ecommerce is up a bigger share of the sales. they saw traffic in stores and even though food prices continued to fall, grocery sales were positive. which is important because groceries are more than half the sales and is a big traffic driver. sales have been slower than expected to start the year. >> i'm that's on i have to walmart right now. i've said they're doing all the right things. unfortunately, they're competing with a really, really tough business, amazon. >> investing in ecommerce spends fwols catch up to amazon online. walmart said it is free two-day shipping on orders of $35 or more has led to a nice uptick in commerce. interestingly over the weekend, amazon quietly dropped its free shipping threshold back down to $35. i spoke to the officer. he asked about a potential border adjustment tax, he said we are pro tax reform for anything will help with jobs and help consumers. he we believe on to say we do have concerns. but it has the probability of increasing prices. he added the devil is in the detail so it is too dif

you have amazon holding ten times as much ecommerce sales as walmart. they have about 50% market share. walmart would have to buy everybody else to catch up with amazon. doug mcmillen and his team are top quality. they're doing the right things. but they really have a long way to go. this is heartening to see the sales line move on this thing, even with a 20% earnings decline. >> steve, of course we've also seen in recent weeks amazon is making a push into brick and mortar grocery stores, and that screams warning signs, of course, for margins across the sector. that said, are walmart the only retailer that can deal with the push and, long term, given their size, will we see big market share gains for both of the companies, as opposed to walmart losing out, per se? >> i think that's exactly right. up to this point, amazon over the past couple years has taken market share from everybody. 100% of the market share in retail has gone to amazon. walmart is fighting back. this is critical. for 40 years, walmart has killed every retailer, every category, every

going to focus on investment of ecommerce. confident that through a significant expansion, they're going to have more competition with faster delivery to people's home. they'll be a tougher competitor. >> what makes you think they'll execute on this? their website is garbage. the only reason someone would buy something from walmart is it's cheaper and with margins so low they basically have to sell at a loss. with rising wages and 20% of walmart's business, remember, is in mexico. they have over 3,000 stores in mexico and how is trump going to affect walmart's business there. so i think you're not weighing the reality of bricks and mortar dying enough in your model. >> the mexican business is a local business in mexico. i think you're confusing that with the import issue, which is a whole different issue. it's not going to affect 20% of the mexican business. >> the mexican business gets more expensive and there's less sales. >> hang on. go ahead, joe. >> even with their imports from mexico it won't be an issue to competitors b

ecommerce, cloud search, sharing economy. we represent a really wide number of internet companies that are all over the world. and who are really working to advocate for policies to enable a free and open internet globally. so with that on the topic that we're speaking on today, nafta, when it was negotiated 25 years ago, that was before the advent of the commercial internet. this was at a time where mozilla was in the first stages of development. the world wide web was still a thought over in geneva. there's a lot that has happened since nafta was negotiated. and this was long before digital trade was actually an area of focus in our trade negotiations. so you know, back then we didn't have online marketplaces. we didn't have the cloud, the app economy was nothing anybody had thought of. smart manufacturing, internet of things, precision agricultural, machine learning, these are all science fiction at the point that nafta was negotiated. so since those days the internet economy has grown into the largest and fastest growing

ecommerce, cloud search, sharing economy. we represent a really wide number of internet companies that are all over the world. and who are really working to advocate for policies to enable a free and open internet globally. so with that on the topic that we're speaking on today, nafta, when it was negotiated 25 years ago, that was before the advent of the commercial internet. this was at a time where mozilla was in the first stages of development. the world wide web was still a thought over in geneva. there's a lot that has happened since nafta was negotiated. and this was long before digital trade was actually an area of focus in our trade negotiations. so you know, back then we didn't have online marketplaces. we didn't have the cloud, the app economy was nothing anybody had thought of. smart manufacturing, internet of things, precision agricultural, machine learning, these are all science fiction at the point that nafta was negotiated. so since those days the internet economy has grown into the largest and fastest growing

because once again, it showed very strong ecommerce numbers, something a retailer needs to deliver inddition to traffic, not to the exclusion of it, which is exactly what brought down the stock of target. and the secular shift in ow hemospend their money is just crushing the whole industry. places like target, think of all of those appliances, we always talk about sharpies, think of rubber maid containers. it's gotten to the point where even mentioning the mall on a conference call is a recipe to have your stock mauled! they are dying shrines to spending the old way, even when retail looks good, it's bad. i thought gap's same-store sales were flagging, but the market couldn't hear it and the market would rally. we have to start figuring what could happen to sears holdings, given that its stock is trading at 5 and change. it was down 13% today. it was down 39% for this young year. this morning on the street.com within brian sousy laid out some of the suppliers that might get dinged when you look at what the action in that stock could bode. i know you might think that sears and kmart do

the big culprit, the gang busters growth of ecommerce. >> weighed good fourth quarter. what we saw was a tremendous shift in the amount of volume that went to the consumer versus the business. we looked over the last ten years and this is the fastest rate of change. so volume continued to grow. opportunity continued to grow. we saw the impact account. as consumer turned to the internet to buy more and more goods, delivery company are scrambling to keep up. ups moved an overwhelming 12 million packages over the holiday season. 16% more than 2015. including 2.5 million new addresses. higher volume put more strain on the network and more pressure on marmi margins. it is much costlier to deliver individual packages to individual doorsteps. ups is doubling down. the plan to spend a billion dollars, a third more than last year, to automate facilities and expand capacity. it is also raising prices. while it is accelerated, this trend has played out in earnings before. one reason they rate it a hold. >> this company either takes advantage of the market and gets tons of volume a

today, we meet a true visionary who has succeeded in building an ecommerce, ecosystem in southeast asia a team at a time when consumers, retailers, and governments were only just warming up to online shopping. let's meet lazada's max bittner. clothing, cosmetics, and electronic gadgets.

walmart total ecommerce grew by 29%. for the first time, the retailer is breaking out u.s.commerce, which increased 36.1% over last year. that contributed 40 basis points to that 1.8% u.s. comp increase. that strengthened from last year. jet.com is actually not going to be included until it becomes a comp, and that will be later this year. i spoke to walmart cfo bret biggs on the phone. he said the quarter strength was broad based, consistent spending. he notes spending got off to a slower start at the beginning of the year. walmart thinks it's due to the delay in tax refund checks that's actually been telegraphed and something that hits walmart often. i asked biggs about how walmart is thinking about a potential border adjustment tax. he said, quote, we're pro tax reform. anything that will help jobs and consumers, we're for that, but we also want to look at this through the lens of our consumers. we have concerns that the border adjustment tax has the probability of increasing prices. it is concerning to us. he also said the devil is in the details. we don't really know w

amazon obviously in ecommerce, apple on the i0s platform, facebook on mobile.hese guys have barely started to offer advertising to go after those budgets at the end of the purchase funnel. they're going to and google already has a big digital advertising competitor in facebook. amazon, at least, certainly in the mature markets has no major competitor in ecommerce anywhere near the scale of facebook so that's a major risk on the pay search ad front. >> youssef, i know you disagree wholeheartedly with james because i think you e-mailed me during a prior conversation that i was having live on the air with james about google, but isn't he right though? that google has a competitor whereas amazon doesn't? >> so, scott, if you were using -- if you were to use that argument that basically google or alphabet is one trick pony, searches going to turn over and start declining and that margins are going to evaporate, you would have probably shorted -- sorry, alphabet about 500 points below where it strads today. that's the oldest argument against not owning google. look a

we've got a few other steps we're taking first including some moves on the ecommerce front through consumer products that are not video related but more physical goods-related. to take advantage of new digital technologies. >> on the call you said there should be fewer ads. are you making some changes? >> i think in today's world, we have to be mindful of the number of commercial interruptions. so i think it is safe to say, we're all looking at that. it shouldn't necessarily mean we're that to make changes. it doesn't rule out the possibility but it is too soon to say. >> rogue one was a huge movie but not as big as the force awakens. how does that impact your skrat in. >> i said that. when we bought lucas film, we had a goal of three saga films. a very tres. eight, the last jedi. i saw it recently, that comes out december 15 in the u.s. we're very excited with that. and nine is in the early stages of production. so that's in great shape. we decided to add to that mix so-called star wars stories or stand alone films. the first was force awakens. the second was an origin story of hans solo w

energy, telecoms, ecommerce and labor on the environment. there's vocal and vibrant civil society in mexico. i'm sure they would welcome real and serious, sub substantial commitments on labor and environmental issues. perhaps even rules of origin that could focus on regional production. what i don't see viable is a fuel renegotiation of nafta starting from scratch. having mexico accept less than it already has. if that's the scenario and if negotiations would take a long place, a better alternative could be to say, okay, we'll go down the route. again, recall that there will be presidential elections in mexico. i don't -- next summer. summer 2018. i don't think that negotiations can go on endlessly because of uncertainty for political actors and for political reason. and you've had some very respected mexican leaders, like the former president in an op-ed last weekend in the "washington post", my former post who was trade minister during the nafta negotiations saying, no agreement and mfm is better than a bad agreement. it's better than mana

there was no ecommerce, the mexican energy sector was closed, and some things -- clearly, some things can be improved about nafta, both for the benefit of the u.s., and for the benefit of mexico. so, yeah, we are always hoping to discuss and as long as it's something that does not hurt mexico's national interests. >> has that actually started? >> no, not yet. we are -- we will be working over the next few months to start negotiations. in mexico, we need to go through a consultation process first. we want to make sure that we gather the opinion of the mexican senate, the mexican private sector, the unions, and then we'll start going through negotiations. but i think there's, like in any trade negotiation, there's always room to make it a win-win negotiation. this does not have to be a negotiation in which one of the countries loses. we can make it a very good deal for both countries. >> i appreciate your time. thank you very much. >> thank you very much, anderson. >> we had to cut that interview down for time. you can see the full interview at ac360.com. so the question is, are those p

in the age of ecommerce, vote by mail and mail order prescription drugs, it's more important than ever. there's broad agreement among all the major stakeholders that legislation is urgently required to strengthen the postal service. our coalition of stakeholders believes that the two bills introduce last week have the essential elements needed to stabilize and fortify the postal service for years to come. over the past decade, postal employees have worked diligently to restructure operations, cut costs and sharply increase productivity in response to technological change and the great recession. despite the loss of more than 200,000 jobs, we've managed to preserve our networks and to maintain our capacity to serve the nation. but only congress can address our biggest financial challenge. the unique and unsustainable burden to prefund future health benefits decades in advance. no other enterprise in the country faces such a burden which was imposed by legislation in 2006. the expense of this mandate is accounted for nearly 90% of the postal services reported losses, since 2007. without

we sell to the franchisees as well as through the ecommerce channel.growth is broad and diversified. for example, a direct to consumer business in '16 was up close to 12%, offset some of the softness in the u.s. so that's the first piece of the strategy that's working. the second piece is levi's is a national and international brand. for the third year in a row, it's grown approximately 3%. the year in '16 actually demonstrated growth was broad based. we were able to grow and expand into other categories as we develop levi's into more of a lifestyle brand. women was up 12%. so again, broad based growth across different categories and geographies. >> there's no way to know for sure, but maybe you're okay not being publicly traded as a stock right now. if i look at your competitors like hanes, other companies you compete with, they've had a hard time in the market. do you expect you're getting mark share gains? is there anything going on in the overall business that basically leads to any longer term concern about the demand, the pricing, any of the othe

we'll tell you what's going on at the ecommerce giant when we come back. >>> market rallies today but amazon stocks trading lower. disappointing levels last night. amazon is forecasting first quarter revenue that will be below street estimates as well citing foreign exchange pressures to the tune of $730 million. nomura, rbc capital and mizohu among the firms cutting their price targets on amazon stocks. they note amazon web services price cuts. nomura has a $925 price target on the stock. rbc thinks it goes to 900. mizou pegs it at 905. it's trading down at 808 today. >> though the target is lowered, i would note a lot of the wall street forecasters and analysts did keep with the long term. >> cutting them some slack there. >>> otherwise a rally today. the dow up 178 points. here's the number. as long as it's up 156, it's still the best day of the year so far for the dow jones industrial average. >>> up next, snap chat's parent files to go public. we remember that last night. we'll discuss whether the messaging app's public offering is something you should think about getting in on w

. >> virtually half of the ecommerce during the holiday season was amazon. >> will it log 25% revenuerowth? last quarter, amazon disappointed big time on the bottom line. the profit came in a lot lower than the analysts. that's always the tricky one when it comes to amazon. we'll be looking for the cloud business which has been growing like gang busters as well. >> that's all for tomorrow. that's "closing bell." "fast money" begins right now. >>> live from times square. tonight on "fast," investors are pouring into one of the richest areas of the market but they could be making a big mistake. he'll tell us what has him so nervous. plus one group of stocks had a big decline but investors are buying shares any way. and later the one surging dow stock that pete nagerian says you can still

going to take a $1 billion investment in operating more gin margin to lower prices and invest in ecommercestores but opening 100 small format stores and remodeling 600 of its existing stores over the next several years. there will be 12 new brands, and that should be worth about $10 billion in sales, according to targ e target. it'll spend $2 billion in capital investments as planned, this year. $7 billion over the next three years. target's coo, mulligan, said frankly, we have too much inventory and we are too slow. ceo brian cornell started off the presentations by saying, we're dealing with a consumer that is more interested in experiencing than owning. that's certainly troublesome for a retailer that's built its business on selling physical goods. target said that the investments and changes it is making are going to be multi-year, multi-phase. as a result, it won't provide guidance past 2017 as in the past. this morning, the full year 2017 guidance fell short of analysts' expectations and target's own projections. the holiday sales fell short of expectations and comps down 1.5%. if yo

so losing stores will likely result in some ecommerce loss. ellison tells me though it's factored into the guidance. he also purposefully lined up the timing of the closures with a company wide voluntary early retirement plan which he anticipates will result in jcpenney hiring more for the positions vacated by the retirees. the department store's full year outlook is short of its previously announced three-year plan with expectations for flat comp sales. jeffrey's analyst randall koenick continues but at what feels like a more gradual pace. >> courtney, thank you very much. >>> while jcpenney works on this turn around, which retail stocks are poised to win and maybe which should you avoid? which could be the losers here? >> joining us are simeon siegel and eric beagle from wonderlick joining us at post nine. stay with versus stay away from? >> i think that retail trading used to be tied to the fashion, used to be tied to the season. right now every conversation we're going to have is who's closing how many stores? >> it's a good thing for othe

i think chris had mentioned a number of industries, cloud, ecommerce.g that the consumer is facing or sitting in space and they're areas that we are long in. that theme of businesses migrating more. wage gains are occurring. we expect that phenomenon to continue and, therefore, want to be facing by way of a number of different industries the whole consumer phenomena which we believe there's a long runway in 2019. >> mark, chris, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >>> it was another whirlwind day at the white house. trumped meeting with members and we'll tell what the plan could look like next. major snowstorm coming up in the northeast. a broker tells us how to protect your portfolio by hedging against the weather. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. at pgiwestors ong egs li p te of urbxpon,piportit ctu aha inestrucd er. siss of enti.b iestmenmanageme of urbxpon,piportit ctu aha a, peence a.nds hyid. youdatr won't replace the full value of your totaled new car. the guy says you picked the wrong insurance plan. no, i picked the wrong

google, apple and facebook and interestingly completely dissolved his stake in alibaba, the chinese ecommercest a reminder that these stakes are as of the end of last year so he may have traded in or out of them since then. we are digging through. >> leslie, stay there. what do you think about these moves? >> clearly from his letter we knew he bought into the sector moves that would be trump beneficiary. leslie mentioned ac supply. that's domestic housing type play as well as some industrials. i do think it's consistent. not really consistent with the kind of activist hands on -- >> he has other companies to be run. >> i don't think he's picking up the phone calling lloyd i'm unhappy with lloyd. the odd thing -- those are big stocks. big liquid stocks that he can get in and out of them. i wouldn't put too much credence on what his position is today given that that was, you know, a few weeks ago. >> meanwhile, leslie, you've been following how closely hedge funds have done under president trump. what do you find? >> hedge fund watchers will tell you 2016 was not a bountiful year for the indust

they are putting all their money in ecommerce. they invested in five, excuse me, three e-commerce companies over five months. a lot of money going into online sales. it looks like it is paying off with traction against amazon. tough ask yourself, hey, what would happen if the republicans border tax went through? what would happen to the results we see from retailers? it is not such a great story. if you're a retailer, buying a 10-dollar t-shirt in indonesia, selling it for 30, suddenly taxed on $30, the cost and profit. the consumers would feel the brunt. $1700 a year with costs passed through on consumers on goods they buy. that is a 15 to 20% annual bump to their costs. what would it mean to the bottom line of retailers? that is what we sent out to find today. r-fc capital markets took this analysis, looking at the company home depot that reported if, if they had to pay a proposed border tax. this eliminates deductions for imported goods, their net income would have gone down 34%. that is pretty astonishing. big impacts for reta

amazon and the ecommerce push forward.rdstrom's positioning specifically, nordstrom is higher end, amazon has made a big push into fashion. i think fashion is its second largest category today. but on the nordstrom side, you know, the higher end fashion products, amazon doesn't sell as much of that. they've aggressively pursued it. nordstrom has a really strong franchise with the nafashionist, the footwear business specifically. >> but just the trend. don't you think some of the truly high-end stuff will end up on amazon? >> but i think there's a loyalty factor as well within this environment. i think nordstrom has that. i do think amazon has made tremendous inroads in fashion. the invests they've made, the brands they're getting, they continue to get better and better brands. nordstrom, their leadership, they've really done a fabulous job looking forward in this five-year investment they've made. now in the environment that we're in with like amazon plus, just the spending environment, we talk about the tax piece of it. n