fancy ice cream without our help. that's it for us this week. gerry baker's going to be back next week with more in-depth interviews right here on "wall street journal at large." thank you 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. cyber monday was the most successful online shopping day of all time. shopify president harley finkelstein will join us. and later, two hot i e pos set to start trading next month. should you invest? but we begin, as always, with what we think are the three most important things investors ought to be thinking about right now. the dow, s&p 500 and nasdaq hit all-time highs this week. supported by hopes for a

stimulus deal9 and the promise of a covid vaccine. cloud computing giant salesforce has agreed e to buy slack in a $27 billion deal. slack's instant messaging system will position salesforce to compete with microsoft. warner brothers announced it will release its 2021 films on hbo max at the same time they debut in theaters. on the round table, ben levisohn, carlton english and jack howe. ben, we got pretty weak jobs numbers today, but the market shrugged it off, and everything ended up higher. >> that's right, jack, everything went higher. it doesn't matter if you were maul cap or large cap, the tech-heavy nasdaq or the dow jones industrial average, the market just went higher. that comes down to stimulus. congress is talking again, democrats and republicans are trying to come to a deal, this is a number out there, and it

looks like it could get done. if it does, it makes up for the data. payroll number missed expectations, but people were expecting a weak number, and the weakness is really in the areas that we already knew would be weak like retail which has been hit hard by the virus. and so the market or is looking past the weak data, they're looking past the virus, and they're seeing a spring boost from both the vaccine and the possible stimulus package. jack: it does seem like temperatures are cooling just a little bit on capitol hill, and maybe they can compromise and make a deal. i want do you about -- ask you about two things, the 10-year bond yield is approaching 1%, and also the dollar is weakening. are these things at all trends in 2021? >> yeah, they really are kind of connected at this point. the dollar is coming down to really the lowest level that it's been in since almost 2015. so still the 2018 level, but

that's what we're going to be watching, is the 2015 level. and when the dollar falls, it causes inflation to rise because prices of exports and things that we buy from other countries are going to be more expensive. bond yields are rising because their seeing a little more inflation, and their seeing perhaps that growth coming down the pike that the equity market is pricing in too, and that's good for small caps, cyclicals and banks. if the yield curve -- the difference between short-term interest rates and long-term interest rates -- keeps steepening, keeps getting wider, that'd be fantastic for banks which borrow short and lend long. jack: i know that carlton would love to talk about banks, but i'm going to ask her about this slack/salesforce deal. the second largest software deal ever. >> that's what's raising questions for salesforce. they're looking to compete with microsoft, and it's also worth noting that slack is also looking to compete with microsoft or at least when it

comes to the team product. this tie-up strategically may make some sense, but it is making some analysts worrieden considering salesforce is paying $27.7 billion for the company. jack: good news for slack employees who have stock options, those poor silicon sali folks watched zoom stocks up higher, slack was actually below where it closed on the initial public offering day until this deal came through. do you think they'll do well with benioff? marc benioff, the ceo? >> i think part of the platform is going to be a good move to get them in front of more potential customers and give them that reason to grow and do more. slack does one thing very well, pa facilitate communication within a company, but it hasn't really gone much beyond that. our colleague alex compares them to twitter can also does that one thing really well but hasn't really grown whereas zoom, you know, has really picked up on the a pandemic moment.

it was able to replicate business travel, people could have these virtual meetings and people could connect with family members and friends during this lockdown time. slack really hasn't found its spot outside. jack: i want to pivot to jack for more bad news for the movie theater business, but first, i want to remind him as well as our viewers about a prediction and a promise you made back in october. let's hear the videotape. >> if you see to e a wide theater release of that movie this year, i will dress as wonder woman on the last episode of this show this year. [laughter] finish. jack: so, jack, you're lucky -- >> whoa, whoa, whoa -- jack: wouldn't allow us to put you on air in a wonder woman costume. >> i didn't say anything about it couldn't go on hbo max at the same time. didn't i stipulate that? [laughter] i mean, there's two issues here, jack. i've got to see whether they make that costume in my size -- [laughter] and also i'm no gal georgia doe,

right? -- gal gadot. so let's see how it's going to work. but, yeah, to your point about the news, the film slate, the entire 2021 film slate for, you know, warner brothers unit of at&t, it's going to hbo max and theaters at the same time. it was a unilateral discussion by warner brothers. they need to play some catch-up here. they've got 38 million subscribe ors of that hbo max if, that's only about half the size of disney plus, half the side of the north american unit of netflix. so analysts think that might not be a done deal. if we see much better conditions lauter next year and there's demand, there's some room for theater operators to negotiate on this. but -- and also a it'll come down to disney, right? disney dominates the box office. whatever disney leads, hollywood is likely to follow. the two rusks, in the near term,

there's a solvency risk. theater owners have to be able to ride this out. in the long term, the more hollywood tailored its content creation for streaming, the bigger risk there won't be those big budget popcorn movies ready for us. jack: yeah, i think that's fascinating. mandalorian was a great example, now we subscribe to hbo max. thanks very much for that, guys. coming up, cyber monday set a record as the biggest online shopping day in u.s. history. what can we expect for the rest of the holiday season? harley finkelstein joins me next. introducing voltaren arthritis pain gel.

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♪ jack: covid-19 fears may have kept some hold cay shoppers out of the stores on black friday, but online sales soared with cyber monday becoming the biggest online shopping day in u.s. history. shopify says worldwide sales topped 5 billion last weekend. how will the rest of the shopping season fare, and what does the future of retail look like? joining me now, the president of shopify, harley finkel stein. you handle all the logistics

from credit card transactions to actually shipping the packages, and it's become a huge business. market value is as large as a dozen well known companies put together including ebay, best buy and may city's. harley, thanks a lot for joining us. obviously, a much large or -- larger than usual shift to online shopping, but is it possible to extrapolate what that means for overall numberses? are consumers actually spending more than last year? >> well, i think there's a lot to be optimistic about. you described it well, the center of gravity for retail has shifted from in-store to online. in this new model, independent businesses and the entrepreneurs behind them are going to lead the retail industry. consumers are now voting with their wallets to buy from and vote for independent brands and brands whose values reflect their own. i actually think what we saw during the black friday/cyber monday season is going to be a blueprint for what the future of

retail is going to look like. jack: that's interesting. the shift to value is fascinating. there's also some practical things that are happening. you guys put out a list of what people are buying most. it was things like keyboards. i know that, i had to get a new one because i was working on my home computer. i think the number one was art as people set up their houses because they're spending so much time in there. >> it is amazing to see this shift happen. some of the top products were scooters and needle craft patterns and bottle openers. we saw barbecues and camping equipment happen. so definitely -- so let's summarize this. first of all, the black friday/cyber monday and the holiday season started much earlier. second thing, the consumer ended up not only starting earlier, but spending a lot more. and so again, you know, there's a lot of bad things happening right now in the world of the pandemic, but there is this glimmer of hope around retail which is that the merchants and

the grands that have been resill cent throughout the entire pandemic, they are beginning to cash in, and consumers like it. jack: another bit of optimism was i was surprised to see that business starts skyrocketed in the third quarter. i thought of that as being is so bad, but i guess, what is it, people who lost their jobs just went entrepreneurial? >> two things are happening. you're seeing people that lost their jobs are looking to supplement their income or to replace their income. you're also seeing people at home a lot more, so it seems like a lot of folks that have to be buts are commercializing that to be by. in the united states in the third quarter of 2020, the largest business registration the amount since 2004, and a lot of those are being opened and smalled on shopify. and the neat part about technology like ours is you can start around your mom's kitchen table or what you used to do at a coffee shop, and you can scale to become tommy john underwear

or gym shark, some of the largest brands on the planet were built entirely on shopify. and that idea, starting and scaling on a singling platform that gives you payments, shipping and capital, is pretty amazing. and one thing that people don't really know, if you were to aggregate shopify stores in the united states, online stores, we would be the second largest online retailer in america. jack: wow. >> we have massive economies of scale that rather for end keeping them for ourselves, we can give to the small businesses. and that provides a leveling of the playing field that's never been done before. jack: we can't hit on this, but you have a new partnership with tiktok, and in the coming years people may actually be buying stuff through their social feeds which i think is a fascinating -- >> yeah. retail everywhere whether it's online, offline, social media, and shopify wants to power that. jack: harley finkelstein, thank you so much. >> thanks, jack. jack: 2020 year has been a huge

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companies, companies like slack that really were met with a shrug, but this year we've had 201 ipos, that's up 32.2% from the 160 last year. they've raided $63.9 -- 69.9 billion. those are both the best since 2014, and they really are all getting out there. when you look around at what's left over, there's not that many household names. we have spacex, we have epic games, but we're really running out of these big name companies that can go public now. jack: jack, i want to talk about doordash which was in exactly the right time, right place at the right time when the pandemic struck. >> the name door bash is still available, we is just need a business model. let's work on it. jack: let's do it. >> the valuation could top $30

billion based on the proposed offering range of $75-85 if investors go hog wild on the stock after it starts trading, of course, the chi is the limit. there's a lot to like about the company. the recent growth has been incredible. the company's tripling its revenues from the saw same time last year. it's also closing in on profitability. it's pretty close to sustainable profitability. one of our tech writers at bare ron's, eric savage, says he's cautious on the offering. he writes that these conditions are kind of as good as it gets for doordash. it's hard to know what it will look like under normal conditions. what happens when there are vaccines, things get back to normal and we're going out to restaurants, will that growth still be there. it's also a very competitive market. they're going to have to compete with grubhub and uber eats to get those restaurant partners. customers don't really care, you know, like, i don't care who wrings my gyro matter to me as

long as it's hot and there's extra taziki how's my pronunciation there, by the way? gyro platter? am i nailing that one? jack: that's very good. you want to look good in that gal gadot costume, don't eat too much of those. when the pandemic hit, revenues plummeted, and now people are thug, well, actually, maybe a houses that no one's been in for a couple of days actually beats a hotel, and airbnb looks very well positioned. >> it definitely does. it could be one of the hottest i if, os of the year, and we have one analyst that calls it the apple of travel. what's interesting is habit how they were automobile -- about how they were able to reare cover, people think about renting a room in a major metro

pal tan area, but people want to get out of the big cities and rent houses in more rural areas to be away from people. is so the economy has been able to come back as the -- the company has been able to come back, but people are really expecting it to really take off and compete with the more traditional hotels. you know, airbnb where it's expected to price is looking a little bit more expensive thanker you know, your mare yachts and your hiltons. it's a little bit less expensive than some of these travel companies like your books and things like that. people do see a lot of room for this company to grow after it goes public. jack: one quick warning for viewers, you know, you might see this price, i think $50, is that right, the expected opening price, gnaw's not actually what hits the tape because all sorts of people put in bids, and you can see the stock go up to 35, 1 is 00, and if you have an open market order on robin hood, you might actually pay that price instead of the other.

and really one more fascinating point, it's actually become the term we use for that thing, that's a powerful brand that will stand the it in good stead. we'll watch that closely and talk about it next week, i'm sure. thanks, guys. up next, round table members will give their investment ideas for the coming week. stay right there. ♪ ♪ [ engine rumbling ] ♪ [ beeping ] [ engine revs ] ♪ uh, you know there's a 30-minute limit, right? tell that to the rain. [ beeping ] for those who were born to ride, there's progressive. verizon 5g is next level.e 5g america's been waiting for. unlimited plans fit everyone in your family starting at just $35, with 5g included at no extra cost.

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♪ ♪ jack: jack, being a good stock picker is hard enough, but this week in your street wise column you write it's actually selling stocks that investors tend to time really a badly. >> yeah. and, you know, there's a research note out from the part of bank of america, and they say there's a great selling opportunity for stock investors

coming up in maybe6-8 weeks. they think the vaccines are going to bring kind of peak positioning. we've been riding this stimulus this year, and then as the economy opens up and investors begin to feel better, there's press need for stimulus. think they that sometime early next year there might be a bit of a dive for the market. but there is a study that shows institutional money managers, even the pros, really say they have skill with their buying, but they stink at selling. and you don't have to be a pro. i'm pretty sure i stink too. i said that stocks might dip in november, it turned out to be the best november for the stock market since 1928. i'm staying put, but for people who are interested, the reasons why they might be wanting to be cautious. jack: speak of picking stocks or at least giving good ideas, we want to go to other members of the panel for their action bl

ideas. carlton, i will start with you. >> yeah. is so we were just talking about ipos in the last segment, and i'm looking at the renaissance capital ipo etf. understandably, a lot of companies are nervous, this is one way to get diversity case, not to mention if people can't afford to invest in every ipo opportunity way they want to. it holds newry e-public company for about two years, so you would have exposure to the next zoom if you were to invest in it. jack: thanks for that. and, ben, you think it might be time to take a flyer on the recovery of the airline business. >> that's right. i was looking at boeing. this week it cut a 737 max order, something it it hasn't gotten for a very long time. and it's now up 50% this month. it's still down 30% on this year. i wouldn't be vised to see it get back to unchanged on the year. it's 232 now, that would mean getting up to about 300. jack: one day we will be flying

regularly again. great ideas, all of you. to read america check out this week's edition at barron's.com, and don't forget to follow us on barron's online. be healthy, wear your mask, and we will see you next week on barron's round talking about. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> from the fox studios in new york city, this is maria bartiromo's "wall street." maria: and happy weekend, everybody, welcome to the program that analyzes the week that was and helps position you for the week ahead. i'm maria bartiromo. thanks for joining us. coming up, my one-on-one with white house economic adviser larry kudlow on the efforts to get a covid relief bill passed before the holidays. then later, don peebles is here to talk about the crippling effect new covid restrictions could have on the recovery. but first, let's take a look back at some of the big moments with top