this is "nightly business report" with bill griffith and sue herrera. moving momentum. there are new signslobal owth is cooling and that could ripple through the u.s. economy and your investments. f bankruptcying. california's largest power company is now expected to seek protection amid mounting costs related to the state's massive wildfires. expsion plans. two major automakers are increasing production at a time in the industry is transition. those stories and more tonight on "nightly business report" for monday, january 14th. >> and we do bid you a good evening, everyone.lc e. this wasn't exactly how nervous

investorwanted to start. ina showed the sharpest decline in two years in that countryd compoun by slowing global growth. you add aor r that also pointed to a further slowdown in the global economy this and you had a pretty cautious monday as a result on wall street. the dow fell by 86 points, closed at 23,909. the nasda was down by 65. 13.s&p 500 slid by we start you off from beijing tonight. >> china's latest trade data reafirms that the economy here continues to decline. december export as well as import figures missed expectations and exports dropped 4.4% from a year ago andts analxpected it to fall to a 3% rise. imports shed 7.6% versus the forecast of 5% growth. china's trade surplus jumped to 7 billion. exports slid 3.5% to the u.s.

and surplus highest on record going back to 2006. a few important points from the data. riffs are hurting exporters. companies front loaded orders which will taper o. mand globally is softening. shipments to.s the u. were the only ones affected. domestic demand is struggling more than expected despite effort by the authorities to stimulate growth. expectations are that beijing will have to sed up the policy easing and other measures t boost the economy and that president donald trump could use the record tradeurplus to pressure beijing as part of the trade negotiations. adding to those global he cerns, s.is a key vote in united kingdom. it could determine the country's economic and political future. we have a reporter in london tonight. teresa may and her senior ministers spent the last 48 hours trying to drum support

among skeptical lawmakers in their ownonservative party. she warned those of her own mps who say her plan could leave the u.s. with ties close to europe and her version of b cxit and thld end up with no brexit at all. that is the second rev rund um callfe ndum is called. changed since then though the consequences now are just over ten weeks left until the uk is scheduled to exit the european union with or without l >> i say we should deliver to the british people and get on with building a brighter future for our country by backing this deal tomorrow. >> government economists have warned that a no deal departure would economically disastrous forritain. nevertheless, all indications are that may will still lose tomorrow night's vote. she has until next monday to come back with a new p, n b.

until they can push for a motion of no confidence in the government that could in turn trigger a fresh nationa election. >> the government is in disarray. it's clea it's a prime minister's deal is rejected tomorrow it'sime for general election. for a new governmen >> uncertainty remains the watch word in westminster and means investors, lawmakers, and ordinary british voterstill have more questions than they have answers about the 's immediate political future. nightly business report" from london. >> so how will all of these growth concerns around the globe impact the market and your investme inve welco back. good to see you again. >> thanks for having me. >> you've been worried about the global outlook for some time now and i would assume that this latest wrinkle with brexit only adds to those concerns. >> the global economy has been expected to slow, sue, whether

it is by the oecd or world bank or the imf or most pundits are looking for slower global growth. the data we've seen come in the last month is even slower than that. and that's raised a number of coiterns. eems to be tied to the macro issues. you mention brexit and the protest in france that derailed plans there. there is concern about the italian budget that subsided for the time being but still have a impactonomic growth. there is the u.s. trice dispute lingers on. all the factors are weighing on global economic output. >> it certainlygh w on our stock market in the fourth quarter as parentally wall street was anticipating a slowdown of some kind. where do you think w will see that slowdown start here in the u.s., jeff? >> that's interesting. already we've seen it affect earnings growth. earningsec etions pulled back sharply for 2019. for u.s. companies, giv the global exposure, where does the growth slow? it's hard to say. thinklearly we're seeing some impact on u.s. companies. how that impac u.s. consumers

and businesses in terms of their economic output with, very to see. some slowing is likely. i think what is more interesting is the fact that the market seems to already pcen a hacession out to the enof the fourth given the pullback. the way i look at the markets and the economic data, it already gone ahead of ielf in priced in that recession which may yet be becoming. we're nothere yet. i wouldn't be surprised to see a little bounce in the market in q-1. that doesn't mean the coast is clear. >> all right. if that's tre case, what you advising invest yooors to do? >> as longer term horizon is key here. this is why we own bonds in our portfolio. bu if a q-1 rally gives way to weakness, you may want to considerealth care, those earnings may be less vulnerable to a pullback in gbal economic conditions and other more defensive areas of the stock market. remember, diverse fiction pays off here. what we haven't seen in some time, correlations have come

down meaning markets are behaving a little more independently from each other than they have in a dwhile. hat offers some benefit to diversified investors. >> jeff, thank y as always. >> thank you. elsewhere, investors are nervous about earnings which we'll start to see ahi lot of week. citigroup got things started m thning with a mixed report. they post berd than expected profits thanks to cost cuts. but the fixed revenue income ll by 12%. that send the stock nearly 4% higher in today's session. nowo washington and the partial government shutdown which is now the longest in history. negotiations between president trump and congressional democrat appear frozen. it's not just the furloughed federal workers who areeeng the financial strain but also as we've been reporting businesses as well. and that's also true for commerce. at the shipping ports,ir aports, and on the road.

contessa brewer is it in new connecticut. >> on air, land, sea, worries are growing over the feder governmeutdown and the potential for serious problems. >> clearly,ome of the questions that are posed to me by our customers are shippers, retail associations, there is a concern with regard to the impacts of a shutdown. >> at the nation's second busiest port in longch b california, federal employees border oms and protection and the coast guard are showing up but they're not getting wid. and learned some 300 ships are stuck at sea unable to come into u.s. por because of a technicality. you see, they're supposed to carry a certificate of fincial responsibility. essentially proof of insurance r that they can ponsible should something dire happen. and the coast guard has clearly listed on thet' website not processing those applications right now. global supply chain giant ch robinson says the slowdowns are

not significant b points out shippers aren't getting duty refund mppayments. ies excluded from tariffs, ren't seeing those exclusions recognized. so they're still paying and waitingnt for reimburse without federal safety inspections, some ships can't refuel in harbor cting them between 12 and 48 hours in delays. >> o industry runs very tightly, logistically and time is money andtt may c one owner x amount and another owner x amount and across the industry i will the have annic impact. >> domestic freight no is not seeing a slowdown because they're funded by the highway trust fund, not the d.o.t.dg buet. running, mains up and funded through traveler revenue. but air passengers are seeing a slowdown at security checkpoints as tsa doubles the number of sick calls over the week, causing some closus in miami and houston. and air traffic controlle are suing president trump over the

shutdown. faa safety inspectors are furloughed. >> i'm out here because i want to raise public awareness and let the public know that there is no safety oversight and let the public make their decision as to whether or not they want to fly. >> even if the government opens tomorrow, there a backlog these agencies willeeto play catchup so the logjam won't disappear the moment the .government shutdown en and right now, there's no end in sight. rfor "nightly businessort," contessa brewer, new haven, connecticut. time to take a look now at some of today's upgrades and we begin tonight with delta which was downgraded to neutral from buy at bank of america merrill lynch. the analysts there cited the potential for slower demand, decline in ceo confident and the government shutdown. price target is $51. it felt to $57. chevron was downgraded to buy at hsbc. they cited the supply of crude and that stock's recent

multihere high. price target, $122. and that stock fell a fraction today to $111.72. tnchts still ahe tnch still head, the future of sears from the man that wrote the book o koencht . ked to day on a cooler than expected forecast for the eastern half of the united states towards the end of this and that could potentially mean increased demand and tighter inventories. prices rose by 15% in today's session. california's largest utility plans to file for bankruptcy.

pg & e faces billions ofrs dol in liability costs stemming from that state's deadly wildfires. that cut the stock price in half today. we take a loo at what this could mean for both consumers and investors. a tumultuous 24 hours for pg & e. california's largest utility announced in a regulatory filing this morning that it plans to filean foruptcy. that filing following the news late sunday that ceo is stepping down. williams h been in the position since 2017. since then, the utili has grappled with devastating wildfires including theamire last fall which killed at least 86 people making it the state's deadliest fire in history. in today's filing, pg & e said if it were found cost of the northern california wildfires the last two years, theiability would exceed $30

billion. that doesn't include punitive damages. million ice 16 customers in northern and central california. experts say a bankruptcy would likely not disrupt service but could increase rates. some customers say they're unphased by the prospect of rate hikes. >> not so much they file for bankruptcy before. >> while the utility didfo file bankruptcy back in 2001, some experts say a bankruptcy today would look very different from the classic chapter 11 reorganization the utility went through more than a he dade ago. since the wildfire risk will continue and perhaps even increase in the future. insiders say stockholders will be wiped clean and h bondders might have to fight for their claims in court. the utility couldlso be broken up. expertsee a bankruptcy judge could decide to separate pg & e's gas and electric businesses and while all of these issues ill likely take years to pla

out, some customers are already worried about how it will their pocketbooks. >> it does concern mese bec with rent in oakland, that's expensive enough. and for our pg and & e can go u that can cause proz probleblems. california's attorney general and the dnetrict att say they are considering filing criminal charges against the utilit pg & e says they plan to file for bankruptcy on or around th.uary 29 "nightly business report," san francisco. umont mining goes digging foth gold. companys buying cogold corp. the deal follows the agreeme to buy rand gold last september. the latest consultation wave is

due in part to a dwindling supply of he's why i to find gold around the world. gold corp rose 7% to 0.38. new mont mining dropped by 8% to $31.78. aganet received hostile takeover bid. the owner of usa today got offer valued at $1.3 billion from mng enterprises. this is a hedge fund backe dia group known for buying up struggling local newspapers. if thiseal goes through, it would turn mng into the largest owner of u.s. daily newspapers around the country. net responded by simply acknowledging that they received a bid and executives saidhey uld consider it in due course. shares of company surged by 21% today to $11.82. >> lulu lemon raised profit for the fourth quarter. they have seen strong sal growth and analysts expect that to continue both online and in china. shares rose more than 5.5% to39

3. canadian cannabis growth company said they received a hemp license from new york state and it will establish u.s.-based commercial operations. the company plans t invest between $100 million and $150 million in its new york operations and it will source exclusively from american farmers once up andnn g. the shares gained 11% to42.49. earlier today a bankruptcy auction was held behiin closed doorew york city trying to decide once and for all the fate of iconi retailer sears. last weekbe remchairman edwa edward lamb amper made that offer of $5 billion and today a group of liquidateors was scheduled to offer their own bids. the outcome of the auction will determine whether sears and kmart continue to operator go out of business. joining usht ton is don cats, the founder and ceo of

automobile.com. done is also the author of "the big wstore,"tten back when sears came through another crisis and became the number one retailers arod the untry. the big store was recently reissued as an audio book on audible. i cannot tell you the number of people that said 100 years ago sears was the amazon of its time. amazon owns audible right now. the business models are very similar. >> well, they're similar in ans of having ingenders amazing trust. sense thatent in the we forget the 20th century was marked by b consumering the mark of success for the rising middle class and just about everybody else. we really didn't come to that a of salary point in the 80' and net worth until the late people mark the sense of themselves by the fact that sears was democrat tiesing access to washi machines and sewing machines and dryers and

trash compactors and the like. they earned and they created a sense of trust byiging out ways to logistically and inventionally get this to people. it was a genius company. it found the suburbs and it did amazing number of things and at the beginning of the catalog days, it figured out the how to sell something to someone that you couldn't se so tha alone, i mean, only two dimensional. >> the parallel is online. >> the idea of trusting farmers to pay their bills, credi money-back guarantees, ample tree parking, they invented this. hey lost their way. i think now my book is still read in business because it's both a road map to how to cree a truly inventive great company but it's also h not to have pride and myopia blindside you. it pretty much is over as a company a long time ago. >> where do you think it goes

from here? eddie lampert still waunts nts a very big way. he continues to put in a higher bid. we't know which way the decision is going to go. what is sears' way forward? >> you know, i have stopped -- i do other things with my day job now so i don't -- i have a feeling that sears is over except for basically being a real estate holder and iconic brand that much older people spent their lives with. you kn, one in 30 americans have worked at sears at the point i washi writing book. i basically think in many ways what happened me recently after i wrote my book is the financialization of the economy is somewhat mythic in a sense thatup -- great companies are built by unleashing things with capital. it's hard work and creativity plus capital. anus this was a case where it doesn't work that way. it's a bunch of real estate at this point. >> right. but realistically and quickly, you know, the model the retailer has to have today if they're not

just purely online you have to have a brick-and-mortar store as swell. there a good combination of that. >> there are plenty of oibrick-and-mortar stores indecreed my well. just talk about the people in the cannabis world. look at the stores that are gearinhe up to be n retailers. fantastic retailers out there. and amazo actually has physical outlets that are really genius too. it's just this idea of the mega corporation that at one point s the great american corporation of the 20th nty, things have been changed. >> the name of the book is "the big store." >> great to see you. thank you, sue. >> coming up, automakers are shifting gears. >> new models, new plans. i'mle phiau where automakers are laying out the road to the future. that story coming up on "nightly business report."

deste concerns the auto industry has too many plants and is building too many vehicles, st two automakers say that they will build more assembly lines in the u.s. at announcement came today at the north american iointernl auto show and phil lebeau is in detroit. make no mistake, the auto industry is in an arms race with automakers investing in new models and new plants. they took the ramps off the passat and then announced to hire 1 thu th,000 new workers w they will start to mak electric model. >> we want to grow in the united states. we have good momentum with the new product. have a very good team. we have been gaining market share. we think with electric cars we'll have a chance heren the

u.s. >> cadillac is also pluggingim . showines of an all new electric model that will go on sale in 2021. the move comes as the industry p tries to catch with the success o tesla. last year in the u.s., tesla easily sold mor electric car than any other automaker. but gm says it is too soon to declare tesla the winner in evs. >> i think we have to while to rate the whole story. we don't know what happens when evs really start to scale from a distribution and customer experience perspective. so for the rest of it, and i think we have to wait a little while before we rate the whole story. >> for the focus on evs, the models generating the biggest profit and the moe trucks and suvs and no brand is hotter than jeep which is why fiat chrysler is adding assembly lines to keep up with demand. >> one of the things we're goi to d in our current plan is bringing two new productsjeo

. we're going to bring a full size and then iouthe large, know, we're going to bring back the grand wagone. those two vehicles, there is no way we can fit it into our existing manufacturing infratruck tour. we'll bring capacity for that. so it is huge. yep, that will have to happen in have the very near future. >> expansion plans for industry in transition. phil lebeau, "nightly business report,"> detroit. ot only is the auto industry in transition but so i retail. a finicky consumer is facing that business. they were addressed at the largest trade sho of the year hosted by the national retailfe deration. courtney reagan was there for us tonigh in new york. 40,000 people from around the world and in attendance to retailers, start-up companies t and goalso discuss the latest

trends inet rl which changes as fast as shopper tastes and showcase the newest technology to serve them. meet llie, a canadian fashion brand and a german grocery store are experimenting with her to greet shoppers and answer questions. millie, how much arehese sunglasses? >> normally a lot. but i like you. >> there are smart carts that scan groceries as youond technology that adds up your items as you shop so you can walk without a cash year and analytics. they're gathering dwrat about shopping patterns to feedback to the tailer. plus, robots and drones to make filling orders, stocking shelves andng gat inventory information easier. but it's cutng edge as all the artilicial intelnce and machine learning technology is, ceos of the country's biggest retailers say traditional stores

remain >> they function as service centers. they're fulfillment hubs and incredible showrms for inspiration. digital this seaso our business outperformed the industry by over 50%. and that's largely because three llt of every four digital orders was ful by a store. >> the stores are wonderful asset for us. and thas from a customer standpoint. you know, a lot of the stuff we sell, you need to touch, feel, be able to ask question, see h everything works together. asset for the vendors, they get to showcase the products. asset from a supply chain front. that is growing. >> while virtual stylist and robots and cashierless technology enhance the retail experience, maximizing the utility of stores remains retail's top priority.

for "nightly business report,ga courtney r in new york city. one more look at the day on wall street. minor minusday, if that is such thang. down 86 points for the dow. nasdaq down 65. s&p 500 down 13. and that will do it for "nightly businessor r" i'm sue herrera. thank you for joining us. >> i'm bill thgrif have a great evening. see yo

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