[laughter] jack: jack, carlton, ben, thanks very much. to rad more, check out this week's edition at barron's.com. don't forget to follow us on twitter@barron's online. we will see you next week edit." thank you so much for watching. have a good weekend. join us on monday night, we're going to have a lot of news for you monday night. have a good one. ♪ ♪ >> from the fox studios in new york city, this is maria bartiromo's "wall street." maria: happy weekend, everyone. well come to the program that analyzes the week that was and helps position you for the week ahead. i'm maria bartiromo. coming up, using technology and innovation to battle the coronavirus. my one-on-one with i e bm's executive chairman, then later on, 'tis the season to go shopping. former toys "r" us ceo will join us with his list of winners and losers in retail right now. but first, some of the big moments on" mornings with maria"

in this week's edition of the talkers. watch. now you've got 18 states joining your lawsuit in the same argument. does that make it more likely that the supreme court takes it up or not? >> i'm certainly hopeful given how important this issue is not just for this election. this is about how we're going to view our future elections, is this type of election going to be allowed? maria: what can you tell us about the inspection of voting machines, jenna? >> this is a lawsuit that an elector actually brought himself. this isn't the trump campaign, it's a completely independent group. it's not our how assessment. maria: speaker pelosi is not giving in on this idea of business liability. >> some members of congress in states with much lower unemployment are saying how much money are we going to be asked to send to nancy pelosi's california, to chuck schumer's new york. maria: if the government's trying to forgive all these people's student debt, what about the res of us who had two

and three jobs during school to pay for school? >> you've absolutely nailed the point that to ask taxpayers, two out of three of whom have not gone to college, to help underwrite the forgiveness of those one in three that have is fundamentally unfair. maria: they're talking about potentially getting the approval by the end of this week. you attended the white house summit yesterday. what can you tell us? >> to try to put this into perspective, maria, as a doctor, this in terms of being able to save lives is right up there with the discovery of insulin or penicillin. maria: and it was a huge week on the vaccine front. in fact, at the end of the week we see that the biotech and pfizer vaccine was given emergency approval. i spoke with health and human services secretary alex azar, and he told me we could see the beginning and the first of the inoculation ares beginning this upcoming monday.

here's alex azar. >> as soon as we get the final document signed by fda, we'll give instruction on pfizer. they'll use fedex and ups. they drop ship through a very tightly-controlled system to the 636 sites our governors have designated for this initial tranche, and we could see advantage su nations beginning on monday or tuesday. maria: still aing rocky week for stocks, the s&p 500 and nasdaq scoring new record highs this week. two new highly-anticipated ipos as well, doordash and airbnb both soaring. joining me to talk about that is brian bell city. brian -- brian belski. thanks so much for being here. >> thanks for having us. we with really appreciate it. maria: so you just heard from alex azar we're going to see the first inoculation probably this monday or tuesday. what's your take on what a vaccine in the marketplace does for investing and markets. i also want to get your take on

year end and these record highs that we're seeing and whether or not we're going to see that sustain into 2021. >> great way to start the segment, maria. i would say this, obviously, not to state the obvious, it is wonderful news. it's wonderful news for society, for business, for the united states really taking and demonstrating the lead on this. now, the one thing that we would caution everyone, it's the number one question, quite frankly, with respect to fielding from our private wealth clients around the world is one vaccine is not an end all, be all. we need to see implementation of that. we want to caution people that 2021 is not the only year that we're going to see this, quote-unquote, transformation to normalization. it's going to take a couple of years. anytime that you shake up human nature and the emotion and fear that really coronavirus and the pandemic brought upon us, it's going to take some time. so, obviously, this is very good

news, and the market's digesting it. i get the feeling a little bit on a near term basis, however, maria -- and you certainly covered it on your show to this week -- it's a little bit of sell the news especially given how strong stocks were in november. but i do think setting the pace for 2021 is what we said is another year of the unprecedented bull market in the united states. maria: yeah. and i mean, you've been talking about this 20-year secular bull market for a long time, brian. you've been wright, and you're with expecting a broadening out of performance in 2021. walk us through that because so far we've seen really technology, health care among the groups that are the leadership groups on wall street. we had this ipo bonanza this week with doordash as well as airbnb doing very well. how do you see the market broadening out in 2021? >> we see it broadening out just due to fundamentals, maria. but we do think that investors

should be very balanced. although we do favor financials, consumer discretionary and industrials for the year, our secular favorites in terms of sectors have to be communication services, technology and discretion flower. heading into 2021, especially communication services and tech, maria with, are 40% of the s&p. we've seen a lot of concentration there, and we we do think investors should maintain those positions but trade around them. if you have apple stock and you in position to increase it by 25 basis points when the market rallies, peel off a little bit. that's good old-fashioned bottoms-up stock picking. maria: brian, it's good to see you this weekend. thanks so much. >> thank you. maria: brian belski joining us there. a quick break and then combating covid with new technology. the executive chairman of ibm is here on big blue's before nexium 24hr, anna could only imagine a comfortable night's sleep without frequent heartburn waking her up.

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♪ maria: welcome back. using technology in the balling -- battle against covid, ibm has been adapting technology to help business and government inform the public. i spoke to ibm's executive chairman ginni rometty about how big blue is adjusting. >> two different perspectives. the first is what did we do in actually responding. in the responding, you just mentioned things like watson. from the consumer perspective, we are the a.i. answering consumer questions in 25 countries. if you go to the weather channel on your phone, that's ubm, and you can track -- ibm, and you can track covid and what is happening. we also, you might have noticed during one of the president's briefings during covid, we pulled together what i call the consortium for the cure. this is all the high performing

computers around the world, a billion dollars of horsepower, a hundred world class sign terrific teams, and this is all part of the therapeutics that are running their tests there. and last but not least, right now we've got watson works, and that's all about tie thing together people management and facilities management. so when i bring people back, do i know the space has been cleaned, are we separated, etc. i do that in dealing with the momentum right now. and, of course, clients mission critical work running. just a quick statement on the go forward because really as many people are dealing with the current now are as focused on go forward, and it's really put a premium on people wanting to modernize and build i resilience into everything they do. i've spent my whole tenure building a hyper cloud and a.i. platform. this is work we're doing with delta. but the second thing is put a really big spotlight on the

issue around diversity, inclusion and economic opportunity for all. you talked about the jobs report, so we've got some very big programs going on around bringing people back into the economy into these kind of technology jobs. maria: that sounds great. what has been the response from your clients? do you see businesses increasing capital budgets, increasing spending on some of these things? i mean, you know, the pandemic hit us like a fastball and a curveball, and it became very quickly clear that companies were going to have to pay up to actually address this whether it be from a security standpoint or, as you say, making work continue innovatively. >> well, i think you see very different response in a different timeline by different industry. and so clearly, the industry some most capital strapped right now are still in a preservation mode. but others already are starting to come out of this. and the words you hear from many clients are to build back better, to emerge stronger.

any kind of phrase you want. and i use the example of until that airlines. this is a moment they'll move to the hybrid cloud, they will modernize many platforms. they'd already done a great job, but they'll take it to the next level. or a company like schlumberger in oil and gas. can i now with our hybrid cloud write something once, run something myrrh? you see it by industry coming back differently, but they're all pointing the same direction. maria: what about all the competition out there in the cloud, ginni? how does ibm stay in a leadership position when you've got smaller companies trying to get that market share? >> yes. look, this is, as i said, we've really worked hard to rebeings position the -- reposition the company completely for cloud, a.i. and day that. when i say cloud, how we are dump shaded -- differentiated, it's the hybrid cloud. most clients that we deal with, they're going to be in a hybrid

world meaning they'll have many public clouds, things in their own private cloud on their premise, and they will have to connect all of this. and it's just like remodeling a house in many ways, you don't do it all at once. that's why we brought red hat, as you know, one of the largest act by suggestions in history. it's now tripled in its customer size, and it is the leading hybrid cloud platform. so that's where we if fit in. maria: certainly, your legacy is very much about the increase in art official intelligence investment, the increase in investment in the cloud, you mentioned the red hat acquisitions, to ,000 client -- 30,000 client engagements with watson across 20 different agencies. let me ask you to look ahead and tell me where you think the most pressing needs are for companies, your clients and how technology is changing the i way they look at stay at home. i mean, today you're hearing

corporate ceos saying, look, you know, what i've learned is some of my employees are doing better at home. i'm going to keep this unit whether it's pr or hr, i'm going to keep that unit advertising at home because they're actually more productive than they were. so how does that change from your standpoint with clients changing the way people work? >> well, look, i think one thing i've learned over these last, again, eight, nine years has been one of the most important things in addition to changing your portfolio and changing how you work. now the panic really accentuated it. the outcome, we'll all be in a hybrid working environment. so depending on your job, you'll come in sometimes, not others. collaborate remotely. some may be 100% remote, but i do believe many will be a hybrid model instead because at the intersection of why we meet with people physically is around innovation. in many industries, you learn from others. so that's ooh why i'm quite

convinced and clear it will be a hybrid model going forward. maria: my thanks to executive chairman ginni rometty. holiday shopping very different for most of us this year. we are taking a look at retail's winners and losers as we head into year end with the former chairman and ♪ ♪ [ engines revving ] ♪ it's amazing to see them in the wild like th-- shhh. [ engine revs ] for those who were born to ride, there's progressive.

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retail environment and the backdrop from the if economy is former chairman and ceo of toys r us, jerry storch. it's great to see you, thanks very much for being here. first, assess the situation for us. i'd love to get your take on where you see retail going, how it's changed and what's really in demand right now. how do you assess where we are right now? >> well, as you say, retail has been tremendously strong, and i don't know, sometimes people report, no, it's slowing could be. i don't see any sew slowdown at all. it's been very strong for many months, way up over prepandemic levels. it's actually people generally have money, there was a report that came out recently that showed that household net worth was way up. people have money. they don't have a lot to spend it it on, they're not going to be moot suv i os or -- movies or vacations, so we we see this giant increase in retail sales. very strong performance in everything christmas, in how many goods, in electronics. big numbers coming out of costco

reported a great number just on thursday, you see big numbers out of wall or mart, target, home depot, lowe's, best buy. you know, huge numbers. and, of course, amazon is doing tremendously well. so there's no real consumercon statement on the growth in retail sales. the only sort of cloud i see is there are capacity issues. you have some limitations on capacity in physical stores, particularly if hard-hit states or those with severe restrictions, and then you have issues with fedex and ups being able to ship all these goods that are moving to e-commerce in massive numbers which makes amazon the biggest winner because they can handle increases in volume. the losers are apparel, apparel, apparel. [laughter] sorry, go ahead. maria: that's what i was going to ask you. what has happened in terms of the bifur caution of retail? we were talking with don peebles a couple of weeks ago, and he's a big owner of commercial real estate. he said the brick and mortar retailer is dead, say good-bye

to it. increasingly, we're going to see the digital economy take over when it comes to retail. doesn't sound like you're buying into that. >> that's an extreme characterization. we have seen several years in e-commerce growth come press into a single year. it's going to be big. but you're still only talking about 20% roughly of the total pie that is,ing you know, strictly e-commerce. much of what's categorized is when you buy it online and drive to the store. or at target, a lot of their success has come from their shipped acquisition where you buy products online and use the store as a fulfillment center. so i'd hardly say that bricks and mortar is dead. but what is clearly stressed is apparel-based retailing because malls are full of, you know, clothing stores. and, of course, department stores have been struggling for a long time. there has been at least a decades-long shift of consumer spending out of apparel and into hard lines, electronics and

other products. that has accelerated during the pandemic. there's no point in getting all dressed up when there's no place to go. so this has only increased, but it doesn't mean it's not going to come back later because it was dying already. we had way too many clothing stores in america, and you see them going bankrupt. i think that's what he might be talking about, the mall-based spending apparel retailers, i do think that is a permanent shift that's taking place. maria: interesting. what do you feel are the hot items or the demand right now, and where is the money moving this holiday season? are you seeing any trends? >> oh, it's cheerily going to home. -- clearly going to home. people certainly have discovered the pathos of baking, right? air fryers, anything related to your home. it's just selling like crazy. every ad for every retailer has the kitchen aid mixer in it. that's the new normal. people have discovered that, and i think some of that is going to

be a long-term shift. electronics will continue to grow at an incredible pace, partly because you need it for work from home, and some of that's going to stay, and partly because leken tronics have been -- electronics have been hot for 10, 20 years. toys, i know a lot about toys, toys have had a fantastic year because you have all the kids at home, no real bear townment options -- entertainment options, so you get toys. and that'll continue for a while. still a lot of months, back in school, until everyone has vaccines in their arms. afterwards, i'm a little worried because the fertility rate in this country has been going down, and guess what, you know everyone's at home having a lot of babies? that is not happening. it continues to decline, people are holding off having kids until this is over x that means fewer babies and fewer children a few years down the line which is going to stress that market.

maria: what about the stay at home companies? do you think some of the technologies we've been using will sustain the after the pandemic is over in terms of, you know, kids watching video games and the tech? what do you see in tech? >> i think you're going to continue to see that. but, you know, the bug debate going on right now, the boards that i'm on or the forums i participate in is how much stay at home will stay at home and how much will it back to the office. i think most people think you need to have people back in the office at least to some degree. it's kind of like a reservoir of goodwill, of information. you have to know people. and with spent years building up that reservoir, putting the water in the tank, and now we've been emptying the spout, and the water's running out, and you've got to put some water back in at the top of the tank. it's potential energy for the future. it'll be more back to the office than some people think once this is all over. but still, we've learned we can do more from are home that we used to do.

maria: jerry storch joining us on retail. don't go anywhere, more "wall street" right after this. ♪ to support a strong immune system, your body needs routine. centrum helps your immune defenses every day, with vitamin c, d and zinc. season, after season. ace your immune support, with centrum.

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fox news. plus start smart right here weekdays on fox business 6-9 a.m. eastern for "mornings with maria." join us every morning as we set the tone for the day. that'll do it for us. have a wonderfulofofofofofofofoe weekend, everyone. i'll see you again next time. ♪ ♪ gerry: welcome "the wall street journal at large." in old western movies there was often a moment when the u.s. cavalry would arrive to save the pioneering american settlers from annihilation at the hands of the enemy. it seems we're at that moment now in our long battle against the coronavirus. the cavalry, in the form of vaccines, came around the hill on friday when the fda approved the first of what's likely to be a suck suggestion of the drugs. the beginning of next week, the fi