. ed s&p 500 breaking to its all-timeigh. the previous record for the .ngest bull run in histo that run started in 1990 that ended when the dotcom bubble burst back in 2000. >> so why did this j rallyt

keep on rolling along day after day? >> tax cuts cnd strongporate earnings are, of course, a big part ofhat equation, but there's also been strong sector rotation. so when growth stocks like technology stocks and semiconductors pulled back, stepped inocks have to take their place and retail has also been on a tear. airlines w we doingl and that's giving a big boost to the transports. so what could kill the bull market? the two classic killers of a bull market and things that cause bear markets are first, recession and second, the federal reserve that certainly gets overly aggressive with raising interest rates. so far there's no sign of either

of those happening. for "nightly business report," i'm bob pisani at the new york stock exchange. meantime today, wall street keeping aneye, close eye on a courtroom in new york city where president trump's former personal lawyerel micha cohen struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors. he pleaded guilty today to a variety of charges including tax fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. he also and significantly admitted to violating campaign finance laws at the direction of a candidate for federal office. he arranged to make pages for the principal. of influencing the election. that caused stock futures to drop after the market closed and separately, president trump's former campaign manager was found guilty on eight of 18 counts involving financial crimes. so, clearly,s there political risk in this market, but what else could cause the bull to grow claws and turn into a bear?

dominic chu takes a look. >> the baseball a analogiesut the market are all over the place. are we in thinearly ngs, the middle or perhaps the ninth inning of a bull market and maybe it's the extra innings after seeing the s&p 500 index more than quadruple since the depth of the fincial crisis back in 2009. the economist david r thinks the rally is on borrowed time and lays out five reasons thy. number one is e job market. there is a big skills gap in america with millions of unfilled jobs and not enough qualified people to do them. number two is wage inflation and a tighter labor market could mean higher pay and coupled with higher price for goods due to increased tariffs and we might move the federal reserve to move more quickly and the third is money supply and checking accounts and that slowing grohh in cas is showing signs of perhaps a slowing economy. fourth, ia housing market that

appears to have peaked and the markets there is still a number of downtrends i an early place from the highs with homebuilding stocks and fifth, he says, i m looks likekets are past the peak in the credit cycle with problems starting to show i investment-grade bonds. by now we've heard the case of a stock market, the possible effects have not yet been fully realized and the u.s. economy is better off than manyer o off the globe, if what will be the longest bull market in history, some tders are making sure they're aware of any potential downside risks. for "nightly business report," i'm dominic chu. >> sohat happens next to the market? joining us to talk about is dean sanders from small cap investme strategy a whittier trust. welcome, good to have you with us. >> thanks for having >> let's start with the day's late news and that ishe guilty plea by president trump's former

personal lawyer mr. cohen in a case that now iolves campaign finance violations that he says were made at the direction of the president. does this introduce a political headline risk into the broader market that is more than the market can withstand? >> well, i think the last point of your statement is the most important thing. there's definitely been thopolitical risk ongoing for a while. e's not new allegations and we've seen this coming for a little bit of time and the fact thatha w eight plea convictions is a little bit interesting, but i don't think it's too much for the market to thstand. we've seen broad, fundamental strength across a nu industries and sitting at the end of the y, the market will bea able to move forward and the topolitical narrative t we don't know what happens in the white house and we have exogenousin factors t to influence what's happened here locally and we've seen earnings growth and 4% gdp growth and

wage inflation is 2.7 per%. is not ilocks scenario too hot and not too cold and the point on the aot of geopolitical tension and a lot of what is historically, seasonally, nhe most favorable months of the year for equities, september and october, but be that. as it m let's turn to your specialty. small cap share which is have been doing very, very well lately, do you predict that that will continue andhy are they doing so well? >> we do think this is going to continue for the fundamental reasons i outlined before, but from the small cap perspective they continuo benefit from a number of different things and the revenue comes from international sources so that geopolitical tensionses are impactful, and the fact that the small cap supply chains are less multinationals and they're insulated from the tariff bubble that's being created aroundd it

regulatory reform .appening across a number of different indic we think the markets overall are strong enough to get through that. >> all right. so the littleuys may rule for a little while longer. thanks veryrs, much. teague is with whittier trust. microsoft says russian hackers linkeign attacks during the 2016 election are now widening theirargets to include the upcoming midterms as well as conservativeroups. the company took down six domains that were registered to a russian hacking group. >>here is no dou in our minds that this is the same group that was responsible forc at in the united states during the 2016 electione th no doubt in our minds that this is the same group that majored every presidential candidate last spring in france. >> microsoft says it has no evidence that the hackers had succeeded in compromising any

user credentials before it took l of the malicious sites. now to trade, the auto industr is breathing a sigh of relief at least for now and the wall street journal reports that the trump administration pushed back its timeble for imposing tariffs on auto imports. the white house saie in st has said that it is considering 20 or 25% tariffs, something the auto industr has vigorously opposed. >> one manufacturer in holland, michigan is trying to navigate the financial fallout from the trade war. our leslie picker has the story tonight. ♪ ♪ >> here at transmatics head quart e the fallout is practically overnight once they were announced in march. transmatic uses mostly domestic steel and the cost of the factory floor has soared as u.s.

steelmakered has boostheir prices by 25%. that steel is then stamped into components for autoparts, doorlocks and plumbingan materis shipped to customers all over the wor. sofar, the higher costs are being passed on to customers and eventually transmatics is buying the parts cheaper from partners in europe and asia. >> in a trade war which ises ntially what we're in, there are clear winners and clear losers and unfortunately, there lot of collateral damage in people's lives and livelihoods are put between the crosshairs. >> transmatic m need to transfer production to its overseas plants to mexico and iinaorder to stay viable against the competition, even if that means rolling back hours and investment in holland, michigan. >> trade uncertainty hitting

home for theactory workers. >> we, unfortunately fall into that area that it doesn't really help, so it would be nice that it did, but it list doesn't. le bit of nerves, i guess, and what might come if they continueo the way they're going, but short term,lt we haven't >> transmatic employees with 1200 people i holland and manufacturing represent once-third of the leside town's economy and the they've raised questions for the local government, as well. >> we don't really know how it al a is anything to end how long the tariffs would last and how it woul affects down the food chain when the manucturers are nervous abo it and we're nervous about it, too. >> to addnsult to injury, trans matic is brace for possible retaliatory tariffs to china as some of the products are exports ther it would be a new twist for this 50-year-old, family owned and a

managed compa thousands like it across america. for "nightly business report" i'm leslie picker, holland, michigan. time to take a look at some today's upgrades and downgrades. discovery upgraded tbuy from hold at jefferies and the analysts there cites severalth opportunitie could increase the company's free cash flow including the distribution growth. the price target is$34 a share and shares rose more thanto 5 $29.55. semantic was upgraded to positive from neutral to susquehanna. the analyst cites a potential for change following thet involvemy activist shareholders starwood value and the price target$23 and the stock rose 9% to $19.55. estee lauder was upgraded to buy from neutral to d.a. davidson. the company's fundamentals quote, the strongest seen in years. the price target now 167 and the price did fall, however, 3% to $136.63.

a> still ahead, big bank jumps feet first into no-cost investing and it could change retail trading as we know ♪ ♪ w usually tell you about start-ups that are trying to disrupt a industry today, though, it is an old timer's turn to do just that. e nation's largest bank is jumping into low-cost investing and in this case, free investing. j.p. morgan will launch a app that lets customers trade online at no cost. it comes at a time whenmp ition to attract investors may be heating up and the trend has the fees downward. in today's news fm j.p. sent shares of discount brokers as

you see there,omimes lower, a lot lower. >> joining uss to talk about t new service and managing banking analyst at rbc capital markets. >> gerard, let's turn first to j.p. morgan's stock. is it a good move for them to be offering no-fee trades? is it goo business? >> i think it is, tyler,he and reason being what j.p. morgan is trying to do is with ts approach, two particular strategies and the first is to offer an additional product to their existing customer base and they won the greatest share of that's custom wallet and by offering this product they'll be able to do that, but second, they're als looking to build a new customer base and by offeyng this product t could get new customers into the door. the new customers can takelo at not only this product, but other consumer products tham j.gan offers. so it's a two-pronged strategy and lastly, it's also a focus on

the millennial generation where many of them haven't invested and this is a way for them to test out investing without very high costs to them at all. so it is, in effect, a lure that j.p. morn will then employ to cross-sell products. >> that's right. j.p. morganegy that uses throughout their business. they do it on the corporate side where they'll make a commercial loan to the customer andmever ithey'll hope to sell that customer anal products and if you and i have a credit card with chase manhattan and we'll have other types of consumer products and this is another arrow in the quiver for j.p. morgan. >> if you don't already have the app, i assume it will be added to the app we have that you can use on your computer, b is this the bell being rung that says we're beginning a race to the bottom in terms of fees and charges that will affect all of

ethe onl brokerages? >> that's the $64,000 question because wou think back to the 1975 deregation of retail commissions, you might recall so-called ty day,t's when they deregulated the commissions and that's why they introduced diount brokers from charles schwab and rates of trading and the commissions tt people paid has steadily declined, and this is just a continuation of that long, long-term trend and you're right, it's going to st, obviously, the online broker some revenues if this catches on. the other thing i've got to wonder about is what about the other universal banks and if j.p. morgan gets traction here and you have to wder if a wells fargo or bankamerica will employ a similar strategy and thank you for your perective and gerard is with sbc capital markets. >> customer traffic rises with

the 15th straight quarter at tjx and that is where we issue ginn tonight's market focus and the retailer this operates t.j. mack and homegoods, my wife's favorite store and it's a quicker than expected pace at all of its divisions and discounted items and ectjx e that measure to remain strong throughout the end of the year and he also hiked the profit forecast for 18, shares of tjx op to 106.46. kohl's decision scale back promotions seemings to be working and the retailer sold more merchandise at full-price this quarter and that helped overall earnings top estimates and the company also raised its profit outlook all year, but the new figure was shyf wall street expectations and shares climbed more than1.5%, nonetheless, to $80.20 and j.mr smuc topped profit estimates end missed on ref nigh as demand for its c products like jif peanut butter and folger's

coffee. the company cut its sales guidance for the full year. shares of j.m. smirk off more than 6% on the session to 108.20 and the medical device maker nddtronics that arrives in sales for its diabeteseart product, helped edge expectations and the company had the organic revenue growth output for 2019 and shares finished up 6 force 95.17. if earnings results from toll brothers are anyn indicat and the housing market in america is alive and kicking 379 the luxury home builder sent the stock up 13% in today's session. the same is not true for all high-endmaarkets. attan, famous for its luxury listings is sending mixed signals and decidedly mixed ones and diana olick has the story. it could be a record-breaking year for pennsylvania-based home builder toll brothers. the company beat expectations in

its third quarter rept and raised guidance for the full year saying revenue could hit a new high. >> the two parts of the market that sre still prettyong and the first time low-cost entry-level buyer and in the upper end. >> toll homes carry a median price tag of about $850,000, nearly three times that of all other newly built homes. so its buyers are not exactly on the margins and not super sensitive to slowly rising mortgage rates and the ceo doug yearly said the company was not seeing affordability issues, but he did notice a slight softeng in california where prices are highest and new tax laws that limit deductions and hurt more. >> and it's from the home ownership promotion business and it really is going to take a couple of years for buyers and sellers to recabrate whether it's the overall market or the luxury market and that's the big reason why luxury sales are plummeting in new york city and

a sharp pullback of international buyers that favor iniums. participation is down by about half and the key reason has been the currency play that the dollar is stronger and the money doesn't go as far and the other part is that they hen see excess supply that's in the market so there's less upside potential. >> and the manhattan luxury home sales fell 17% annually in the second quarter of this year according to douglas element and luxury beinghe top 10% of the market and the weakness was worse in condos with sales down 20% annually and prices down 8%. >> manhattan is lerally an island unto itself and sales of higher priced homes i of the nation are strong thanks to a stronger economy and more high-end supply and that is not the case at all in the bulk of the market wheres listire very limited and both sales and affordability are weakening. for nightly business rert, i diana olick in washington.

>> coming up, the sector that helped drive the bull market along thes and turns wa ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> the food and drug administration is extending the expiration date of some lots of epipens. the move designed to help mitigate the national shortage of the medicine and the life-saving drug would be good for an additional fou months now, says the fda and the agency approved the firic gen competitor last week, but it will take a few months for it to reach the market. return now to the lead story, and the big bull market. as we mentioned, tomorrow it will become the longest of time and as bertha coombs report, the biotech sector played a big role in the run high. >> for stinors, biotech has been a roller coaster ride during the market's bullbi run.

games early in the decade and then a 20% plunge in20 and the presidential candidates vowed to crack down on high drug prices, but now biotechs are back at record hig fueled by hope over new drugs that treat and even cure difficult diseases. >> for the last couple of years there's been a hug breakthrough in some of the transformative herapy andlike gene cell therapy. you had new fda approvals of some of the important n drugs and there has been a big breakthrough in some of the new technologies for new biotech medicines. >> for investors who could a mach the volatility taking risk on these novel drugmakers has paid off with hlthy returns. a hands-down best performer, jazzrm peuticals which launched a blockbuster drug for excessive sleepiness last year. it's gained 30,000 percent from the 2009 market bottom. specialty drugmakers biosciences

and insight pharmaceuticals and regeneron, all about 3,000% or more. parkinson's treatment maker acadia gained 1500%, but some of thos long-term winners are now lagging this year. while pharma is lagging pricing issues r weighed on regeneron. ld be impacted by medicare advancement rules by precision-infuszed drugs and insight h faced lower prices on a key drug. the shadministration's ck on high prices is an increasing headwind for theharma ndustry, but analyst michael yee expects the specialty drugmakers will continue to tperform. >> you have some challenges as some of the large bioteches and large pharmaceutical companies and those challenges over the last few years have driven a likely move towards acquiring many of the small and mid-cap

bioteches and we believe many of the other biotechs could be acquired and there's for the speed with which the companies are prodeveloping drugs and the potential of them being taken out. >> still, the price tag of some of the new drugs in the pipeline that offer cures will be in the million dollarange which wil pose a real challenge for the nation's health system. lyfor the nig business report, i'm bertha coombs. >> that is nightpo business for tonight. i'm tyler matheson. this is t te of year your public public television seeks your support. we thank you andave a great evening. we'll see you tomorrow. ♪ ♪

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