hei with bill griffith and sue port" herera. getting closer. wall street nears new recds on renewed hope of a gnaw in trade tensions. retirement life line. lawmakers are rolling out different proposals to shore up social security. and they want to raise ceoain taxes toit. flood risk, private insurance start-ups are sberpg the market usia big dat to lower the cost of insurance. thosee stories and mor tonight on nightly business report for thursday, september 12th. and we do bid you a good evening, everybody and welco w. cky 7, the dow extended the win strategic to seven straight inching ever closer to all-time time high in the process.

investor sentiment op a lift on the ease ofas potentially of between u.s. and china. the ecb unveiled stimulus program. andhe dow rose another 45 the points. nasdaq add 2 the s&p up 8. as with most things these days, the repor trade were not kplookt straightforward. first there was word that an interim deal to delay tariffs s being considered. but other reports said, that's not the case. created some volatility in e trading session. we asked kayla tausche to find out w might really be happening behind the scenes. >> reporter: there is ar: month until the top decision make frerps the u.s. and china immediate to discuss the ongoing trade war.al ough the white house says there is no interim deal being discussed. two people close to the talks say there is a clear desire f both sides. on

ambassador robert lighthizer. and larryre kudlow and steven ausualen want to try to find way to get back tok tariffs on $250 bilon on rolling back on items from september and avoiding the escalation later this year before christmas. shington wants to avoid any self-inflicted economic wounds as some cracks appear in u.s. data. some who have e en hard hit, farmers cou get relief. >> we want them to buy agriculture. we view that is a a personal attack on our farmers. they need o agriculture and alys bought our agriculture. this isn't just about soybeans. but we want to sl them soybeans. i want to be clear our farmers and fishermen aremportant t us. >> the terms of the did he taint president haven't beenidgrd on or even presented to president trump but china can't keep boycotting u.s. pork asts hogs are hit by african swine fever. any short-term handshake

technology transfers are expeed to continue with white house pfficialsparing for pro tracted negotiation there is. for nightly business report, yla tausche in houston, texas. last night, the u.s. and chrea both ad to have dialed down their trade fht by offering some small concessionsi yuan tells us how that's playing out in beijing. >> therc chinese com ministry said that china welcome's president trump's president trump tweeted that the decision was made at the request of the vice premier and due to the fact gnat people's r cublic ofna will be celebrating in re 70th anniversary on october 1st. the tariff delayrom october 1st to the 15th is unlikely to be meaniful for ichkt aed companies but would be appreciated by beijing which wouldn't want to distractions on the anniversary of its founding. to add toe the posit atmosphere ahead of the talks in october in d.c., the customers ministry said that chinese

compmpies have started makingqu n jury in u.s. p.sces for agricultural products like pork and soybeans after purchases were spended despite the good vibes long time china watchers still bleach the gap between the two sides on fundamental issues is vast. that there will be more than a. for nightly business, eunice yuan in beijing. as we mentioned,nvestor sentiment got a lif from the g,ropean central bank action thismorn announcing a major cutting a key m atterest and outlining a plan to buy back bonds. the strategyts aimed protecting the fra euro zone economy by getting hit further from a global slowdown. >> the koebl council reiterated the need for a accommodative stance on pol for a pro longed period of timee and continues tota ready to adjust a instruments as appropriate. to eurehat inflation moves

towards the same inin a sus manner >> the ecb joins central banks feral reserve that had been ur lowering interest rates. >> t budgeteficit topped a trillion dollars in the first 11 months of the fiscal year that hasn't happened since 2012. higher military spending rining rest on government debt and weaker revenue puchd it up compared to the same perd a year earlier. >> consumer prices rose slightly in august even after a decline in the cost of gasoline. the consumer price index just everything was up s pay for 0.1% compared to july. prty much in line with forecasts. but the core prices which exclude food and energy, climbed 2.4 peppers in the last year. tee f annual pace since july of last year. and the economy promises to be a big topic during the presidential debate tonight.

ahead of the debe senator elizabeth warren proposed an across the border increase in social security benets, nanced by new taxes on high-income americans. john harwood in houston tonight. john,w john,way what is senat warren proposing? >> it's pretty riking, sue,si she is pro an increase of $2000 peronth for 64 sillion sociurity benefits, all current beneficiaries and all future beneficiaries. and she would in addition to that change some of the rules that have penalized the lower income americans, people who were out of the workforce for a period of time, sori at -- aftea number ofrs in which people debated how much to try to cut social security benefs to make the program solvent over the long term she proposes to take the benefits significantly up. a > how would she pay for that, john? >> she has two different tax increases on people with incomes ove $250,000 a yr.

first, a payrollax. as you ,kn the current payroll tax is capped at around 130,000. you don't pay on income above that. she would say if you have income above $250,0nc there is going to be a $14.78% payroll tax split evly between the empyer andye employee. in addition to that she wouldim se a $14.8% tax on the investment income of people who make more than $250,000 a year. and you can tell how much money that would raise because the non-partisan or independent analysis of her proposal showed that even with those big benefit increases this would extend the life of the solvenc of the social security programuror another two decades. so it raises anwful l of money about $4 trillion with the revenue ineases. >> and what is early reaction has there been to the proposal, john? >> well, various democrats have been debating over the last couple of years, including

bernie sanders and hillary clinton in the last campaign. some increasess in benefor the lowest income beneficiaries trying to take care of peoe who a really struggling to get y on small social security checks. what's notable about this is how corehensive it is. she bets that's going to be popular at a time when income inequality has increasiny enteredhe nation's consciousness. she is trying to compete with joe biden whose constituents tends to be older blue collar and those are the kinds of voters ho might find in an appealing proposal.joe biden hasn't gone that far yet. neither has bernie sanders for that matter. we'll see if they change their tune on this when they get on the debate stage tonight and beyond. >> tom harwood, thanks, john. >> you bet. mnwhile in washington senator ron wyden of oregon announced a plan to fund social security. his proposal focuses on the capital gains tas

elon mui has details. >> democrats say there is a two tierax code in america. one for people earning money through work and another for knows who make money investing. tax rate on income from wages is 37%. the rate o investment income, just 20%. >> the megafortunes get bigger andr. big and they are propelled they have just propinlings bthem by the favorable capital gains tax rules that go over welcomelyly the top 1%. >> the democratic snorp ron wide within a new proposal to chang that. his plan would tax capital gains at the same rates as ordinary income. most importantly investors wld have to p taxes on any unrealized gains every year. it's a major shift that'shies mated to raise between 1.5 and $2 trillion over the next decade. money that widen promises would

go toward shoring up social security. >> m proposal, provides aic spec path for ensuring that millionaires and billionaires pay what they now owe. and that revenue is used to save social security. >> now this new system would a onlylyo taxpayers with $10 million in assets or who make a million dollars a year for three consecutece years. there is also carveouts for family farms, homes and retirement accounts. widen vowed his plan wouldn't hit middle class but it's clear that democrats are determined to take on the tax code if they prevail in for nightly busin report, elon mui in washington. >> latergr in the p we will look closer at the issue of taxes and what exactly a fair rate of taxation is. it isoo time to l at some of today's upgrades and youn cater pilar and deere both

ground twadedo market prorm from out perfo at wells fargo. site citing weaker demand for new equipment. the price target for catart is 143 dlarps and 170 for dee. paadal up to buy from hold at cannacord. the analyst calls paypal a payments juggernaut and says volumerowth is impressive. the price farthere is 118 collars. the stock rose to 107.10. mv was up graded from to buy flo nurmt at usbitg om theism about kwipgs of allergan. shares up aut 2% today to 70.82. and activisionlizzard upgraded to buy from neutral. citing the gamingitles world of war craft classic ander m warfare. price target $64. shares rose 1% to 5 a.45. >> still ahead dhl goes high

te for a speedy delivery. dhl openshe u.s. innovation center as the global ship returns to robotics and other innovation to compete for e-commerce customers. i'm have that story coming up on "nightly businesreport." ♪ ♪ ♪ income taxes are always a subject for heated discussio during presidential campaigns. as we mentioned earlierhey are expected to be fair game during the democratic candidate debate ght. but one income tax strategy that hasn't been mentioned so far during in campaign is the flat income tax where every income level pays the same rates. steve fbes who ran for president twice referred to it

as the f frest incom tax. is it? we have two opposing views on that tonight. joining us leon la breck, the chief growth officer at is he f kwoiiaancial group says it's fair. peter ma luke is cio at the planning he says it's not thank you for joining us tonight. >> you bet. flat tax. kouhe case for >> flat tax is fair. everybody paying the same if i make a thousand times me i pay a thousand times more tax. it's simple. i don't nee thers not a lot of bureauccy. 93% of fe our tax retur or not have to do the tax return and cuts out theea bracy and cuts out loopholes guys making a t can get out of paying the tax we make it simple. we did i t on o corporate side do it with social security it works. >> peter, you do not think that the math adds up. in a flat tax opinion. in terms of income inequality ll us about it. >> well i think that the argumentmebout simple equationi a trojan horse if you think

about the flat tax the top rate right now 37% federal income tax. the bottom rate people pay 10% if we have a flat t l's assume it's not the highest rate not 37% we're not raise goin the huge majority of americans let say it's 20%. we tt means that the wealthiest people saw the tax d rate comn where are we making it wup? the only way to make it up is by taxes poor people and the middle class more and that does not sod likee the most wonderful orea in the that we live in today. so this is totally differentan the debate about should income tax rates be a couple% higher or lower on capital gains rainstorm gher or lower. s in a rical shi of more americans.the very, very top t do you say, leen. >> i say that warren buffett pays less income tes than his receptionist that's a good example of the very, very wealthy i think peter might ree. the vy, very wealthy can

reduce taxes through a lot of different strategie the middle class gets hit the most. i would sawing eras is suggest that if he which have t a did he deduction for $an thundershower zero tax por2% tax above that might accommodate the thing preponderate numbers could work it j think the simple indication and fairness >> i'm curious what you think leon a fair rate would be if you are thinking for a single flat rate what do you think it would be. >> probably around 20%. peter is right. 17 has been bantered that won't getid of deficits and solve problems peopleave to recognize we need to to run our government society with taxes. >> peter whatbout the issue that aueumber of people have raised that a flat tax would simplify things? putting asi a your point about income inequality but it would simplify the whole system? >> so imthe idea of flat tax the simple indication argument to me doesn't tie with reality. what is true is it's simple in

the fact that there is n more deductions no more exclusions an no more n home owner deductin no charitable deduction does thatpl sy the tax rurp? of course you could get rid of the 100 page tax rurn and make it one page with a flat tax. but you can do the exact same thing with a proessive tax that no longer that is deductions and exclusions. these are one issue being used to cloud another one. so the idea that a flat tax s simpleant isn't correct. getting rid of all the deductions and exemptinss mak it simpl can the first page of the return say if you makim a in million llars you pay 35% and if you make $10,000 you you pay 10 peppers yess not a lot -- that's not a lot of complexity. eparate, the issue we we talking about earlier it'se t warren buffett don't pay a lot of income taxes. ei sawlier on the segment you have somebody proposing a high err capital gains rate. >> right. >> separate from the income tax issue wealth people are the ones t at own things te taxed

in a capital gains rate. they own stocks and real estate. >> right. >> so if you -- that's the reason warren buffett jeff bezos do not pay ince taxes yes it doesn't solve the problem for them but it has to do with why or why not a flat tax that's a appropriatg for why the incomenc tax rate andapital gains rate should bee closer. >>inner we had more time. we could go on we must stop. l le breck. peter maluk from creative plans thank u for joining us. >> thanks guys. >> kroeger online push pays off. that's where we begin tonight's market focus. the onna largest supermarket chain reported higher sales operations drawing in new customers. but the ceo would not reconfirm the financici targets. and that tempered gains. shares u g a fraction to 25.59. wal-mart is expanding subscription grocery delivery service. the cost,$98 a year which is a little more than half of what

amazon services cost. wal-mart will start the deliveries in 200 met areas and president stock rose a fracture sun shun on that though 116.92. investors brown are fwrouned on smile direct debut. the companyelling direct to consumer braces priced the ipo at $23 a share which was above expectations but the stock opened for trading at 20.5 a and closed down more than 27% to 16.6 general electric chief says he expects asset sales to bring in about $38 billion and thel company w use that cash to pay down debt. ceo larry kulp said 2019 is progresses planned and that's ining strength.r division is ge shares fell 1% to 9.26. >> honeywell cfo says he sees sfts softness in europe and i germany in particular bac being therojectsen citing strength in aerospace business.

but he remains cautiou f sharl 1.5% to 168 processor 63. karl his suffolk is up 20% so far this year and rose another 3.5% today in trade to 14 p 91.t after bell broadcom topped wall street estimates but missed aren't revenue facing a slow down in ship demand due to the trade war with china. shares fell after hours tonight. but closed the regular session up a fraction. how many packagesiv a at your door steps to this week. one, two, five. >> there is a freater need workers to package and ship the boxes. and that's where l companiese dhl come i making high tech changes to keep up with demand. frank holland iin chicago. >> reporter: dhl wants in

robotic arm to give it a leg up in ere-coce. >> this will be fullyra proged. it will have stock inside tick take to you another roeblt. >> dhlco mmerce ken allen sayss robesollaborating with workers h willp them compete. where online orders are taken from a warehse and shipped. >> this product fds products in asarehouse a bigig part of the innovation push with the reduces training time and at insides productivity for humanw ers. >> the growthwt of-commerce sbepgsly is outstripping groepgt domestically. last knife five years it'sdrown as com 25%. there is a massive shortage of people and the demand for labor is growing exponentiay. >> there will be demand for more than 228,000 new logistics workers in 2020 according to one estimate. 18,180,000 new workers have been

added on averagera or the past fif years. >> if you fint, you now, the latest nike sneaker or you want a suit or whatever, that sck is going to be able to picked and packed in that location overnight. and you know, to people in there to do that is going to be hellouhly expensive ifou can find them. and therefore that sort of whole robotics idea in my mind i in the fulfillment arena. fulfillment operations so does the competition. fulfillment for small and medium size merchants is a $37 billion business for amazon. fedex and ups also offer the service. >> confirmed. >> dhl worker james woodsen say the robotics have made the job easier. productive.icient and and with w that you ye able to t more work done. >> dhl plans to install these robotic in 80%c of u.s. warehouses by 2021. a high-tech transition to capitalize on a high growth

industry. >> for nightly business report, frank holland. >> fixing flood insurance, ming up. i'm contessa brew ner wilmington, north carolina. this neighborhood is consired a minimal flood risk by fema. street was under water.ar the coming up u on "nightly busines rerirt," whyte flood insurers might do a better job assessing risk. ♪ ♪ ♪ 45 ceos urge the senate to pass gun control laws. the chief executives wrote a lettersking lawmakers to pass

background checks and called gunman violece a pubealth crisis. the letter signed by the ceo of uberstevi uss, the gap among others. hurricane dorian devastated parts of the bahamas and hit coastal states hard. leaving home owners to draw out and putting the insurance inli e spotghtliith all the perceived deficiencies. as you saw contessa browe in wilmington, north carolina. >> hurricane doctor yan flood water still laps at her garage. a second hurricane in less than three years from moving to north carolina from pittsburgh. but she weaered better than her neighbors because she bought a flood insurance policy soe sheoesn't live in the fema designated zone. john meyer has the pictures to prove how swamped he got.

>> are y anywhere near a river. >> no where near. >> near the ocean. >> about six miles from here. and about 30 feet lower >> did you have flood iinsuran. did not. i have the deed and the survey from a mortgage back in the 80s as very clearly stamped on it this property is not in a flooorzone. >> years big insurers avoided offering private flood insurance. it was seen as too risky.w but nie insurers are moving beyond the fema famously singated flood maps and new tech to analyze data and risk. chubb factors in property characteristic detai. mapping and modelling toeasure exposure to storm water and storm courage summary judgment. new tools to assess individual >> that how house has a that house and that house.from the echlgs is different. the historical. >> jimlbert started neptune

flood insurance three years ago. he and other insured tech start-ups are flooding the market with start ups. using allege richls weather dat. gh tech water flo modelling. he can offer home owners a truer picture and do so faster than fema. >> you ema caner the address and get a quote. >> the trend toorpdce insur and individual assessment is fueling exponential growth. neptune is on track to grow year over year and announced a partnership with the world's largest property and casualty insurer axaxlp they have grown from 12% in 2016 to 15 peppers last year. according to the insurance informationionstitute. >> atne point it was 10% of my book would ask for flood or need flood. but now definitely probably a quarter of my book. >> still many homeowners don't

carry coverage.o accord ver risk. 61 million times are at risk. and only 5 million have a national flood iurance policy. usmed wit vanlsed tech insures insurancers areng to meet the need. here is another look at the day on wall street. the dow jones industrial average rose 45. nasdaq added. s&p 500 up 8. that's nightly business report tonight. i'm sue herera thanks for joining us. >> i'm bill griffith. f than joining us. have a great evening. see you tomorrow. ♪ ♪

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