joining us now is brian cornell. you for being here >> we just had ananalyst looke at this closely and made the same conclusion when looking through these numbers that there are companies like target and walmart have made some massive investments and those are starting to pay off. is that how you would assess these things what's happening here? >> you are seeing winners and losers right now in retail we took a path that says we are going to invest in the long-term. several years ago we decided we are going to invest in our stores and invest our brands and invest in our team and capabilities those are starting to mature you are seeing the reaction from the consumer in our guests and those show up in our recent earning report when you are talking about new fulfillment of opportunity, you are talking about competing to amazon in the world. what have you done >> becky, we are focusing on three areas, one, we want to make sure we provide a great experience that's really inspiring when you are in our stores, that's why we

i can't avoid what brian cornell said because what brian cornell is saying is, listen, this is housingas enough stores in enough parts of the country to make a big difference. i could add lowe's and home depot. it's target. and usually i hate to be such a -- [ applause ] i'm seeing strong buying in chipotle, but, no. i'm not going to outthink it [ applause ] >> it's stronger than it's been in a long time we know that. >> right [ applause ] david, millennial's love target. [ opening bell ] t they don't like to talk. they like to tweet and carbona. they have a vending machine for cars two, they deliver your car right to your couch. that's why millennial's love it. >> let's tell you what rang the bell innovator management celebrating. i think it's official now. every single person has their own. >> i was offered an etf. >> yeah. there should be a lot of jim cramer etfs. over at the nasdaq cintas. >> uniforms are part of the employment work force trade. >> right. >> and they are an amazing company. amazing. >> right. >> i cannot believe how good lowe's is. don't forget cbs is embedded in t

minnesota based company it makes a lot of sense. >> while he points that out -- let's point out brian cornell, your favorite ceo grew up ten miles away from me in queens don't hold that against me >> but the reality is what we're seeing right now, mel, whether in any city in any state in the country, it's teaeasy to see whs successful best buy, joe's been pointing that out almost every two months we see best buy and it goes higher. that was supposed to be left for dead then we had the grocery space, they were left for dead. keep an eye on the walgreens of the world and the cvs of the world. pillpack was the move they made in amazon. oh, boy, did they sell those off. where are 93 nthey now they're heeither higher or much higher than before you just have to make your business better and get people the foot traffic, whether that's target or walmart, whomever, you've got to get the foot traffic in >> when you think about the amazon disruption, we were told that amazon was going to disrupt everything and best buy is the evidence, when you look at those bigger ticket items, amazon was not able to d

the best consumer environment i've seen in my career, quoting brian cornell.that what he told you >> that was right here >> you say it here, it comes out here >> he's watching us. >> he says a big statement from a top executive but virtually everybody is saying this when our trade deals are made and cost-cutting done, you have not seen anything yet. then it says @drudgereport, but it should say @beckyquick. >> he did say it here. that was an exclusive interview with brian cornell he did talk about how he felt about that >> there may be more there may be more coming i thought that was good. >> that works. stuff happens here it found its way to trump land in a tweet >> appreciate it >>> let's talk about markets in asia it was a mixed session there for the different major averages you can see at the close the nikkei was up by more than 0.8%. shanghai was slightly higher, up by almost 0.2% the hang seng was off 0.4% in europe, we already are seeing some active trading that's taking place you can see green arrows across the board. looks like the biggest gainer is t

. >>> and a programming note, tomorrow on "squawk box," target is set to report and its ceo, brian cornellill join us at 7:00 a.m. eastern time "squawk" returns in a moment broke my personal record. aflac!? no-good break. gooood break. i'm so sorry we can't make your barbecue. i'm just sick about it. aflac!? different kind of sick. if i can't work after surgery, how am i gonna pay my rent? all these bills? aflac! oh, aflac! and they pay you cash in just one day. see how aflac helps cover everyday expenses at aflac.com. i am going to vote ok, for myself using nothing but this remote and the sound of my own voice! vote for... wait wait, that's not a talent. any xfinity customer with an x1 voice remote can do that. watch this... i want to vote for... obviously not you. ooh that guy... cast your votes during every live show. just say "vote for agt" into the x1 voice remote. . >>> welcome back time for a cnbc exclusive. cnbc.com reporting that jpmorgan about to launch a new broke ran app with an appealing price tag, fee. it will roll out next week, it is called u you invest anyone who downloads

as ceo brian cornell told us on the conference call -- and i quote -- comp growth in our home categoryas amazingly strong, up nearly 10%. headlines also -- hard lines also saw high single-digit comp growth driven by strength in both toys and electronics, end quote. guys, these are incredible numbers. i don't even -- i've never seen anything like it the source of this strength, cornell pointed out that, i quote, like others, we're currently benefiting from a very strong consumer environment. perhaps the strongest i have seen in my career. whoa holy cow cornell did address the impact of the trade war, saying, quote, we are concerned about tariffs because they would increase prices on everyday products for american families, end quote he's not oblivious -- "a prolonged deterioration in global trade relationships could damage economic growth and vi l vitality in the united states. but the real takeaway from this target call, and nearly every other major retailer, except for jcpenney is that the analysts that follow a major swath of this economy have been dead wrong about both the health of

yesterday brian cornell telling cnbc on "squawk box" that it was the greatest consumer retail environmente's seen, yet there's a few stores like l brands that are not getting it right. >> i think brian is right. i'm glad that a retail ceo came out and said yes, our strategy is working, it's not just that >> the overall weather is good >> the economy is helping things out, and the literal weather is good, too. i agree with what brian is saying i think the consumer economic back drop is strong. balance sheets are good. people are willing to spend again. i also think fashion and merchandise cycles are in a better place than in the past. it's sort of everything clicking in place at the same time. it's a continuation of what we began to see in the holiday quarter. >> have retailers gotten smarter in the sense that retail and inventory management has finally come into the 21st century you go into a lot of stores, there's so much junk it looked bad. when you have too much stuff you have to discount it deeply, which not only hurts the profit but devalues the brand have retailers gotten smarter on

we're seeing already the happiest consumers that we've seen pete's buddy, brian cornell, said this is the most optimistic consumer he has seen in his career in retail a pretty big statement for a guy that runs a huge retail. more on that later froms. >> aid l vice. in the early day of the show, everybody had a nickname and mine was adelvice, so if you can indulge me >> not going to miss that. >> i don't think there's anything to come out of this administration or the presidential office that would surprise anybody the behavior has been outrageous i believe that were impeachment proceedings to be broad, maybe the market is a knew jerk reaction down. inning ultimately, it would go up because the pillars are there. the economy is still strong. he's done a lot by executive order. it's sort of like carnival side show at this point what happens there if something comes out that's damaging, knee jerk reaction pence comes in, not a fan from his social views but maybe that actually unlocks the gridlock >> i would also argue if you believe that to any degree the president's unpredictability has

the ceo brian cornell joined "squawk box" this morning talking about the quarter and taking on the competitionnamely amazon. >> we compete with everyone. so we have to be on the top of our game. >> come on, it is walmart and amazon, right? >> those are two big players and i think about them every single day. and we measure ourselves against their performance. so we're fighting for those trips, we're fighting for those footsteps, we're fighting for the clicks and right now, i think we're starting to build momentum >> joining us at post nine, former target vice chairman gerald storch. welcome back good to see you. >> good to see you >> we're all trying to figure out how much of it is that that is boosting all the retailers and the better taxes and the better weather and the macro tail winds and how much is it the measures that cornell and others put in place to turn things arounded? >> well, the consumer is very, very hot and most retailers are doing well, rising tide until it shifts the only ones who don't are trying to figure out whether to sell products in a poor environment. you do see that

report this hour we'll bring you those numbers and an exclusive interview with the target ceo brian cornellfacebook cracking down on fake accounts and pages in what is being described as an iranian propaganda network it's wednesday, august 22, 2018, "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ >>> live from new york where business never sleeps, this is "squawk box. >>> good morning welcome to "squawk box" on cnbc. we're live at the nasdaq market site in times square our guest host this morning, michelle girard from natwest markets. as becky mentioned, today marks the longest bull run in u.s. history. the s&p 500 has now been in a bull market for a record 3,453 days it is up 323% from the march 2009 low barring a 20% decline today we will continue that bull market run. >> 20% decline before we close today. >> exactly the january high -- >> not in the book

a long term fix $7 billion they're willing to spend to go with all four points of the focus of brian cornellink they're executing absolutely perfectly and they continue to over the next couple of quarters. if the economy stays strong this is a company that continues to go higher and i think it's a $100 stock and bank of america agrees and it's breakthrough 90 and you have a 10% move there and call it 99 and $100 a share. there you go. >> six seconds on the clock. it's your turn >> here's a company that is executing and the stock was massively underperforming for the good part of 2017 and like pete said, it was cheap and i picked up the baton at 71. it's really nice, right? we had this breakout here. the news is out and sentiment is overly optimistic and we've had a lot of great stories here and we've had the tailwinds of consumer spending and at this point i think when you see results that are corresponding with some of the things we're doing you can take a pause we have a chart right here and it's important when i think about this we got to that prior high and my line kindof stinks here and

. >> about a week and a half ago or just about a week ago, i spoke with brian cornell, the,{s:c}the, ceo at target. he said in his career he's never seen a better environment for the consumer, things seem to be firing on all cylinders. what do you see when it comes to the economy and what do you see when it comes to the consumer? >> the economy, really since the fall of 2009, has progressively gotten better but it started from a very low base it started from panic, and we've now had nine, well very soon, we got nine full years of improvement in business. i mean, quarter by quarter sometimes it looked like 1% or 1.25%, sometimes it was 2.5. now it looks even better than that, but business is good across the board, business is good it was good two years ago. it keeps getting better, but the american public household wealth is over $100 trillion, and 250 years ago, you know, there wasn't anything here 24 bucks >> the economy is firing on all cylinders. one issue people worried about is what is happening with trade and tariffs. have you seen any impact on berkshire's business on higher c

my brother, pete, he's all over this one of course brian cornell, his friend over there that runs targete is one to watch next week along with loews. >> i like to watch foot locker not a stock you normally think of as a big performer. the reason i want to watch it, it gives you great insights. nike and under armour said things are going fairly well they've become such a big distribution that i think you have to look at other companies. i think that's a smart way to look at other investments. >> nasdaq and retail, they're up the same amount so far this year so if you had to choose, would you rather on these two, what would you say? >> i've voted with my feet here and hit the button to buy retail i think the consumer is going to stay strong. we have both i'm going to be honest if i had to pick, i would go with retail. >> same question to you. >> retail or tech. >> you hate it when somebody punts on it. so i won't do that >> break my heart. >> for the speculative buyer, i think retail is where you're going to have more fun mel, if i can, i'd like to point out on next week's earnings, you ha

chart target just made a new 52-week high today and it's a few bucks away from its all-time highs brian cornelluite a good job here, by the way however, collins thinks the stock is starting to look extended maybe overextended the isolator is extremely overbought territory, which often means the stock has come up too far, too fast and is due for a pullback collins says it could get a boost up 26 cents where it's currently trading, but he doesn't like the risk/reward at the moment that's why collins recommends swapping out a target and swapping in a walmart which is a lot more room to play catch-up and while we're talking about big box stores, let's not forget about cramer fav costco. here is a stock that has been absolutely on fire back in february of 2016 we told you to buy costco off the recommendation of larry williams he's that legendary technician whose got a host of different indicators named after him, not to mention nearly a dozen books and a website. the website is named i really trade.com. at the time it was $162 and now at 223 nice 38% gain in less than two years, okay? but i'd bring

the ceo brian cornell said this morning that this may be the best consumer environment he has seen inntire career in retail. and certainly, they are all benefiting from that. a lot of these guys are just several years into ambitious investments to better equip themselves for e-commerce. target announced their big plan january 2017, walmart announced their big lan in 2015. they have done the spending and are seeing results of it. scarlet: all of this sets us up for a back-to-school to school and holiday shopping season as well. what kind of forward guidance have we gotten from these guys? large, good signals about back to school. target said they are off to a really good start and walmart made similar indications in their remarks about to date as well. i think we are seeing this will be a smack down for fiscal and holiday. i have been cuddly -- cover retail and usually i'm he sees and feels like a funeral and this is the first time i can really remember a lot of the biggest players in the industry are putting their best foot forward. >> certainly, those commons from brian get your atte

brian cornell says its the strongest consumer he's ever seen. >> target ceo said its the best consumerseen in his entire career. >> one of the guests on this show the other day said, if you're not getting big pop and measured inflation this year when the conditions are all in place, maybe it is it not take flight. i don't know if the markets kind of thinking in that direction. you missed your window to have inflation be a problem. as we've talked about before, so many big money bets against bonds basically betting on higher yields and that's being essentially up ended right now. the market does that which is going to hurt the most people in the short-term. >>> we are following a developing story out of hawaii. residents there bracing for a rare hit from a category four storm. hurricane lane could slam into the islands as early as today with winds exceeding 100 miles an hour. forecasters say the slow movement of the storm increases threat of prolonged heavy rainfall, which could cause dangerous flash flooding. >>> also saudi arabia is denying reports that he has scrapped plans for an ar

about leaderships at this country, a few high profile departures in the last few years, including brian cornel of that was nooyi's fight and ultimately proving that pepsi was better as one, one company for beverages and snacks there's no indication that that's going to change, but with the change in ceo, comes questions about the company's strategic leadership, one of these businesses, as mentioned, suffering. >> thanks for calling in on your day off, sarah >> thank you, guys, enjoy. >>> the state media in china is going up to president trump's trade policies and policing beijing, threatening to force protesting in peer to peer lending. eunice is there with the latest. >> official media have launched a personal attack against president trump saying that his trade policy is a straight fighter style deceitful drama of distortion and intimidation. went on a tear and saying that washington has lost its mind and larry kudlow says the trump administration shouldn't under estimate china's firm will to win a trade war. china has imposed tariffs on all american goods that come into china if the u.s. im

brian cornell has said, look, this is something i'm dedicated to i think he's doing it.nk that if you don't do it, if you're not online -- jcpenney is not an online company it takes a tremendous amount of investment to be online and you do hurt your earnings when you do that kind of investment but they've been great i am still marveling by the way. i think home depot was slighted this week. i think home depot is a housing play just because there's not tremendous turnover in housing doesn't mean people don't go to home depot and remodel >> fix what they have? >> i think that stock can come back think it was unfairly lumped in with mortgage rates and unfairly lumped in with housing and affordability. that's a narrative i think should not define home depot >> look at starts today. .9%? >> i think 10% of the economy is housing. punches above its weight there is a lot of answcillary plays to housing but one thing i'm not worried about is home depot's ascendance versus other companies in the industry home depot is a share taker by the contractors. when you remodel, the contrac

seen importantly for us, we're building market share in virtually every category >>> target ceo brian cornellxpressing optimism about the consumer that was wednesday morning on "squawkbox." this morning president trump tweeted about cornell's comments saying "target's ceo raves about the economy. this is a best consumer environment i've seen in my career a big statement from a top executive but virtually everybody is saying this when our trade deals are made and cost cutting done, you have haven't seen anything yet. enthusiastic tweet there of course, we spent a lot of this week talking about the strength of the consumer overall. perhaps it's funny the discussions we would have so often about the death of the mall and amazon taking market share from everybody. >> yeah. >>well, we don't have it as much amazon is continuing to do extraordinarily well i mean, look at macy's, for example. we were talking off camera yesterday about that name. >> sure. >> and a number of others when it comes to retail including ones that haven't done as well. >> right it's conspicuous when the companies can't get i

we'll quote brian cornell many times, i'm sure. >> there's a big debate this morning on squawk regarding your point about tax cuts and the impact they've had it seems like it was a long time ago it was passed in december. but the way corporate budget processes work, you know, it takes a long time for companies to react to changes in the law like that. and we may still be waiting to see additional changes in cap x in q3 and q 4. >> i think a big question is trade. that's why it's important to follow what is happening with nafta and china or what is not happening with china sort of europe seems to be on hold, as well. and now canada is in the mix on trade. if you look at the markets, the canadian dollar and the canadian stocks market is betting on a deal that canada will join. >> yeah. i think the canadians have been backed into a corner. >> we continue to keep an eye on trade talks. canada rejoins today u.s. lawmakers warning a bilateral u.s. mexico trade deal would struggle to earn congressional approval ayman jabbers is with us >> right we're in washington, d.c take a look around the co

>> yes we have an interview tomorrow with brian cornell kohls have been sourced to china.ou can pull out we know from many -- manny tirico talked about the ability to shift relatively quickly from where you're getting materials you're right relatively quickly means there's a period where you're going to pay more and will the consumer feel it? david, the consumer are going to feel it, why are the numbers going up buyers are saying don't worry. yesterday there were furious buyers in the drug stocks. people say you should worry. but the group is underweighted the cross currents of the ancient bull market, it morphs into something new every day and we can sit here and we can say china is the big concern, but there's many investors who don't seem to care. >> no. you're right and you have at least been somewhat outspoken in your belief we should continue to take into china and try to actually extract real confessions. >> my view since 2001 when i disagreed with larry kudlow. >> i wonder and i think i'm not alone from many people who allocate assets for a living there's a risk we

the best ever according to brian cornell of target recently in an interview with us. questions about the overall strength in the equity market and the u.s. economy going into the year are you surprised by what you are seeing and do you think it can continue into the second half >> well, you know, the equity market by my yale colleague bob shiller is still at the upper end of the valuation by the long term it's only been higher once since 1929 and that was in 2000 so i'm not as comfortable on valuation as most of the guests that you have on your show. having said that, you know, the consumer's been going through a long, long healing process after the crisis of '08 and '09 and debt is being paid down. savings balances have increased somewhat so, benefiting from the tax cut late last year which is a temporary impetus, consumers are spending again and i think that's an encouraging development for the economy. the question is one of sustainability and i'm not a momentum guy coming that and i still have my doubts in terms of how long this can last. >> stephen roach, thank y

best buy, dollar general and cost costco we interviewed the ceo brian cornell and he said the consumer is the very strong, the strongest he has seen in his experience. >> a result of the strong economy. when i look at that sector, do you remember how everybody left it for dead, do not get in here, all these guys are going bankrupt it's a lesson we learn over and over again when everyone else is terrified, if you can get over that, it's often the best time to buy. >> absolutely. retail not dead. >>> as the markets have soared to record levels in an unprecedented bull run, a lot of the focus is on big names but smaller stocks have also seen huge gains, cintas, the uniform makers, up more than 1,000%. the company's ceo is about to join us, plus we'll look at our trade war collateral damage with the story of a maker of beer kegs hit so hard by tariffs that at cut a third of its workforce. th's coming up on "power lunch. adults are just kids with much, much better toys. introducing the 2018 c-class sedan, coupe and cabriolet. the thrills keep getting better. lease the c300 sedan for $399 a

rachel: ceo brian cornell waiving about the economic boom that's going on right now. >> it's a very healthys we go back and look, we have never seen traffic growth like this. steve: so what's going on? let's talk to charles payne the host of making money on the fox business network. charles, good morning to you. >> good morning. steve: why is the president on target with target. >> is he on target with target because the american consumer is back big time. i say big time. so funny, we talk about all of these consumer surveys and sentiment and poll numbers. the ultimate survey is how people spend or don't spend their money. right now it's amazing. we have all of these retailers in the last three weeks reporting earnings, it's not just target. walmart posted a number out of this world. children's place posted their best same quarterly earnings. brian: just from rachel's family. >> just from rachel's family. here is the interesting thing about it it's being driven by foot traffic. people are feeling so good, not only hundreds of thousands of people coming back to the job market, but they are l

maria are what is beginning to get traction in stores like macy's target seeing these talked to brian cornell douglas at walmart changes are taking place, and i think all positive to get in front of how summer is spending. >> impacting things for sure what is your take on the tariff story the trade issues these are uncertainties there that we are not sure how going to impact retail may very well mean customers have to pay more for things. >> first of all, you know, i certainly into are the idea that we need to be on a fair trading way with our competitor with our -- with the -- china and europe and with nafta, the like so getting a better deal for america is a in itself a good idea. maria: right. >> having said that you know what is driving 4.1% gdp growth is consumption, okay 70% gdp is driven by culminati consumption don't want to slow that down i worry about higher prices customers just won't be able to pay for products basic products whether apparel or whether it be other products that they need every day. maria do i worry about that so what i am hopeful is that this nafta agreement gets

brian: water and eggs and whistle and bull horn harass them. >> have you two college professors right now and you know i have been in the free speech for a long time now. cornellive cornell west a leftist. they are going around the country and traveling and speaking about the most important issues and the value of listening and learning and higher education. brian: do you feel backlash when you listen and learn and don't attack back at republicans. >> i definitely feel backlash from my side of the aisle. brian: the book came out talks about that. >> exactly. brian: jim brown comes out and talking about the activist from the 60's i stand for my country. kaepernick says i take a knee for my country. what does zach stand. >> i will stand. i will always stand. i understand the right of someone to make a different decision i believe it's protected by the first amendment. brian: zachr. wood. >> thanks for having me. >> we will do nothing cooperatively with ice if they do any criminal acts which a police force can do, we will take criminal action. brian: nine out of every 10 have criminal records. that's our proud governor of new york. he talks resistance to a whole