♪ ♪ this is "nightly business report" with sue herera and bill griffith. ♪ >>alling it quits. two large mergers are scrapped. what does it mean for the deal making landscape? senter beware. new technology fueling the rise of renl scams. what you need to know to keep from getting burned. >> and disappearing act. you've heard of no-show jobs. how about no-show workers? the growing phenomenon that's pacaught comnies off guard. all that and more tonight on "nightly businessre port" for this thursday, august the 9th. good evening, everyone, and welcome. the nasdaq's streak hits eight. just have more on that in a moment, but we begin with a pair of deals that didn't happen. well, actually they did, but

then they first, pharmacy chain rite aid and grocer albertson's called off their merger inrowing opposition. they recommended shareholders vote against the deal.ec this is thed failed merger for rite aid. hast year its merger w walgreen's was scrapped. albertson's was privately held and rite aid shares were down 11.5% to $1.54. bertha coombs has more. >> rite aid and albertson's break up came down to money. they felt the $25 billion deal would leave them with too little of the combined fir if the merger were completed. shareholder advisory firms came t the same conclusion. albertson's saids not willing to change the terms of the offer so the two firms agreed to call off the deal with no break-up fee. albertson's ownedri pvate equity firm who had looked to bring the grocery chain public saw the deal with rite aid as w a to

leverage its stores with health care. now some s analysts investors may not be of interest in an ipo. rite aid and albertson's have both looked mergers to be able to better compete in a tough retail environment and a ne standafirm, their faiths are unclear. rite aid's ceo said in they' comp announcement that we believed in the merit of the combination of alrtson's, we have heard our stockholders and are committed to moving forward as a stand alone company, but the pharmac chain now faces a problem of scale at the retail level having sold off 2,000 stores to walgreen's after regulators blocked the two from fully m last year and potential regulatory hurdles. rite aid envisioned privacy unit and regulatorski are l to crack down on pharmacy benefit rebates, those dcounts secured from drugmakers with confidential contracts.

analysts say turning things around for rite aid after two failed deals is a big challenge especially as rival's cvs and exess scriptsre looking to merge making for an each tougher kochetive landscape, not to mention the entrance of amazon into the pharmacy space. for "nightly business report" i'm bertha coombs in new york. >> thether merger defined the scrap heap, tribune media calling off its $4 million ivice for sinclair broadcast group. suing sinclair for breach of contract sayin it did not do enough to get the deal approved by regulators. the sec chairman said he had serious concerns about this merger and he moved to block it. shares of both companies were higher by ay3% t >> so let's turn now to david a son for more on the m and landscape and when he sees ahead for future deal making. he is thehief strategist at bell point asset management.

good to see you, welcome. >> thanks for having me. >> tell me where you think weir. the first half, certainly was gangbusters inerms of m and a. do you expect a repeat of that in the latter part of this year or have we kind of peaked? >>hi i we've kind of peaked and you hit on one of the ree ons. the several reasons why we're going to kind of stall out here. one i some shareholders are just saying no. you just talked about bertson's and rite aid and they took the pulse of investors and decided to walk away from at. you have a carl icahn dealing with cigna and he's saying no to the express scripts deal. he's calling it a $60 million folly, but maybe more important, this is in a late-cycle bull market and we're probably going to see some of the worst deals right now. this is when ceos will ovpay, d i think investors seem to efderstand that and it's happenede. you saw in the past when companies overpa it's paid for

in the later years and right now you've got a lot of ceos who are looking for organic growth and they're goingo o tryy it. >> i knew you were going to say that and knowing you were so a pric value conscious and how late we are in the cycle. >> you know m well, bill. are there still areas,th sector you can see that are in need of mergers and acquisitions that you're keeping an eye on? >> company specific, i don't have a name for youight now, there are always deals to be made and despite what i'm saying and in the second half of this year, i terms of overall volume and i think deals at th price make a lot of sense and there are challenges out tre. hedge funds that are good at this they're finding the performance tough to come by. i just read a report from the chnvftment officer of man group. he's saying deals are very, very tough and the performance isn't following despite t we turn investments up pretty good.

>> they've bn enormous. might we see that scale down a gttle bit as we forward? a >> we're seein enormous amount of small deals and in the world of finance it is. we're getting 4700 deals in that size just in this quarter alone d we'll see a lf that. i think megadeals are out there and they're t.gher to g what will be a challenge is cross-border deals and obviously, the political backdrop with companies like china make it very difficult and the administration nixed the takeover of broadcom and that's a challenge, as well. >> david, always a pleasure. thanks so much for joining us tonight. >> thanks for having me. >> davidlp nelson with bnt asset management, bill? >> as sue said you can make it eight straight days ons g for the nasdaq. the index has not done that since last october

amazon hit an all-time high and that helped lift things, as well and energy and financial shares weighed on the broader market today. when all was said and done, the dow fell 74 points to 25,509 and the nasdaqs up three and the s&p dropped fiv points today. >> speaking of amazon, that pempany is reportedly working towardng primary health care clinics for employees in it seattle headquarters. cnbc says the plan is to start small for a select group of employees and then expand to mors wor next year. in january, amazon announced a joint venture witherkshire hathaway and j.p. morgan aimed at improving the quality and bringing down health care costs. >> mexico's economic minister said today that the u.s. must finish its bilateral t naftaks with his country first before bringing canada back to the table to wrap up a new, negotiated trade deal and he also said mexico and the u.s. is strking as s possible to reach a deal on automotive rules

which have been atumbling block for this new nafta deal. >> and daimler finds itself in theiddle of the trade dispute between china and the u.se automaker says mercedes suvs built at itsba a plant are being checked by shanghai customs for possible problems.e china says s models built in the u.s. between may 4th and june 12th have a break issue which poses aaf possibley risk, daimler says it is working with authorities to try and resolve any matters. >> buying a used car instead of a new one is usually t cheaper option, but get this, the average price of a used car is now at a record $20,000. what's driving that? phil lebeau takes a look for us tonight. >> forget the image of used car dealers peddling old beaters for a couple thousand dollars. these days, dealers are selling used models and service plans that few could have imagined

just a decade ago. since 2005, the average used vehicle price has m climbe than $5,000 to hit a record high of just over grand. there has not been resistance. we are seeing a very healthy amount of sales so far. largely that does come from these vehicles. >> there's been a steady supply of leased three-year models who have been returned to dealers who in turn have sold them at healthy prices at relatively low mileage and many of the latest bells and whistles buyers are looking for. in addition, dealers are certifng more pre-owned models, selling them with extended warranties and at higher prices. >> the gross profit in our pre-owned business improved by 22%. so really strong pre-owned business. >> mix in greater demand for more expensive suvs and pickup trucks and you see why dealers are enjoying robust business on

their used auto lots. >> our used cars sales were up 11% in the quarter which is a number iefe never seen be? all of this comes as automakers who build and sell new models are increasingly under pressure. steel and aluminum tariffs could force them toriaises while interest rates may force some buyers to reconsider how much they'r willing to spend on a new car or truck. which could drive manyeeople to used car lot. it's estimated about0 million used vehicles will be sold this year, close to a record high. two-thir of those will be done through dealerships and the remaining third will be doneel priv from one person to another. phil lebeau, "nightly biness report," chicago. >> time to take a look at some of today's upgrades and downgrades. morgan stanley is cutting its outlook on the entire chip sector saying the semiconductor

cycle is showing signs of overheating. as for individual stocks the firm is downgrading applied materials from overweight to equal weight,utting the tomorrow's cautious view to chip equipment spending. the price target is $54 are s shares of applied materials was off% $2916. citi is one of the firms that downgraded shares of e.l. fvment but f. butte pep e.l.f. cut the full-year guidance and citi cal calls it bleak saying the confidence in the story has evaporated and that's a quote. the price was cut from 24 to 16 and the shares plunged nearly 34% to 9.85. bill? >> rbc capital is cutting 21st century fox from outperform to sector perform. e analyst sees upside in the new fox when assets are then combined withisney, but limited gains in the remaining

company. rbc did raise the company to and shares rose a fraction. >> raymond james isin ton mile an from strong buy to tstperform after the company's second-quarter res missed street estimates and said the board will be evaluating a wide address alternatives falling sales. the price target was taken down to $44. n shares fell more than 6% today, closing the day at $36.61. >> now to california where an eighth person has died in that state's rash of wildfires. a heavy equipment mechani assigned to the carr wildfire was killed in a traffic accint, and as those firet new records, the economic losses also keep piling up. i scott cohn in ukiah, california, for us. ♪ ♪ it is only august and more acreage hasa burned in califor than all of last year. we've seen significant fire

growth that many of us iaven't seen our career. >> 18 major fires burning across the ste, the carr fire near redding is the most destructive in california history, the mendocino complex at 300,000 acres or 475 square miles is the large nestsoistory. 4,000 personnel are battling this fire alone. the local fairgroundsan ormed into a virtual city overnight. >> we have sleeping trailers here a do morning briefings atd all of our intelligence that we havering intelligence on the fire and planning for the next shift and all of that stuff goes on here. we'reompletely, 100% self-contained. >> all of this costson and as the fires grow, so do the budgets. california is setting aside $2 billion this year for emergencies including wildfires. that's money that might otherwise go t sardools or roads. >> governor jerry brown who retirein january calls thi

the new normal. >> you have to re-examine the way we manage our forests and the way w, build thow we build them and how much we invest in our fire protection services. >> analysts say for no state and local governments have the situation in hand with aid from fema, but that could change. >> i thi that environmental risk is going to continue to evolve and we're going have to sort of monitor what the response is and how the government builds and reconstruct their tax bases. >> as california fights a battle on multiple fronts, growing fires, for nightly business report, i'm scon, c ukiah, california. >> coming up, working to win the grocery wars. >> i'm courtney reagan in st. charles, illinois, at analdi's store that's been freshly remodelled and it's all part of the grosher's 5 million dollar plan to remodel and expand in

the u.s. i've got the story coming up on "nightly business report."to re u.s. i've got the story coming up on "nightly business report."n an d the u.s. i've got the story coming up on "nightly business report." ♪ ♪ >> a newly released zillow sdy is choosing to pay a monthly rent in 29 of the largest cities. this new data is available from 2016. zillow says nearly 36% of all occupied homes in the u.s. right now are rented. that's up from 31% more than a decade ago. >> and with rental demand on the rise and smuch of that process done online, it's important for potential renters to be aware of some new scams. diana olick has more on h to spot and avoid them. >> pat rec bower is a seasoned

renterve but he came close to losing b on a listing because the market is so competitive. >> the stakes are pretty high, but so is the pressure to move quickly and it's been a really to>>h situation. ower was shopping for apartments online and saw a rental listing on tcraig's l that seemed too good to beberue use it was. the person listing it was a scammer who had copied a realin list and changed the contact information. after several seemingly normal e-mail bowerecided to call the supposed landlord. >> i tried calling a second time a little while later when i didn't receive the response the first call and neither time anybody picked up and that to me, was the major red flag and then my wife and started adding up the various sort of red flags. we said something isn't right here. this price is too good to be true. >> a recent survey of renters found 43% found listings they beli more than 5 million people reported having been scammed and

of those, more than a third of themlo hav over $1,000. >> the's a lot of urgency in the rental market and the supply constrained markets where you have ten rentersor fighting one available apartment. in reality there is a lot of urgency and i think scammers can sometimes prey on us. >> the most common scams inc bde tht and switch. when a different property is advertised than the one that' actually available and the scammer tries to collect a deposit. >> then theijked ad like bower. another scam is listing a property that is already leased and trying to collect application fees and security soposit. scams also happen on legitimate listings. the landlord willdvertise amenities that don't actually exist and try to collect higher nts before the applicant realizes they're missing. >> the scams are increasing because so much of the process is going oine. the best protection, don't rent anything sight funseen even you have to send a friend to see

it and don't send money until you're sure of what you're getting and where the money is going. for ♪ nightly business report,"'m diana olick in washington. bloomberg reported today that the sec was already in the process of anazing tesla's statements on manufacturing and sales projections even before co elon musk tweeted on tuesday that he wassidering taking the company private. the report added that the attorneys are lookingnto whether musk's tweet was intended to be taken as a factual statement and after the bell tonight, sources tell cnbc th tesla board will meet sath financial advisers on musk's pro to take the company private. shares of tesla were all overod the board down nearly.4 5% to $3 but they did turn around following the board news. it is smooth sailing for

norwegian cruise line. e cruise ship operator raised its earnings outlook for the year after topping wall street's expectations with the latest quarterly r the company cited strong global demand especially for its new he ship, norwegian bliss. shares rose nearly% $50.95 today. >> and booking holdings which us to be called priceline topped analyst estimates thanks to a rise in guest reservations and the company that also owns open table issues disappointing outlook for the current quarter and it has been known for its conservative forecastt. in the p still shares finished down 5% to $942.3 vista outdoor reported break even earnings and weaker sales. it cited revenue outlook citing commodity headwinds and it did raise its full-year profit forecast. shares jumped 15 force $18.92. ue rop in advertising rev

contributed to weaker profits and sales at via com. still, ttsse res were ahead of expectations. the successnf its mot picture mission impossible fallout. it expects to deliver anoth profit in the fourth quarter. shares rose 6% to $30.34. an activists pushing to have campbell's soup to sell itself. dan point dclosed it hadaken a more than 5% stake in the soupmaker after what it called hird quarter results. the hedge fund said it had spoken to the company about the possibility of a sale following what it calls as ser of manageme missteps. shares of campbell's soup rose to $24.28. > aldi has its sights now on grabbing market share in the u.s. and it's expanding to try to make that goal a reality. of course, the competition is strong and coming from some big

names with deep pockets. so is ald aldi's approach enough? >> small format grocery chain aldi has big changes in store and they're likely coming to a location nthr you. e germany-based no-frills budget grocer wse shelf selection is 90% its own private label goods is one year into its five-year, $5.3 billion u.s. growth plan, going head to head with walmartnd kroger in a bid to become the third largest u.s. grocer by store count by 2022. it's building 700 more stores over the next pfeiffer yeafive d near comng stores coast to coast. itf refreshing itsel to include 40% moresh food and specialty itemseg like options to appeal to a wider

customer base. >> our same-store sales has been much more than what the industry's realized and that gives usore confidence to invest in the new stores and n so to investe existing stores and to con gnue torow our acceptance with the consumers and it's resonating. >> aldi's organic produce sales have more than tripled in three years. once the product rollout is dom pleat and all ypsnd the stores will be brand new. >> aldi is an important competitor in the grocery wier s costs, so it can offer shoppers a five-aisle layout for the ice-conscious shopper. shoppers put in a quarter deposit in order to get a cart, then once they're done shopping and they're ready to check out they bag their own groceries with their own bag orca they n buy them. it's all done to keep prices

low. >> prices are tically between 15% to 40% lower than the nearby competn or. a gallo milk is just 95 centses and a bottle of award-winning rose is just $5 bucks. one of the the largest global competitors entered the market just last year. kroger and walmart are rolling out new grocery delivery programs and amazon's purchas of whole foods last summer sent the margin industry into a panic. it has an aggressive plan to remodel 1300 stores. its investmentsre helping to hold on to current shoppers and bringing in a new crowd with 7 million new shoppers just st year. >> we're appealing at an accelerating rate to more and more customers as they discover the difference at aldi which is savingat money on g quality products in a convenient, less frusgating, shopp environment. >> getting new customers inside eits stores to t a chance on the o grocer's private brand.

i'm courtney reagan in st. charles, illinois. coming up, imagine accepting a job and then not showing up. it's happening more often than you might think. we'll tell you ♪ ♪ imagine this, getting a job offer and not showing up to your first day of work without anyn? explanat kind of a new phenomenon called ghosting and as eric shemy tells us the practice is running rampant through many industries. >> what started off as a dating term has now spread across fortune 50 companies and offices across america. it's called ghosting and it refers to the practe of ending a personal relationship with someone like suddenly and without explanation withdrawing from all communication. >> it's been happening as we've

seen professional odanizations ifferent types of industry and it's happened everywhere. we decided to investigate. ♪ ♪ ur>> it out that job candidates and employees are literally turning into ghosts, disappearing from the interview process. [ screaming ] in thhave seen an uptick past six months in areas related in energy and finance and business services and industrial and manufacturing. >> it gets even spookier. corporate managersng are tel cnbc they're seeing ghosts across the entire liaring process. people not showing up for interviews and not for the first day of work, and some people disappearing from

jobs they already had. >> with the market as tight as it is andiro muchg activity going on, there's definitely more of everything happening, ghosting being one of them. >> ghosting can come back to haunt you. >> it's really important for everybody to remain professiool and get back to people again, even if it's justme brief, but orm of communication of which there are many in today's day and age >> oh, eric. > that will do it for us tonight. i'm sue herera. thanks for joining us. >> i'm bill griffith. >> we'll be here tomorrow. >> yes. ♪ ♪

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