. this is "nightly business report" with sue herera and bill griffith. ♪ trade thoughts. stocks rise for a second straight day not just with china, buttherpartners, as well. >> the ceo of macy's warnshat an escalation in the trade spat could result in increasedosts and it is unclear if consumers will pay the price. growth drivers, johnson & johnson has a plan for the future and it involves new drugs thopes will one day be blockbusters. those stories and much more tonight on "nightly business report" for this wednesday may the 15th. >> good evening, everyone and welcome. trade has been the focus of wall street, of course, and today was really n different, but what

was different is that the twists and turns were not just related to our economic relationship with china, but also with mexico, canada and the european union. the positive tone helped offset disappointing economic data both here and abroad the dow jones industrial averag ro115 points reversing a triple-digit decline. the nasdaq was up nd87he s&p 500 added 16. kayla tausche starts us off tonight from washington. >> in a series o meetings in washington today to shore up the prospects for president trump's signature trade deal, the usmca. robert lig hhizer meetinge on capitol hill with house leadership after hosting canada's foreign minister where aluminum tariffs were on the top of the agenda. they've been soar f been the main roadblock to the deal. the u.s. would float a proposal chart a path forward.

treasury secretary stephen mnuchin said all four companies were close to a deal. >> i think we are close to annd undersg with mexico and canada. i've spoken to the finance ministers and ambassadors lighthizer i leading the effort on this, but i can assure you that it is a priority of ours. >> chrystia freeland said she wouldn't estimate how long it >> we don't believe in negotiations. it's never wise to talk about time lines to predict the future? in the meantime t, the white hoe faces a decision whether to impose tariffs, it chose tohe delayecision by up to six months as it keeps negotiations open with canada, mexico, europe and japan, all of which exports cars to thenited states. the escalation with allies comes as the white house ratchets up tensions with china ahe of the g-20 next month and the possible

implementation ofor m new round of tariffs. for "nightly business report"m kayla tausche in washington. >> trade is just one of the many issues the market is trying fi re out right now and bob pisani is watching all of the sc crosrents. stocks rallied today after the dow swung more than 350 points to register the back-to-back points in may. it was an up and down day for the markets starting offa o weaker note after disappointing data was onai r sales and it was in the united states as well as china, but then in the mide of the morning we saw a pop into positive territory as president trump said he would delay o implementing a tariffs in europe for at least six months. the auto stocks rose on that, but tech also rose. then wuthad another report on axios that the u.s. and china were negotiating specific dates for travel to beijing to trade negotiatio that trip

perhaps could take place as early as next week. and most of the market turned around on those two points. we saw about a thousand keyech names and intel, microsoft especially apple with the weakest month along with communications services names like facebook, twitter, netflix and engoogle's p company alphabet, but industrials and retailers, these areecrs that are very closely tied to trade were left out of the rally. we really didn't see much of a bounce at all in 3m or united technologies and caterpillar and the retailers like macy's and nordstrom were down aga thanks partly to the weaker retail sales print that we saw thismo ing. so what does all of this tell us? it tells us that the marke is not going to necessarily jump on every spin on trade. vestors believe the trade deal was closed once before and they got burned. so it's going to take a lot more to convince the market that a deal is really on the docket this time. for "nightly busines report," i'm bob pisani at the new york stock exchange. >> the president of e federal

serve bank of richmond says he's watching the trade conflict with china very closely. tomming a parkin said the trade war has the power to damage business confidence and the pa on the economy could be muted if a resolution is reached soon. the tradeoncerns that have been pressuring the market lately also pressured shares of macy'sft today a the ceo said that escalating tensions could hurt its business and that ifted the focus away from the company's better thanec ed quarterly results this morning. courtney reagan has more on the retailers' quaer. >> first, the good news. macy's drew comparable sales for the third straight quarter and launched the double digit online sales growth. now the. b while tariffs currently inha ple n't had a big impact on macy's so far, that could change if the trump administration puts tariffs on the remaining 300 billion worth of chinese imports including shoes.

jeff gannett says macy's has been working with manufacturing and brand partners to minimizim the ct to shoppers. >> looking at all of those categories and those brand that are included it is hard to do the math to find a path that gets you to a place where you don't have a customer impact. it's too early to comment on what that's going to mean on the potential pricencases and what categories will be more affected than others. du we have an oversupply worldwide of p and so there's a downward pressure and there's a lot of ability to substitute. they just won't be able to get the consumer to pay it. at this point macy's is factoring in h the possiblist higher prices from tariffs could curb spending or weigh on its profitability. instead, reaffirming its full-year earnings and sales guidance based on the current conditions. >> the unknown is if we really ramp up to this additional 300 billion. t think that that would be priced into really any ofvey ge in that it more or less

would wipe out an entire year of eallings if that r were the case. >> beyond tariffs, ginnett says the u.s. consumer is still healthy with a rise in wages and confidence is sti there. while there are fewer economic tailwinds this year than last. ginnett said macy's can compete in this environment. while macy's most loyal customers are shopping more frequently than ever, they have more work to do to get the occasionaltihopper, plarly the millennial female to spend more. >> they're wanot going up quites much anymore and they have a more discerning consumer faced with the possibility of higher prices from tariffs, there's a big challenge f the remainder ofht 2019. for "n business report," i'm courtney reagan. >> j&j,'s prescription drug business accounts for half of its revenue and at the company's analyst day today the ceo put the focus the company's phmaceutical pipeline. meg terrell reports tonight from

johnson & johnson headquarters in new brunswick, new jersey. >> johnson &maohnson's phutical unit is a $40 billion unit. a key question from wall street, how will the health giant continue to grow? j & j laid out a plan for the next five years. >> we have new compounds that we're launching between now and 2023 each of which have over a billion worth of opportunity. >> the ceo highlighted the company's work on medicines for cancer, auto immune diseases and neuroscience and they're pected to trail other companies this year. they have generic competition to some of the medicine. the stock is recovering from pressure on anoth part of the business. a slew of lawsuits over the talc baby powder. research shows its talc is safe. >> we are a very litigious what is most important is bee stwe stay focused on serving

etstomers and bring these new products to mark >> j & j's stock has derperformed the broader market this year. jared holt says it's a symptom of bader pressures on drug stocks. >> it's the polical rhetoric d the fact that the space has both political parties going against it in different ways and typically coming into these election years depending on who the candites are, health care tends to underperform. with 18 months until the 2020 election health stocks are in for a bumpy ride. i'm meg terrell in new brunswick, new jersey. >> the white house is pushing for greater transparency o health car prices. according to "the wall street journal," the administration wants to require up-front disclosure on prices patients are paying for treatment and some say such a price dulclosure alter the economic forces at play across that industry. >> the acting head of the federal aation administration

was on capitolill testifying out boeing's 737 max plane. dan expects boeing to submit a software fix for approval soon, but in e anhange with the congressman did fazio, he had a delay in disclosing. >> a year lapsed before boeing told the faa what actions did thee faa t at that point in time? did you consider that ina prep atbehavior by boeing? >> i'm concerned it took a year and we're lking into that and we will fix that. lighte learned that the was not operable then we made the decision that it is not a safety-critical display. it is not a safety-critical display. it is advisory and there are n actions that the pilot takes to the light. >> shares of boeng rose to>>y's session. time to take a look now at some of today's upgrades and downgrades s we begin witres of chevron

tonight. they were added to the conviction buy list at goldman sachs. thlyst cited the company's cash flow right now, price tag ed $144 andt stock rose a fraction to $122.14 in today's trade. llow was upgraded to buy. price target $45. that stock gned more than 4.5% to $38.28. and applied materials was upgraded to positive from neutral at susquehanna. the analysts cited recent checks that suggested it could regain lost market. the price target now $60 and that stock rose nearly 4% to $41.50. still ahead, the buzz around the alternative meat market is sizzling right now, but can it last? ♪ ♪

d >> component cisco reported better than expected earnings. theip networking ent company also issued atrong revenue foreca forecast thanks to investment in the cloud, security anderata ceand that helped lift the stock in initial after-hours trading. john fort hamore on cisco's results. a strong quarter from cisco. investors were braced for something mediocre given the reports out of other large technology companies that supply enterprise and government, but cisco turned in not only a beat on the past quarters' numbers, but also atrg guide for the crept quarter saying that revenuesould be considerably higher and gross margins profits would hang in there showing that there's still strength in the global technology market.

for "nightly business report" i'm johnfort. >> the fcc is proposing a new mease to fight back against robocalls and as the chairman of the agency said today on capitol hill, it would give phone carriers more latitude to block those calls. >> we've authorized carriers to block robocalls from certain spoofed numbers. we authorized the creation of the re-assigned numbers database, we've taken action on those who unleashed robocalls os consumnd we stabed a framework by the end of this >>l love this. year. americans received more than 26 n robocalls this year and that's a 46% increase from the prior yr and a recent report from chuck schumer's office says new yorkers received 293 million in aprilne a and that amounts to 112 calls per second and 11 calls per new yorken. the p company of burger king outlined its global grow

plans. restaurant brands international which also owns popeye's and tim horton's said it aims to have 40,000 restaurants in operation glally over the nex eight to ten years. the ceo also announced a push into plant-based meats with tim horton's testing three breakfast t tions made with beyond m meatless patty. >> we're excited to be the first to announce a national rollout of -- of impossible -- or in the sed protein here u.s. and the same in canada for breakfast. we will keep focused on making sure that the product does well in tests and it'sor profitable our franchisees and it's operationally fees usual so we can deliver it to our guests day in and day out. >> that sent shares ofst rant brands and beyond meat higher in trading today. >> in fact, beyond mea b hasn on a tear since it came public just roughly two weeksago, and it priced its initial public offering at $25 and it closed up

more than t150% on t first day of trading. since then, the stock has more than tpled. clearly, investors liked this meatless alternative so far, but is it a passing fad or something that could be longer lasting? joining us tonight is steph anderson and the senior restaurant and consumer analyst at maxim group. thanks for joining me. >> thanks for having me on. >> this is a 10-year-old company and it's never been profitable and is meatlittle, and plant-based meat is not necessarily a healthy alternative with red meat and it's heavy i fatnd salt content and it's a very, very crowdedndustry rightow so why has this stock up gone up as much as it has in the last two weeks. >> one key reason. as other meatless altiv n have offered in the last two alternative is an that tastes very close to beef and that's why it's been very popular and allowau the rent chains both in quick service and casual dining have

added a beyond beef or an impossible burger alternative and it's something that is in the early returns suggest that it's resulted in increased traffic and sales. >> sooes that put pressure on thoseha companies tha not adopted a meatless alternative to do so at the risk ofsaosing s if they don't? >> we believe it does, and the reason why is it really goes after a segment of the population that has really passed by fast food either because they're vegetarian or seeking more healthy alternatives and you're seeing the trend of those who willee he a burger one day and the next day might have an impossible burger o beyond beef burger and it's catering to that part of the >> what about the profit question, though? clearly they'll have to ramp up spending to gain this kind of market share or get into som of these fast food chains, but can they make it profitably? >> we don't cover beyond beef

specifically, but what they have done is they have priced their meatless alternative burgers at a premium tonthe tradi beef burger, and right now it appears that consumers are lling to pay for that, and that wasn't the case 20 years ago when the chains came out with their initial foray into vegetarian burger that really tasted vegetarian. >> do you have plans to cover beyond be? w would you rate it if you did? >> i can't comment on that at thistime, but something we'll be watching closely. and walis for sure street is right now. stephen anderson wit maximum group. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> southwest hikes its dividend and that's where we begin tonight's market focus. the airline is raising the divide to 18 cents per share and southwest is buying back nother $2 billion worth of its shares. ae stock today was up fraction to $52.01. alibaba posted sales and earnings that beat analyst

expections. the chinese e-commerce giant saw growth in user engagement especially in the country's less-developed cities as as an increased in its cloud alibaba rose 1.5% toen 177.60. ag technologies missed both earnings and revenue targets as the company saweakness in its pharmaceutical and food markets. agilent gavets quarterly guidance which fell below wall street forecasts. shares fell 11% to $67.64. >> changes could be on the way at legg mas. "the wall street journal" said triadcut costs and gimprov profit margins at that firm. legg mason rose 4.5% to $36.29. the children's place posted stronger than expected result, t the retailer saw same-store sales dropped and it sees staying flat for the rest of the year. as a result, shares dropped about 7% to $104.37.

wall street now knows how much warren buffett' firm bough of amazon's stock. ate today berkshire hathaway revealed its stake in amazon is worth ov $900 million according to sec filings. berkshire's stake was more th 44,000 shares on march 31st and amazon stock was up 1.5% in today's trading. officials in california late today said that 2018's camp fire wasaused by electrical transmission lines owned bypg . it was the deadliest and most destructive in the state's history. pg&e i the largest electric utility and filed for bankruptci protection e this year and that was volatile in after-hours tradinthis evening. > president trump and democratic leaders have floated the idea of a io$2 tri infrastructure spending bill, but some agencies aren't waiting for the federal take action especially when it

comes to water systems. contessa brewer i in t idgewater, new jersey with tonight's looke state of our nation's infrastructure. ♪ thousands of dams and levies are on the brink of failure and the drinking water for millions of americans is at rick. the nati's water infrastructure stem gets a grade of d by the american society of civil engineers which blames failures in investment, leadership and planning. >> what's required is really good planning and new york city has tackled the problem of aging nd much of the system is at least a century old nnd it's spending $20 billion over 20 years o projects to repair, maintain and improve the water and waste water infrastructure. theaw de aqueduct brings the cats mllntains to the city. >> we have a leak so we're going through fixing thatight now.

it provides a capacity of 900 million gallons a day and the projectt altogether will c $1.5 million to get this fix done. >> new york city has the money to pay for these kinf repairs because it's operated by an independent water agency, but sets the rates customers pay and onfinance authority on the capital mono pep it's 13% lower than the national average in part because there's almost no cost associated with pumping and filtration? it's definitely a world leader in protection. >> new york is not alone if trying to stay ahead of the infrastructure curve. american water is the nation's largest publicly traded water company operating in 46 states. it's spending $8 billion over the next five years, grupading treatment plants, replacing thousands of miles of waterma . >> many of those mro jects are ed to resiliency with the climate variability that we're

starting to see across the nation and the world, frankly, it's very challenging to make sure that we can get through those climate issues through those natural disasters and me sure that we can still sustain in service to our customers. >> that means investment in flood control barriers and levies. in new reservoirs like this one in bel air, maryland, to collect storm water when it's available and distribute it during dry times. it means grappling with chemical contaminants showing up coast to coast. >> we routinely test for compous that are not regulated and we actually install reatment for compounds before they'reulated if we know that they're there. >> the complicated tack of repairing, improving and maintaining the nation's water systemre req big money and the advocacy aoup, therican water associationet mates it will take a trillion dollar of civilties in a row. americans need to pay rates and fees and accurately reflect the true cost of infrastructure.

id water, new jersey, contessa brewer, nightly business report. cing up, a caffeine rush in china is making its way to the ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ a flaw in ford vehicles is prompting a recall of more than a quarter of a million cars in north america. hat the carsr says could roll unexpectedly. vehicles involved include the rd fusion and the ford ranger trucks and today there have been three reports of property damage and one potential injury. as starbucks expands in

china, its biggest rival in that countrylasing to go public. luckin coffee is expected to begin trading friday on the nasdaq. the company isrowing fast, opening nearly 2400 stores in just aut 18 months and eunice yun took our cameras inside. >> starbucks dominates the coffee industry in bchina, a company is going to change that. it's called luckin, and let's see how it will take on its rival. >> one of the things you notice, there aren't many seats. it knowshe young chinese consumer very, very well and stores esting more i like this. this is called a pick-up store as opposed it a relax store and it's a coffee counter as opposed to a cafe because the com believes that more and more young chinese will want to pick up their coffee and go or have delivered as opposed to chilling out in a cafe. notice anything? there is n cashier here. luckin says that young chinese

prefer to pay for everything on thei p mobilene so you cannot use cash in any of the stores. instead, you use you mobile phone to scan the qr cod and place your order on this app. the other way luckin plans to compete is withed aggressive subsidy. at a starbucks for a medium latte you pay almost $5 at luckin the same sizeatte will cost you as little as 60 cents. it offers americano with orange soda and fruit tea which is a popular trend in china these days and then therefe the c which is not bad considering the price. for "nightly business report" i'm eunice yun in beijing. a milestone in the art srld. mone stacks selling for $110 million. according to sotheby's, that's the most impressionist art work ever to be sold at auction. the painting's previous owner

paid $2.5 million for that pbace in 1986. not a bad investment. >> and a beautiful one, too. before we gohere's a look at the final day's numbers on wall street. the dowose 115 points to git 48 reversing a triple- decline. the nasdaq was up 87 and the s&p 500 added 16. and that is "nightly business report" for tonight. i'm sue herera. thanks for joining us. i'm bill griffith. have a good evening. we'll see you tomorrow. ♪ ♪ ♪

>> this is "bbc world news america." >> funding of th presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, and judy and peter blum-kovler undation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. >> wow, that is unbelievable. ♪yi >> i'm ng! ♪