♪ >> announcer: this isnightly business report" with sue herera and bill griffeth. long pause. theederal reserve signals it won't raise interest rates any time soon. shifting its snce on monetary policy as we enter the new ye. blow to boeing, the fa. a chief says heot will allow the 737 max to resume flying as lawmakers demand changes at the agency. >> cash is king. and for the marijuana business it's everything. bu athere may be solution to the industry's unique problemto "nightly business rt" for wednesday, december 11th. good evening, everyone and welcome. the economy is looking good. so for now it seems that the federal reserve is going o sit back and wait for any signs of inflation before it makes a move

on interest rates. that was the take away from the central olbank's two-dayy meeting where interest rates re left unchanged. today's decision or perhaps better said non-decision follows three rate cuts this year, which was an abouface from from thet four inter rate hikes in 2018. steve liesman reports from the federal reserve in washington. the federal reserve ended a momentous year forli monetary by launching what it one where the policy rate is likely on hold for what could be many months. the move to neutral folws three successive rate cuts in hike rates in 2019. of plans to the fed called the current stance of policy quote appropriate. the fed's overnight lending rate stands at a range of 1.5 to 1.75%. the fed chairman suggested that could be the case for a while to come. >> we believe the current stance of monetary policy supports

sustained owth, a strong labor market and inflation near t symmetric 2% objective. as long as incoming information about economy remains broadly consistent with the outlook the current stance of monetary policy will remain appropteate. >> thent said the fed is monitoringlobal developments. watching the trade a war foreign economic weakness in china and europe as well as esewhere. wh the chairman didn't rule out furpt cuts he suggested the bar for hikg rates is high as in high inflation. >> in orderat to move up, i would want to see inflation peistent and that's significant. a significant move up in inflation that's also persistent before raising rateso address inflation concerns. >> powell said policy is not on a preset course but one sign thd rates ce on hold a while 13 of 17th members o fed forecast no change in rates the next year. the forecasts could be wrong but forow the fed tells market the

rates now is the rate it's going to be in 2020. more "nightly business report" steve li joining us to talk more about in we welcome back sarah bloom rascon, rubenstein fellow at duke university. good to have you back. >> thank you. any surprises for you is current fed policy appropriate >> so the fed did what i think markets expected it to do,hich was to stay firm and to not make any b change. ollows a numbe of moves that broht the fed of course, had been hiking them for quite a while. so this is, i think, the bow on the package. i think the chairman made clear in his -- in his press remks at this is it, that they

expect it to stay whe it is. now, that, of course, is subject to a wle host of caveats. >> right. >> bass because as you point out there could be a number of headwinds that come into play next year. and we are already seeing some of them. and the fed notes this in its statement, the manufacturing sector is flat.he in fact, is just a report out that shows that for the first w time since 20are not seeing manufacturing firms increasing spending. >> ri st. >> the manufacturing sector is flat. business investment, as you know,tays reall quite flat. and declining. and that's actually not sgood. so there are a number of headwinds. and of course nobodynowsbout the tde war. >> exactly. >> where exactly they are heading.the uncertainty levels haven't changed at all. if anythin b they haome more -- more severe.

and of course this is g ng to affect long-term growth. we are at a low level of growth. >> right. >> this is nothahe level was, you know -- that certainly you know this white hse anticipated. >> very quickly, of the uncertaintiesut there, how would -- where would you rate trade versus weakness in the global economy? >> so it's interesting to separate the two. so the way i kind of look at them is i look athe trade wars as one category of uncertainty and then of cour just the level of low global the level of global demand, that actually we were starting to see that before the, you ow, on/off switch got played on the trade wars. so w doave both things going on. low levels of demand, and of course the trade wars that are on again offgain and hard to know when the end is.

>> indeed. sarah bloom rascon, thanks for joining us again today tono ht goode. >> you good to see you urgency a key gauge of inflation showed a slight rise last month, the consumer price index up% 0 december as households paid more foh gasoline, heare and rent and pushing the rate to the highest level in a year. even though it showsrices are rising inflation overall is considered low historically. >> meanwhile a caution day on wall street. certainly stocks liked the idea of no interest rate increases negligence year. and the fed's upbeat view of the economy. but we are one day closer to the new round of tariffs to take effect on sunday and negotiators for the u.s. and china are still working to complete phase 1 of deal before that happens. so at the close, small gains only. but gains nonetheless. the dow averageas up just 29 pinpoints. we're at 27911. ede nasdaq a 37.

the s&p 500 gained 9. >> and trade uncertain is o of the reasons why chief executives of the nation'sbi est companies lowered outlookor economic growth for the seventh straight quarter. according to the business round table's quarter survey, members see growth of 2.1% next ye which is nea the federal reserve estimate. while that's a big concern for many mpanies, ceos are also quick to point out the strength of the consumer. >> u.s. economy is two thirds, 70% consumer driveren. well we know the u.s. economy can do well. if you look at our spending in general last yearo this year it's up 5.5 to 6%. across $3 trillion of card usage, checks written, cash out of the atm. b it's data set. picked up pace. if you look at holiday spending wednesday before thanksgiving to the cyber ,mond up double digits, strong, people are

spending that's good newor the u.s. economy. >> the odds are against recession occurring before the d of 2020. what's happened is consumer confidence has held up. an the year over year leading indicators fromnc the confe board were at 7% year over year 15 months ago which i really strong. you have never had a recessi in last several decades without leading indicators first going negative. coal mine. ly the canary in the >> the consumer secretarier is strong offsetting weakness we industrial. but globally when you take a step back we are in a period of me i think where we see slower growth globally. it's not negative. so we still have positive growth. but the who world we see it as slowing down. i think the n ober question i keep get something do you see a recession in 2020? and right now the data would say probably not. >> now, to washington where the head of the faa testified on capitol hill today about boeing's grounded 737 max. angry lawmaklls.stions fm

fi rhee bow is in the nation's capital toght. >> the fa. a administrator steve dickson facing tough questions onca pitol hill. not only about the f.a.a. decisions when certificating the 737 max two years ago but what nes to happen i order to lift the grounding of the max, which the a say will not happen this year. >> if you just do the math, it's going to e into 2020. this year do you expect it by the enof january or february what would you say is realistic. >> it's impossible to say be phil. if i would that crystal ball, i would certainly be able to share it. but it's very important that international autes that ith the have been working with us. and with the -- with the boeing am to do this right. >> dickson testified before members of congress and relatives of those killed in two

max crashes. the message w clear, the f.a. chl a must make changes to avoid a repeat of theistakes made on the max. >> we have a system that iste abso fundamentally broken. >> i'm concerned about boeing's. influe >> we are concerned, obviously, about allegations ta.t a was a captive of the industry. >> meanwhile, a former boeing manager who worked at the 737 prabt plant outsideifeattle ted the push to ramp up production created an unsafe environment. >> normally when the factories running fine everything is goine . but then we had a cascading problem. and it got out of hand. >> the hearing raises fresh questions about the safety of the 737 max. but it mha note when this plane returns to service. boeing is targetingor that to happen early next year. provided the fa. a is confident this plane isfe o fly again. phil lebeautl "nibusiness report," washington.

so what will boeing have to do to encourage the public to n get the 737 max once it's back in the air? with u now it dan hill, ceo of the crisis management firm hill impact. well, dan. nice to have you here. >> thank you. glad to be he. >> it seems to me it's not just boeing buthe individual airlines are also going to have to do not rebranding necessarily but they have to convince the public. how do they do that. >> that's right. you have to look at who the customer is. for the customer of boeing it's the airlines. for the airlines it's the public. and they do have a big task at hand. they have to t convinceir passengers that they have done enough to certificate that this aircraft is ready to return to service. and what boeing has to do is convince the airlines not only at they fixed the aircraft but that they have improved culture dhe systems. and that's a challenge they continue tface. >> well, a commissioner dickson has said -- dsh we know he is a

pilot. he has flown the 737 and he is going to fly it himself. the airline officials have said they will get on the first flight. are those t kinds -- getting on an airplane is a matter of trust. getting the trust back very impoayant. that the to do that? or what other suggestions do you have? i think thso. k first of all i think that's helpful to boeing. they are wanting that seal of approval from the regulators and from the airlines. and that is the kind of thing that will go a long way. the public when you get online and start looking at affair fare tickets y don't generally look at what airplane am i going to fly on? you look at what carriers, either offering the best deal or the ones most reliable, say have the best customer soservice. those kinds of things will go a long way in terms of allaying fears of the passengers who do care about the safety issue. >> what does the airli itself have to do, say, yknow, southwest has a lot of 737s.

but yourself in southwest's shoes or anotherairline's shoes how do we reach out and reassure the public? what concrete things can they do in case you have ar custo saying i don't want a flight with the 737? >> it's all abo cmunicating their own process to go beyond what the faa is doi to say that this is southwest airlines or united airlines approach to evaluating the safety. i bu also think they want to convince the public that they pushed boeing, the manufacturer, very hard to make sure that boeing mass done more than just adjust and fix technical issues but they have also fixed whatever the cultural issues are that led to this. and that's sll a big question out there. have they addressed those things? can they detect ahe problem in future if it's something else? and will they be transparent aboutt? >> a lot of questions still to be answered. dan hill with hillimpact, thank you very much.ha >> tnk you.

time to look at some of today's upgrades and downgrades. we begin with shares of cigna. ground graded to under waiting to equal wait wells fargo securities. the analyst says the debt load could hamper growth in t future. price target, $181. the stock rose a fraction to 191.75 today. meanwhile wellsargo securities also downgraded walgreen's to equal weight fro overweight citing pressures on the core business in the nea term and longer term richks. price target, $61. the stock fell slightly to 58 and a p and apple's provides target was raised to 305 from 275 by ever core is the analyst sees solid holiday demands for the wearable devices. the firm has outperform rating onhe stock and shares rose to 270.77. still ahead, aon s start for disney's newest product.

♪ ♪ ♪ ups downgraded to market perform from outperform a bmo capital mathematics with the analyst expecting the company to have a hard time improving profitability and free cash flow. but ups has a plan. it's creating strategic partnerships with companies lak cvs to give consumers more of what theyke want. frolland is in atlanta for us tonight. >> reporter: this is one0 of t 4,s locations where customers can pick up and drop off ups packages. packages a a cvs, yes. it's called access point. a partnership that began in july

designed to increase profitability and volume for ups as well as foot traffic and retail sales for cvsp. ups ceo david abny and cvs ceo larry merlot meeting at access point to discuss howo further leverage stores within five miles of americans as well as the growing e-commerce market >> it's about meeting the unmet needs for consumers and ts is one of the concept stores we callhe health hub. you know, it's about access, convenience. >> competitors fedex and wahl greenpeace have a similar partnership startg in 2017. but abny and merrilo say they don't believe the first movers have the advantage. >> what's important is to make sure we take the strengths of both companies a leark to where we can make it a better experience for customers. if we focus inhat gard, then we will have differentndtion a it's the customers that will vote. >> ups and cvs are facing

disruption from amazon. the tech giant expected to increase aheunt it self-delivers by more than 50% in 202on am pharmacy business acquired start-up pill pack in 2018 is also growing. >> right now amazon's market share is very, very low. it may not b1% at this point. we think that amazon has the potential to get a mid-to high single digit market share inti prescr drug retailing over the next five yes or so. >> however abny appear merrilo say they see disruption as challenge not a threat. they are partnering on drone delivery of prescriptions and retail goods. both ceos see it as another way this partnership could really take off. ups and cvs plan to turn 1,400 point locations i first cess half of 2020, bringing the total to 000. for "nightly business report," i'm franke holland in atlanta. move over, appl you are no longer the world's

company.uable publicly traded at is where we begin tonight's market focus. saudi aramco made the trading debut on the saudi exchange giving it a valuation of more than .$1.8 trilli the majority of aramco is state-own and the crown prince who runs plans to use the money ra in the ipoo diversify the country economy and fund national p rjects. share 10% in the first trading session. home depot warned today the sales fwroegt next ar will be below consensus estimates. the home improvement retailer says it's so-called one home depot strategy combining digital and brick and mortarra oons is not generating as much revenue as it had expected. th sck was down more than 1.5% to 212 even. american eagle outfitters is forecasting profit and sales for the holid quarter to come in below market expectations. the teen retailer has been ramping up discounts t counter

increased competition and safest p american the flags eagle brand. the company reported decline in the most recent quarter.es in the shares fell 6.5% to 14.13. children's place reported better than expected earnings but revenue fell below forecasts as did the compara e store sales. the retailer gave a weaker full-year forecast sayg it's bottom line would be hurt by tariffs. stock lost nearly a quarter of the value today closingt 54.31. and it was a disappointing lemonr for lulu the athletic apparel retail are reported adjusted third quarter profit below wall street expectations and said theey holiday quarter will be soft. the comny increasin discounts to better compete with rivals. share fells after rising in the regular session to cse at 233.19. disney's ceo b iger has been named business person of theier by timee. magaz

the editor cited his accomplishments of the past 12 months, inclung the closing of the 71 billion-dollar fox acquisition, the o opening two "star wars" treem park lands, a record $10 billion in global box office sales and the launch of the streaming service disney plus. and today we're learning more about t number of times that the disney plus app has been downloaded since it bec available four weeks ago. julia boorstin has more. >> reporter: the first day disney plus launched it downloaded 10 million times to smart tvs according to disney. now research firm apptopia gives a hint how it faired since. it has 22 million downloads to mobile devices alone. and disney plus's average 9.5 million daily active users. ranking number one in apple and gogel app stos everyay since lawmaker. the numbers only measure mobile use and do not measure use on smart tvs or streangevices

such as roku oh or apple tv and we don't know how many downloads the 7-dayree trials the verizon kers are accessing the full year. t there is evidence the signature app is gaining traction. they report the mobile app generated 20 million revenue for disney a combination of per nthees and annual contracts. ough disney plus user base is smaller than netflix whiche reported mthan 60 million u.s. subscribers last quarter it's notable o a peruser basis apptopia repor disney had 60% average long longer session times and 8% longer tha amazon prime video. apptop says the early success does not yet seem to be hurting mobile downloads or tffic to other streaming services. but disney plus is boosting new installs of hulu and espn, bundled with disnelus at a discount and streaming tool roku. disney declined to comment on

the data, we'll hear the official numbers inhe company's fourth quarter earnings report. for "nightly business report," julia boorstin in los angeles. and coming up the pot industry's next chapter. i'm je wells in las vegas at mj bichlt izcon, the largest marijuana business conference in 2019 a terrible year for legal pot, especlly for investors. what's changing in 2020? ♪have that coming up. ♪ ♪ back in 2015, asart ofur bright ideas series, we told you about a start-up called managed by q it's a management platform designed to increase office allowing employees to simply

schedule cleanings a mainnance and other non-work related tasks. earlier this year we told you the start-up was bought by wework which as you know has stumbled. now i we works the reportedly looking to sell managed by q to refocus on the main business. the marijuana industry was ow supposed to see exponential growth as more state legalized use. but it hasn't worked out that way. many companies have seen the lue shrink. jane wells at a cannabis convention in las vegas tonight. >> these are 45 for a pack. >> you're looking at one of the brit spots in legal marijuana. a pot superstore in las vegas than $5 million a minute in more sales. it's called planet 13. >> we are cash flow pitive

now. we are fortunate one of the few publicly traded companies in thn stry. >> much of the rest of the legal pot business hasn't done well in 2019. the top six publicly traded companies lost a combined $25 billion in market value since the end of march. >> i think it's fairy to that 2019 and particularly the slow rollout of retail stores in certain provinces in canada caught everybody by surprise. >> i would have thought by now the debt marts would have opened up more than they have. but because they haven't companiesorutting budgets and cap x plans and so forth forced to use the stock t raise capital. that's a vicious cycle on they wn. >> here atmjbizcon, people home 2020 will be better with better solutions to challenges unique to the industry, l cash. cash isn't just ng. it's pretty much all there is. most banks will not let cannabis companies have credit cards because the drug is still illegal at the federal level. that's creating anor oppnity

which is serial entrepreneur hopes to well cash in oin. >> it's very difficult everything in theannabis industry is it a hundred times harder. >> keith has a long history in tech now he runs wave logistics platform whi most california cannabis retailers use for online sales and next day delivery. now it's partnered with an arizona finanal technology start-up called hyperto create a business to business d payment system for cannabis. using a handful of banks willing to take the plunge. credit unions or state charter banks not subjee to the s federal rules. >> it would be easier for us to use this alsoecause paying different brands through bank shut down. u risk getti them >> alex herera runs a legal pot shop in angeles called atrium. >> do you have a bank account. >> yeah, yeah. >> do they know what you're doing? >> no. >> the hope is eventually there will be more tools like thi to ke the cost of doing business safer appear cheaper.

>> really the competitor is the illiciket and we are going after them. the payment system willet us art. >> jane wells, las vegas. >> another look at the final numbers on wamz. the dow up 29 points. naaq adding 37. s&p 500 gained 9. that's "nightly business report" tonight. i'm sue herera thanks for joining us. >> i'm bill griffeth. have a great evening. see you tomorrow. ♪ ♪ ♪

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