this is "nightly business report" with joe griffeth and sue here rar ra. >> big gains. the week started off on a hnoh , but will the days ahead usher in a new wave of volatility. mission statement. it's not always about maximizin profits f shareholders. the american consumer is flexing its muscle andowering the economy, but does it have the staying power to keep the country out of recession? those stories and more on "nightly business report" for monday, august 19th. and we bid you a good evening, everybody. welcome. well, it was rally day on wall street today. the rally was broad. every sector was higher and

there was some faint on tow mission over traden which turn helped ease some of last week's recession. overall it did have a much different feel from what we experienced last week which had intense the dow was up 229 to close above .26,0 nasdaq added 150, s&p gained 34. it's only monday. even though we're in the dog days of summer, this will be anything but quiet. bob pa san any stocks off in the new york stock exchange. >> we have had quite a rally over the last couple of days. the dow has moved up roughly 800 toints since thursday's bottom. stock's bd precisely when the ten year treasury bottomed at 1.47%. yields came off their lows, so market.stock that shouldn't be too surprising since stocks were movin in tandem with bond yields all month. it can be tied to savings, fears

of a possible recession in 2020, a point president donald trump's advisors made overheweekend. high hopes for u.s./china relations are adding fuel to the rally after the white house decision to extend a reprieve given to huawei given them 90 more days to buy supplies from american com cnies so it service existingomcus. naturally cyclical sectors led the rebound today. reets ander utilities u performed. that's a reversal of what we've been seeing for the quarter and for most of 2019. still, there's no shortage of catalysts ahead that can move the markets including a handf of retail and home building, manufacturing data and new home sales. plus we' hear from global central banks. lots of chatter from federal serve officials at their annual meeting plus themi lates tes from both the fed and european central bank. busy weekven though it's august. for "nightly business report,"

i'm bobni pi >> let's turn to burns mckinney to talk more about what lies ahead this week in the market. burns, nice to have you back. welcome. >> thank you so much. >> it does seem like it's going to be a e busy weekn though we're in the middle of august. you think the focus is going to be firmly on the fed later this week? >> absolutely. there certainly is a lot of economic data. l we've beeing in a market over the last several months that been moved by two factors. we spent the last week and a half talking about trade and really we expect the markets to be moved more than anything by at jay powellays in jackson hole this friday. >> and the consumer has sayainly had something t about this as well, maintaining a strength based on the strong jobs market and we get all these retail earnings out this week.

what are your expectations for that? >> well, one thing i learned longha ago was you're going to lose money if you bet against the american consumer and likewise the american consumer's willingness to spend beyond their means. and consumers have been strong. i mean, you do have a very strong job situation. unemployme is near a 50-year low. consumer confidence and consumer balance sheets are fairly clean right now as well. so, yeah, we expect to see some good signs from the retail numbers and of course there's omalso been divergence. there's been winners and losers within uretail. saw over the past couple of weeks you saw a company like macy's that got hit hard versus you saw walmarteport very strong and very good same store sales. i think you do have certain players like the walmarts of the world tha b haven really disrupting retail alongside amazon that have bee gning shares for a lot of other retailers. >> where do you come down in terms of the debate that's out

there right now about whether or not we're in for a slowdown or we're actually going to go into recession? don't -- we don't see a recession happening, at least over t next 12 months. the market -- the economy certainly is slowing with the inversion of the yield curve,o basically put it simply, that's typically one of the best indicators o a recession and so that's something that's gotten investors a little bit cautious. really in this case it's had a lot to do with interest rates being moved by rates over seas. simply puthat it means is that we do see the economic growth we don't expect it to tip into recessionary territory, but probably dip back into that 2% annual economic are you trutt t had over the last decade or so. the type of environment f whic investors can still do fairly well. >> on that note, burns, thanks so much. burns mckinney with allianob

investors. >> thank you. speaking of which, there are reports tonight that white house aides are looking at a payroll tax cut to help offset a weaker ecomy. this is big push to ease fears of a possible recession. eamon rsja reports tonight from the white house. >> reporter: the white house went into full messaging this weekend to try to push back j the idea that there's a recession comint around the corner. call it all the president's ecomic menace the economic team here swarmed the broadcast and cable nets with their upbeat and economic message. between them lar kudlow and trade advisor peter navarro r appeared on f television networks in two days in the wake of an extreme volatile week on wall street. >> i'll tell you what. i don't see a recession. we had some blockbuster retail sales conmer numbers towards the back end of last week. really blockbuster numbers. >> reporter:ro navisputed

the widely held idea that the yield curve inverted. >> technically we did not have a yield curve inversion. an inverted yield curve means a big spread. >> reporter: president trump said it's not the white house at's limiting the economic growth, it's the fed. >> interest rates are low. i think i could be helped out b the fedut the fed doesn't like helping me too much. >> reporter: the pr offensive continues tomorrow off air larry kudlow is going to host two conference calls for business, state and local leaders all bout the president's economic agenda. the white house says these calls were long planned and have nothin to do with recent economic concerns. forep "nightly businesst," i'm eamon javers at the white house. the president of the boston fed signaled h is not in favor of further interest rate cuts. heited current economic conditions that are good. he said easing monetary policy eould encouragee to take on more risk and build up debt

and that, he said, could wsen the next down turn and leave the fed with few policy tools. meantime, china is choing the chorus o global central banks but it's not lowering them instead the chinese central bank is reforming the policy by gradually replacing the fixed benchmark lending rate with one that fluctuates. the hope is that it will lower borrowing costs f companies and support growth. america's biggest companies are making a newledge and shareholder return is no longer the main objective. the business roundtable i changing its statement of, quote, the purpose of corporation, end quote. the influential business group said decisns shouldo longer be based on whether they will yield highe profits for all shareholders. instead, they should take all stakeholders into account including employees, customers and community. what cld this new change to the corporate mission

statement potentially mean for you? joining us to talk about it is charles nelson. he's director of the wineberg gornance nter. thank you for joining us tonight. you.reat to be with >> you're not exactly enamored u? the change in the mission statement, are >> not at all. it's a rerun of the mission statements you saw of many corporations 30 years ago. the shtreholder wr movement. frankly, the more people you are, quote, accountable to, the less likely a bad decisioner wi ave any consequence to you. it's like yourh. wa the watch stops it gets the time right twice a day. you get multiple constituencies you answer to. you're going to get it right to somebody but that doesn't mean a healthy business. forer shareho being deep sixed, today everyone is a shareholder through retirement plans, state pension plans, whatnot. it really will harm accountability of management to the shareholders andli the p frankly. >> those who support this move

on ugh say it's a recogni that corporations need to do more to help balance out the ever growing income that may mean engaging more with the employees and the community but it doesn't sound like you would be a fan of that. >> today a shareholder profit corporation has to take int account its employees in the community. you're never going to get long-term profitability which is what delaware law has always said. it's the dea of the corporation to get to profitability unless you take care of the stakes, whether it's the employees, the community, ppstomers and ers. everyone does that. but to change the pole sta to reflect everybody, if you will, loses a sense of accountability and ultimately creates a real mess agai we're all shareholders today. >> right. >> the off benefithen a company does well. what they've done is gone back 30 years a that was really the climate then that created the economic dislocations that resulted in what we're

doing today. if they feel thattrongly about it, let them cut their pay by 2/3 or so andkive it b to their employees. they're not going to do that. that's why this thing is a little i have great respect for the business roundtable, but this thing was a bit self-serving in my view. >> charles ellison with the university of delaware. appreciate your thouyots. >> thank google's original slogan was do no evil when it went public 15 years ago today. later in our program we'll look at why google's t strategy f next 15 may be very different. but first the power of the american consumer. as it changes an entire industry is remade.

if you ever needed evidence of just how powerful thens er can be, take a look at the retail sector right now. looks lot different than it did a few days ago. as our buying habits changed, a whole industry was transformed. tonight courtney ragan takes a look at the american consumer. >> reporter: well, there are many signs economic activity is sls.ing. the consumer remains strong. retail sales posted the strongeston five growth streak in more than 13 years. the consumer may be what'she holding up u.s. economy. 70% of economic activity is tied to consumer spending, but where we shop and what we buy has changed. more than 1/4 of the country's malls have closed since retail's real estate peak. today walk into any mall and

stores.ee empty in less than three years there are 9400 fewer stores overall. last year more than 500 department stores closed theird s for good. bon ton liquidated, sears filed for bankruptcy and jcpenney's and macy's went through store closure programs. we simply spend less at depament stores than we used to. >> we do think there are much more department store closures over the next five to ten years. macy's alsoad its struggles but we think jcpennejcpenney's mostrooncerningthe department so far. >> reporter: the shift to online shopping and the higher portion of spending on experiences instead of stuff has also pressured physical stores. put together, the u.s. needs less retail space. online shopping accounts for 3/4 of u.s.etl growth and half of all online shopping is done on amazon alone. >> retail is not dead, it's very much alive, it's just morphing.

it's morphingor to become digital and morphing to accommodate the digitalsu cr who's very savvy online and understands how to get what they need and how to curate the products they need. >> repter: u.s. consumers aren't waiti for onlineales toarrive, they're spending on experiences. retail success takes more than just a strong consumer. shoppers have more choices than ever before. the winners have mix of the right merchandise, the right environment and the right experiences. r "nightly business report," i'm courtney ragan in new york city consumer keep fueling the economy? we're joined by anthony tacumba. anthony, welcome. ce to have you here. >> thanks for having me. >> i guess that is the question. i mean, couney laid it out beautifully for us there. do you think that the consumer ha staying power and will

continue to keep the economy healthy? >> we think so. three main indicators that we look at to gauge the health of the consumer are first off oy unemnt, which is at a 50-year low. wage growth, which is at a 10-year high. consumonfidence which is at a multi--year high. just as long as those three indicators stay strong, we see no reasot consumer spending would slow significantly any time soon. >> crtney also highlighted the store closures that we've seen. just breathtaking numbe over the last three years and looks like we could be in for another record number of closures this year. whte are we in t cycle right now, do you think? >> i think that we're getting to the, midd maybe towards the late innings of that. i mean, you know, look, the u.s. was over stored even before the advent of ecommerce, but clearly with more and more shopping going online you just don't nee many physical stores. one thing to remember is that oing to beys are

some retailers growing their stores but, you know, it's -- it really is on a case-by-case basis. i covered 5 below which is a very, very unique concept offering $ below for teens and tweens. the value consumers like and it's amazon resistant. >> in general, do you think many of the retailers have as one guest put itmorphed and embracedhe new ways that consumers shopped? >> the smart os certainly have i think about a company, for example, like best buy which has significantly invested in their ecommerce channel, but also figured out great way to leverage the store. a significant portion of their online orders are actually picked up in store.hi or i of a customer like rh which has made their stores big, beautiful, very sort of experiential. they have restaurants in their ostores. they50% of the sales online.

the retailers that have the staying pow from my perspective have adjusted to the new omni channel reali that we're living in. >> there may be no answer to this, but what mig be the right mix of brick and mortar versus online for particular stores out there to achieve success int?his environm >> that's a good question. p agree with you, it's probably tough to come with a precise answer. i have retailers like rh, williams so he know mow do 50% of their sal online. 50% of the sales online, 50% in the stores and bng able to integrate the two of them and integrate those experiences. >> anthony, thanks so much for spending time with >> any time. >> anthony katuma with loop capital. i'll get it next time. meantime he este lauder top estimates thanks to growth in the skin care, makeu and fragrance products. it ranged its full year

but did say escalating u.s. and china trade tetions, bre and the hong kong protests are still potential risks. estee lauder was up to 201.65. microsoft is giving mine craft game more graphics by chip maker nvidia. nvidia shares jumped 7% to 170.78. chinese social media company weibo topped earnings estimatess itincreased its full year revenue outlook. it jumped 14% to42.31. pg&e fell after a judge decide jury could whether the utility is responsible for a massive wild re that killed22 people and damaged more than 5,000il

ngs two years ago. the company could face up to $18 billion inamages as the blaze was the second worst wildfire in california history. pg&e lost more than 1/4 of their value closing at 10.67. twitter closed 900 accounts it believed was connected toa. ch it said it would no longer receive advertising from state controlled news media entities. shares rose more than to 41.70. and after the bell vidu results topped expectations as they saw an increase in the daily app users. shares initially rose in after hours trading and they closed the re nlar session uprly 8% to $104.22. google made big ak cquisitis in the first 15 years but the if next 15 may bere.

various state attorneys general are reportedly moving forward with an antitrust investigation into big tech. according to "the wall street journal," that probeikely to focus on whether a handful of companies are using their power to stifle competition. the investigation apparently could be launched as soon as next month. it has been 15 years since google wentpublic. the company started trading at $85 a share. since thenas the stock surged more than 2600% ands josh lipton reports, that's due in part to its acquisition

strategy. >> reporter: a $1,000 investment in google at the time of its ipo would now be wor about $28,000 in part because of its major thacquisitions. e's youtube, which the company bought for more than $1.5 billion in 2006. theideo streaming powerhouse now generates an estimated 20 billion in ad revenue per year there's also double click which it bought for over $3 billion in 2007. that advertising platform helped power google's ad busines still accounts for the vast bujority of alphabet's total revenue. its biggest acquisition so far, more than 12 billion for motorola mobility in 2012. less than two years lat it sold motorola's smartphone busine to lenovo for 3 billion but googleo did get keep most of the portfolio of mobile patents offering the company

legal protection for its android operatg system. to date alphabet has spent over 32 billion on acquisions, 40% more than amazon. almost 500% more tn apple. what about the quarters and years ahead? some analysts thi increasing regulatory scrutiny both here and abroad will hamper google's ability to do some deals. >> i'm attempting to do a large 10 to 20, $30li b acquisition -- vertical ntegration acquisition in th internet advertising space off the table. google for twitter off the table. the reason is the concentration of the large market share they already have inonline advertising. google accounts for close to 50% of internet ad spend in some markets. they wouldn't be allowed to increase that share. >> reporter: tmahaney doesnk google can do relatively smaller deals to build out theou growin business as it looks to close the gap with industry leaders with amazon and microsoft. google's new cloud chief ias

ma clear that acquisitions will be an important part of his strategy recentl announcing that google will buy a data analytics company called looker for $3 billion. fory "nighsiness report" i'm josh lipdone in san francisco. an auction blunder. on friday we told you aut this rare 1939 porsche that went up for sale in monterey. it was set to fetch $20 billion. a misunderunderstanding. the bidding started at $13mi ion but the giant screen displaying bids showed 30 million. when it hit 14 million it showed 40 million. when it got to 17 million and it showed itisaying 70 million he stopped the auction and since 17 million was below the reserve price, r.m.he s's pulled the lot. it said this was in no way intentional on behalf of anyone at rm assotheby's.

it amplified by excitement in the room. ouch. before we go, here's a look at the day's final numbers from wall street. dow up 249 pointsse to c above 26,000. nasdaq added 106. s&p 0 gained 34. and that is "nightly business report" tonight. i'm sue herera j thanks fning us. we want to remind you that this is the t year your public television stations need your support. >> i'm bill griffe. we always thank you for all of your support. thank you and see you tomorrow.

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