support it. jack: real quick, you have spoken high will have of airbnb, i think you new e it might be more exciting than the world recognizes. we expect maybe that ipo possibly in december. >> yeah. incredible network effects.

if you and i wanted to start a ride-hailing company, we just need local spry and demand. supply and demand. 95% in an airbnb are from all over of the world, and they've going into an ecosystem where everyone's on their heels, and they're going to be on their toes. the hospitality industry is licking its wounds, and airbnb yes, b's going to show up with billions in capital. jack: wow, that ice impressive. scott galloway, thanks a lot more joining us, i recommend his podcast with carol swisher. coming up, coca-cola is dropping hundreds of brands in a rethe structuring of the business. what's next for the beverage company, and should it be part of your portfolio? the panel tackles that right of after did you know you can go to libertymutual.com

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♪ ♪ jack: in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, coca-cola has been focusing op new areas. will the company break out when the economy gets back to normal? it's our barron's cover story this week. associate editor andrew barry joins us now. thanks for coming on the show, andrew. this week you report that consumers around the world drink an amazing 2 billion servings of coke products every day. the stock, however, really hasn't done much for 20 years. you see good things happening inside the company that could change that. what are they? >> well, coke has a dynamic and relatively new ceo, james case city, who's been trying to accelerate and improve new product introductions at the company. by its own admission, coke has not been a great innovator, and quincy's been trying to change that. the company rolled out this year in this country aha which is a

flavored seltzer as well as a energy true, coke energy, and next year plans to introduce coke with coffee as well as experiment with an alcoholic beverage, a hard filter. and to make room for some of these newer drinks, coke plans to prune its beverage portfolio and potentially get rid of half of its 400 top brands. the company recently moved to end production of tab which was its original diet soda dating back to the 1960s. tab had a tiny sales and were a fraction of diet sodas, so it really didn't make much sense for coke to continue to produce it. jack: andrew, in addition to those internal operating improvements as a company, you see some macroeconomic tailwinds that could help out from a possibly falling dollar to just an improvement in the pandemic that could bring more people into restaurants and so forth. >> yeah. coke is an underappreciated play on a reopening of the global economy that could come next

year we effective covid-19 vaccine. coke gets about half of its sales from out of home consumption of its beverages. it's in restaurants, bars, sporting events and other venues, and that business has been hard hit by the pandemic. but the headwind that coke has had this year could turn into a tailwind next year, and coke has already seen some benefits from increased out of home consumption of its beverages recently and, you know, coke is the leader in the soda fountain business right now, and you can see that from the freestyle machines in many fast food restaurants that allow you to create a customized coke drink from 32 different beverages. right now you don't even have to touch the machine, you can have it download an app. >> it's jack howe, i like those new machines. i like too far half a mellow yellow, half vanilla dr. pepper, just a splash of barq's root

beer. i have some concerns, just a few. earnings never seem to grow, right? it's on the wrong side of the obesity trend. restaurants could shut down -- in winter people might not want to go inside, might not be able to eat outside. it's not the cheapest stock the around. i'm going to stop there before i a have to start on my toes on television, but my question is, is the bull case strong enough to outweigh all of those potential concerns? >> well, things are getting better at coca-cola. actually, contrary to perception, the carbonated soft drink business, which is about 70% of their sales volume, actually, continues to grow globally. even brand coke is growing. so if the company can get some success from innovation and new products, it's a good bet it can hit its annual growth target at 7-9% gains in earnings per share. plus you have a 3% plus dividend yield which is about double the yield in the overall market. so it's a reasonably good

combination. it's a pretty safe stock right now. >> andrew, i have to ask, i was in the supermarket the other day, what's up with those mini coke cans? >> coke, basically, has rolled out smaller cans, the7.5 ounce variety, part of the company's strategy to address the obesity epidemic. those cans of coke have about 40% fewer calories than a 12-ounce can, and many consumers prefer them. plus, they have doubled the profits for coke's bottlers and for coke itself in those 12-ounce cans. so arguably, you know, many gains from those cans. jack: that's a nice trick to sell half the amount of liquid for the same price. carlton, real quick, you want to ask about alcohol, i think. [laughter] >> i do. andrew, i'm just curious your thoughts on coke getting into hard seltzers.

it's a sector that has a lot of brand loyalty. are they too late here? >> they may be too late. i think coke is dipping its toe in the water to see how it goes. i don't think they have marley high expectations, and i'll really doesn't matter all that much. so we'll see how that goes next year. jack cc thanks a lot, andrew. great shelf space, we know that. people like the seltzer, they might buy. up next, round table members up next, round table members ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ this is the feeling of total protection now that we protect your identity, and mobile phone, as well as auto home and life you've never been in better hands allstate click or call for a quote today

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♪ ♪ jack: jack, in your street wise column this week, you're writing that some early enthusiasm over the christmas shopping season might be misplaced. >> yeah. jack, i had hoped to tell you this off a air because i don't want you crying on the show --

jack: oh, no. >> may is us 's, for the first time in 159 years, won't have santa claus at its flagship store. you won't be able to sit on his lap this year. i think it's a good time now to consider the implications of a socially-distant christmas. ubs has done some survey work, they think there might be a 10-12% dechain in sales of soft -- decline in sales of soft line goods like clothing. that's a massive decline. they see the biggest increase that they've seen since the great recession. so it's significant. they are most bearish on the department stores. that's macy's, it's nordstrom, and it's kohl's. but they think people will shop early, so you might see good numbers before you see bad numbers. you might want to sell, you might want to think about selling during november. jack: so you scared me.

i thought you were going to tell me you weren't getting me a present. santa claus, i can live without him. >> it's on its way, buddy. [laughter] jack: if you're not bringing huge, extended family together for christmas, you don't have that get that gift for the great aunt. so candle sale gotta plummet. [laughter] carlton, what do you think about that? and also give us your actual ideas. it's that time of the show. >> so i do think one thing that is going to benefit, it e won't be candle sales, but i'm looking at irobot. investors took profits, but i like this stock going into the holiday season. i think that stay at home trend is going to continue, and i see it having a positive holiday season. jack: ben, what do you have for us? >> mgm resorts international. las vegas has great earns, it's been going sideways for the last

couple months, it could break out. jack: thanks for that, ben, carlton and jack. check out this week's edition at barron's.com. don't forget to follow i on twitter @barronsonline. be healthy, wear your mask, and be healthy, wear your mask, and we'll see male announcer: coming up next on "leading the way." dr. michael youssef: the bible says: "blessed is the man whose god is the lord. blessed is the nation whose god is the lord." if we are going to see a revival in this nation, please listen to me, i'm praying for that for 40 years now, but if we're gonna see a revival in this nation, let me tell you it does not begin outside there. it has to begin in the church. it has to begin in the household of god. it has to begin with the people of god getting right with god. announcer: coming up next. announcer: join leading the way's newest initiative, awake america,