oil breaks th$80. international benchmark pierces a key level and there are a number of compani that stand to benefit from a rally in crude. retail rivalry. walmart's online sales soar as the world's lge eggs retailer sets its sites on amazon. daytime drama,ut this one is playing out in cbs's board room. those stories and more tonight on "nightly business report" for thursday, may 17th. and we do bid you a good evening, everybody. oil did hit a milestone today. brent crude touched $80 a barrel for the firste since 2014 before pulling back a bit by the close. the white house's decision to last week reinstate sanctions on

iranas helped fuel this latest rally in the commodity. in fact, domestic crude is also ing at a multi-year high right now. dynamicas changed the of the entire energy sector. now attracting attention of investors once again. jackie deangelis has more for us >> reporter: over the course of the last year, oil prices have risen about %. the international oil benchmark crossed $80 toda that's a 3 1/2 year high. so how did we get here? well, first off, supply and demand. they did see some rebalance. better demand for oil helped work through excess supply as opec and russia stayed true t their promised cuts. second aspect, geo politics. this theme comes and goes but right now it's back in focus. all eyes on israel and also iran for anyou disruptions that impact the market. third factor, foreign exchange impact. the dollar strengthening oight now bn a relative basislot's r than it was this time last year and that supports oil

things to watch, summer driving season. nothing gets prices moving m seasonale than consumers hitting the road. on the flip side, with prices moving, s far so fast, there is a point when the price of oil can have a chilling effect on its consumption. i.e., a. told us yesterday this second coming in t half of the year. for "nightly business report," i'm jackie deangelis. >>e and that sharp r in oil highlights just how far this once beaten down sectoas come. but can the rally continue and what names might look attractive to investor right now. joining us is jeff killburg, founder and ceo of kkm financial. good to see you, jeff. welcome back. >>grthanks, sue. t to see you. >> jackie really laid it out so well pointing out thate we h 45% increase in oil prices in this year. soow much moreo you think is left in this rally? >> e, i think the trajectory is still higher. we saw one decertification. once president trump talked

about the initial details and decertified the iran agreement, we saw a 5% move. the trajectory moves higher and as she stated, the tensions, the geopolitical tensions are mounting, not easing, sue. what abouthe oil stocks, the companies that either have to drill for it or distribute it or atever? how do you decide who to invest are there companies you like at this level? >> bill, there are. some of the best names we like are the chevrons, the exxon moebl mobiles and even the halliburtons. they were over sold, the stockse they weally depressed when you saw crude oil go under $40 tw years ago, they were thrown to the gutter. now some of these names we've seen tremendous moves. even a name like valero up 27% year to date. as long as thisrajectory in crude oil remains higher. don't forget, phil, the commitment to curb that pro dugs has been the wind in the sales for crude oil but for all of the energy prices we like.

>> enterprise partners, i'm looking at my note you say they've had a rough road and seeing some growth in outperforming the s&p 500 by a full e,%. >> this is a great name. think about the pmlps. were also thrown away the last ten years. obviously some interest rates moving for adversity. enterprise, that is the blue chip name. epv. we really like that name. if you have exposure to energy, not so much trude oil, this is p. liquid gas. as we've seen the increased production or maybe more demand from overseas, epv is the name to be in. >> jeff, thank you so much. hjeff killberg w kkm financial. bill? well, on wall street, stocks fell on concerns over the trade talks with china, which we'll get to. the technology sector also pulled the major averages lower in part because of cisco's disappointing outlook that we told you about last night. the dow jonesia indus average fell by 54 points to th,713.

nasdaq was down by 15. the s&p lost two. well, as bill just mentioned, investors were focused on trade talks between the u.s. and china after the present said theiscussions might not be successful. kayla tausche has the details from washingt t. >> reporte chinese officials descended on washington for trade talks with administration. the president meeting with thel degations leader, vice premiere leo huff, but throwing cold water doing so.l before >> will that be su i tend to doubt it. theeason i doubt it is because china's become very spoiled.iv >> reporter:ions among the u.s. team on display with china hawk peter navarro side lined in talks asabinet members worked to get china to agree to cut the trade deficit.hi >> i they agreed to the concept of the trade deficit reduction. >> reporter: if talks fall short, tariffs from the white house loom. one reason why china dispatched

a dozen negotiators.wm ers who met with the delegation are skeptical about a china deal asta n talks have dragged on. >> just two weeks ago we thought that we'd be wrapping up a nafta renegotiation this week to be voted on later in the year only to discover now that that process has slowed considerably and maybe we won't get there by the end of the year. >> reporter: radio silence from the white house as a nafta deadline came thursday. canada's prime s ministerd the north american neighbors are close to a deal but the u.s. roposal toew it every five years is a deal breaker. >> if you agree touild the building on a particular parcel of land but only hold the lease for five years and after five years you actually lose the lease, you might not beed interen investing in the building that's going o tha land. >> reporter: both sets of trade talks will continue tomorrow and into the weekend, but even with

deadlines looming, appear elusive. for "nightly business report," i'm kaylan tausche washington. elsewhere, walmart's latesth today.s did np the the world's largest retailer said profit margins during the most recent quarter came under prsure due to the combination of price cuts and higher freight costs. thattoent the lower by nearly 2%. however, the company did report better than expected earnings in ivenue and it did show shareholders tha big investment in the online operations is paying off. kateog rs has the details for us tonight. >> reporter: walmart may be giving amazon a run for its money. the world's largest retailer reported a 33% rise in online sales, a sign that walmart's hefty investment in digital is paying off. >> when you're up 33% on ecommerce, you'rede sy proving you can be competitive with the boys on amazon. e

they're turninings with this, not just top line. >> reporter: walmart is hoping the dotcom redesign will increase online sales even more for the full ytr. it's all pf the ambitious long-term plan to make the brand more appealing to more people. the retailer is focused on the overseas markets. ws saw ie. internationally, but walmart's next legf growth may come from groceries which already accounts for a largehunk of the revenue. the company announced in its increase in pickup to 2100 locations to onlinerocery and rolling out delivery to 800 stores by year's end. delivery will a focus as it ofrsz shoppers more way to access goods. >> we think digital is emerging. there's 4800 locations, 90% of america is within 10 miles of a walmart. what walmart is doing is transform how people shop. locations, 800 locations will have delivery and 700

locations will haveom aed tower. >> reporter: increased competition in online and brick and mortar has squeezed profitability. the challenge will be keping everyday low prices that consumers have come to expect. for "nightly business report," i'm kate rogersnt a diffe story, however, for jcpenney which reported a sharp decline in sales and cut its profit outlook. that retailer is blaming the short falln the weather and a cool start to the sprg season. the company has been struggling for years with ways to fix its apparel business and trim costs. investors weren't buying the excuse though. they sent the stock down more than n12% today's session. and you know for a time it seemed that all the headlines about the retail sector were about store closures and bankptcies, butately there have been signs of life in the sector. i mean, just yesterday we td you about macy's and their quarterly rise in sales after the retailer experienced a dismal 2017 but, of course, not all a retailers participating

in this rebound. joining us tonight is brendon witcher. forester's vice president and principal analyst. he's herey out some of the winners and losers. good to see you. welcome back. >> good to see you, bill. >> your point is that those starting to show signs of ife are flourishing are retailers that focus the most on the customer, right? er absolutely. the cust changed so much in the last few years. these organizations still think in a l of ways that they can do business the way they used to, but actually customers have expectations that are costly rising from every experience they have. so today companiese macy's who showed some positive results, other companies like walmart who while they struggled a bit at first, you know, they've had some ugly quarters. they're moving along as well. companies like amazon, sesephor. they're winning with it. >> you take the pointt basically amazon can be used by a number of retailers that aren't doingell as an excuse, but the question that the ceo

ould be asking is basically what adds to the customer's life to pick up on what bill was saying, but how do they do that? it took macy's a while to a tur arou -- >> sure. >> -- it looks like they finally have. >> well, macy's is a great case study because if you look at what they were saying, you know, about year and a half ago or so, they were saying we had to closeown stores to focus on ecommerce. that really doesn't show that somebody really understand what's going on in the retail business right now. when you think about consumers, u know, a lot of them are using buy online pick up in store. a lot of them will buy from an onne shop --online retailer because they have a local physical store nearby that they can return a product to. when you close the store, t you lo ability to compete on that level. there's no online shopper, n there' offline shopper, we're omni channel shoppers. so as weho decide to buy with, we're looking for the company at can deliver value to us at that moment in time when we need

a product. amazon is very good at selling us things online but to date they don't really have the physical presence. a lot of retailers are another look and saying, you know what, maybe we've got this wrong and maybe we need to get back to basics and say maybe good physical retailers with a vast majority s ofes still happen -- >> right. >> -- and be good in online as well. you know, you can't miss the boat on physical. it's still 85% of retail still happens in the physical store. >> who do u think a doing the best job of the combination of brick and mortar and online? those companies that are able to find the good balance are the ones that are doing the best right now. who are they? >> that's a great question, bill. i would say actually thean cos that are doing best have a good view and vision for what they need to do to deliver great customer experiences by removing pain points for customsis. they're the stores to say, hey, i need to know what makeup looks like before i buyt so sephora does a good job with that. starbucks with a payment app. these are tools that solve

customer pain points. it's not about hav.g stor there's plenty of companies that have stores and they're doing just fine.bo it's their vision for the customer. so that's where companies today strugg. it's mostly with culture, organizational challenges, things like that are gayting in thend so -- >> right. >> -- i look for an executive to get a call and say, i've failed to cderstand thetomer and we need to address that problem. that's really what's happening. >> you haveot two that are functioning well. the losers, as you say, sears andjcpenney, perhaps better known as the usual suspects lately. >> yeah. jcpenney, they suffer from that whole debacle that they had years ago where they just didn't --y lost their way, they lost their brand, they lost their customers as a result of it wasn't about the store, it was basically people were saying i don't see a point in shoppin at jcpenney anymore. they're moving at getting towards the better state. sears is another brajd. they'r in that sta losing while.way for a little it doesn't bode twoel say the lighter side of sears.

a lot of my business is power tools. that shows i don't get who's shopping with me and why. i need tohtick who my customers are. >> brendan witcher with forester. ks again. thank you for joining us. >> good to see you again. b.j.'s wholesale wants to become a public companfiagain. they'vd for an initial public offering. warehouse club operators have of thele to avoid some other headaches that other retailers have faced because they rely mainly m onbership fees rather than sales >only. >> time to take a look now at some of today's upgrades and downgrades. egin with coke which was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at barky barkley's. they expect coke's transformation plan to drive better growth. the price target is now $48 andr shares rose than 1% to $42.30. aig was upgraded from buy to neutral at abs. they say earnings estimates have bottomed out now and

expectations have been reset as a result. price target now $65. the stock rose 2% to $54.79. comcast was upgraded to overweight from sector weight at dy bank. the recentline has created a buying opportunity. the price target is $38. shares were off a fraction to $32.41. comcast is the parent company of cnbc which produces this program. molson coors was downgraded to hold from buy. they cite t lack of expansion opportunities for the beer brewer. the price target is as5. itp just a fraction to $60.26. still ahead, a sto with a lot of hope. the changing way cancer is being treated.

remingt has exited chapter 11 bankruptcy after just two months. the company says it now has less debt and more stable financing. remington, of course, is one of america's oldest and best known gun makers. it also makes the controversial ar-15 firearm and it still faces various class action lawsuits. >>the ceo of bumble bee tuna has been charged in a price fixing scream. a grand jury indicted the executive. he is the fourth individual charged in a federal probe into the industry. if convicted he could face 10 years in prison and aon $1 mil fine. cbs is starring in its own drama right now. the networkas been at the center of a battle for control, and today cb suffered a stunning legal setback as it tries to break free from its controlling shareholder. today's ruling sent the stock

lower by more than 4%. but as julia boorstin reports, the story is still a cliffhanger. >> reporter: the legal battle currently playing out at cbs is the latest act in a long running nvdramaving family in fighting, corpote restructuring and one of the media world's most powerful ceohu rsday a delaware judge ruled against the cbs board chaired by long-time ce ceo les moonves. sumner redstone and his daughter sherry are the owners. they want to drop the current ting stake of 80% down to 17%. the redstone family has a lon history in the entertainhint ory going back to the 1930s when national amusements was foundedy summe redstone's father as a theater operator. they acquired viaco for more than $3 billion in 1987 and a little over a decade later

viacom merged with cbs. the media industry's biggest deal ever. lseven yearser national amusements a cbs split viacom into two different coanies. after a dozens tumultu years, sherry redstone is pushing to combine the two giants. moonves is objecting. what happens next? the legal battle is just beginning and if ons loses, it could result in cbs its veteran leader and board. i'm julia boorstin in los angeles. nordstrom reports disappointing same store sales, and that's where we begin ar tonight'st focus. the retailer said sales growth in the most recentuarter was weaker than expected even as more customers visited its stores. nordstrom topped earnings expectations but that wasn't enough fores irs who sent the stock lower.

shares sent it up to $51.97. ortedly s fargo r altered documents about its business customers. according to "the wall street journar the impro activity took place in 2017 and into early this year c thnges were made without customers' knowledge. the bank is investigating the matter and has reported the issue to regulators. stk fell 1.5% to $54.22. world wrestlingrt ennment is reportedly shopping its "smackdown" franchise. they may move one of the shows when itserent network current contract with the u.s.a. network expires. investors clearly expeche price tag to be high. the news sent the stock up by 15 to a record $50.31. and dillard's reported better than expected earnings, strong sales of furniture, lady's accessories and 's childr apparel helped offset weakness in men's apparel and shoes. they attributed its result in

part to the sharp economy. the stock was up 6% to $76.53. meanwhile, kroger is forming an alliance with okada. kroger hopes the deal will give it a bigger edge in theonline delivery market. okada is known for its use to bots and to process online orders. stock rose more tn 1% to $25.30. the fda calls out 29s companor allegedly blocking access to their medicines in the hope of delaying generic competition. the companies include sell gene, j&j, gilley add and novardis. the new takt is a broader push to lower prescription drug prices. some companies pushed back saying that list may be out of date. more than 5,000 cancer research sets were released late

last night just ahead of the world's biggest cancer conference the new data point to a possible shift in the way cancer is being treated these days. meg tirrell follows that industry for us. she is in new york tonight. what do the data releases tell us about the latest in cancer treatment right now? >> reporter: hey, bill. there are really two themes that kind of emerged from all of thia that we got to see last night. those were combinations of immunotherapies and a greater use of extremely targeted therapies. combinations of immunotherapies means is we've hear of this newave of cancer treatment systems and now researchers are combine multiple drugs to try to make them more effective for more patients. in terms of targeted therapies, those are figuring out what exactly is driving the cancer and targeting the drugs towarar that ress of where the cancer is in the body. those are the two things we got to s last night. >> which companies did you find out were working on some of these hopefully vermi png therapies? >> they're both big companies and smaller biotechs in these

two spaces. in the immunotherapy spaces are merck and bristol-myers. they had some data in combinatio with bristol-myers drug opdivo. you saw the stock go down quite a bit. in terms of targeteds, therap emerging biotechs there. they'reorking on the same target and their stocks went in opposite directions because the loxo data looked pretty good in the data we got to see. >> effectiveness is important,o buts cost, especially when you have a combination of multiple drugs in these treatments. what's the issue there now? >> yeah. so at this conference there's beenew side effect that doctors have been talking about for the last few years that they're calling financial toxicity because the drugs can be so expensive. the big immunotherapy drugs can be more than $100,000 a year s

when you start thinking about combining those with other new treatments, are we getting to th multiple hundred thousands of dollars a year. is is theey thing people are worried about and talking about. >> meg, i know youonad a day covering the conference and we appreciate you staying late. thanks. >> thank you. and coming up, with how hot rising, just is too hot for the economy? the number of 401k millionaires has hit a new high. according to fidelity, the number of accounts with balances of $1 m million ore rose to a record in the first quarter and contribution rates are now going up as well now averaging 8.6%,

and that is the highest percentage in almost a decade. as we all know, the housing market is one critical parte of economy that federal reserve policy makers watch. another is inflation, and as more and more signs point to higher prices, a question that central bankers are asking themselves is how much inflation is too much? steve liesman takes a look for us tonight. >> reporter: how hot is too hot when it comes to inftion for e federal reserve? and what does that say about the outlook fte interest the fed has made a huge deal of saying its 2% inflation target is symmetric. that is, since it was below 2% for qtte a while will tolerate inflation above 2% for some unknown 'swhile. wh unclear is how much tolerance the fed has and for how long. here are thenu ers. since april of 2012 the fed's preferred inflation indicator has averaged just 1.28%. take out food and energy and it's averaged 1.58%. remember the numbers. let's look at what fed officials

have saidbout tolerating high inflation. new fed jhairmanome powell said at times it may be above 2% just as at times it may be below. our inflation objective is symmetric. does charlie evans, the p chica fesident said, quote, 2.5% in an environment where it would come down longer term and that it would be contained, i don't think that's a problem for ours etric definition. put it altogether, there's some but not a huge amount of tolerance for some overshoot on what would it really take if the fed meant what it said? we ran the numbers. to undo the six years where the federal reserve was below 2% inflation, the next ten years would have to be 2.2% on adline and 2.4% oncor inflation. the bottom line is a little bit of over shoot won't change it. the fed is unlikely to be truly symmetric. it will probably acceleratehe rate hikes if the inflation overshoot is anything more than just a few tenths, that is not

very hot. plenty hot when it comes to inflion for the federal reserve. for "nightly business report," i'm steve liesman. and before we go, here's another look at the day on wall street. the dow dropped 54 points. the nasda was down 15 and the s&p 500 lost 2. and tha will do i for "nightly business report." i'm sue herera. thanks for joining us. >> i'm bill griffeth. have a great eveningto we'll see yorrow.

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