i spoke with terry lundgren of macy's, he said we were disappointed. that early momentum we saw didn't carry through to the season. he said apparel was better, cold weather merchandise was better this year compared to last year, but not enough to offset the softness we saw in the center core categories, the hand bags, makeup, accessories and watches. those are the weak points there. so that's disappointing. we heard similar things from kohl's. >> it's disappointing especially to see it come on the heels of a stock market at a record high, consumer sentiment that has spiked since the election, business confidence up. is this a department store only phenomenon or will this trickle into other parts of retail and consumer? >> that's a great question. i think it's interesting because many of the early reports we were seeing was saying it was a strong christmas. from everything that we know, consumer spending and sentiment is strong. but we also know department stores have been in a state of secular decline. so i think this may be a retail or stock or indivi

it was really an interesting interview with terry lundgren last night. e question was why didn't terry see it coming. the answer was two years ago they had their best christmas ever. so how do you see it coming in 700 days? and the answer is that you didn't see -- there's no way that you can keep up with amazon. one of the things terry said in the interview was, look, they're number three after amazon and walmart in the categories that they go for online, but online doesn't expand the pie. it doesn't pay the rent. so this was a seminal quarter. kohl's, i don't know, they're struggling for reason for being. matthew boss from j.p. morgan told you all this was going to happen, but people were buying these stocks, trump rally, trump rally. the only thing good is that pvh, manny came out today and said his numbers are going to beat. which what says is don't read through apparel being bad. they may be a beneficiary of all the sales. but do read through that the mall and l brands today too, victoria's secret down -- >> is there something here we didn't know alre

kind to the nation's largest department store chain, christmas decorations still, look at what terry lundgren has to say, ceo of macy's. closed by the spring, he says. online, growing, online, 20% of the nation as christmas. and not growing fast enough and overstored and a tough time, not a growth business. stock is down double digits. and brooked fears. and they announced 150 stores on sears, kmart, and by sears, black and decker. it is a decline of 66. that is the latest from state street. ashley: barely held on with the audio issues but we appreciate what you are saying is macy's is closing stores, they are opening a new bookstore down the street from here. the fourth in the united states, and let's bring in eric, that very company, amazon, has single-handedly tried to kill off traditional retailers. why does that make sense. >> it makes sense because they can expand the experience, that is something they want to pick up. and it is distribution. same-day distribution for people who wanted instantly. i don't think you will see a lot of them. it will largely be online. you will see more, no

it reminds me of terry lundgren who said there will have to be a happy medium. >> they're in a more flexibleosition, amazon and alibaba but not having that huge stock of bricks and mortar stores to pull away from. >>> other corp frorate news, ba of america is said to owe a half billion of unpaid premiums to the fdic. for a five-year period they failed to assess their own risks correctly. >> when we come back a roundup of today's stock movers, plus as we head to break, the nasdaq hitting an all-time high yesterday. here's a look at the names that led the charge. some massive gains here. we'll be right back on "worldwide exchange." >>> welcome back to "worldwide exchange." good morning, i'm live from orlando, florida, site of the icr conference where consumer companies in retail and restaurants get together to talk about the issues facing their industry. there are many post elections. now to the corporate news. canadian retailer gildan has won the bankruptcy auction for american apparel after raising its bid to $88 million. gildan won't take any of the stores but will own the brand and manufac

matt: i mean, we're going to do about terry lundgren on a little bit -- we are going to talk to carolynaan a little bit later about the most recent polls, which have le pen taking round, but a first of course she is simply would lose in the second round. how problematic would it be if le pen did when? would it throw off any of your models? like throwing a cat amongst pigeons in many ways. the big issue is that she appears to be someone who is rather like trump. she wants to make france great again. she wants to do all sorts of things that are really anathema to the majority of europeans, and of course, for the fundamental issue of the e.u., more than anything else, is the franco german alliance, you go back to the schuman declaration. it is all about making sure france and germany work together for a better future world. if that in anyways threatened, then you really have got a big european political problem out there. after the brexit wrote, we had a few days of market turbulence. and the ship rises itself, after donald trump we had a few hours of market militants, and then -- market t

terry lundgren, ceo of macy's you know, we still do most of our business in brick-and-mortar.ness but it is just not a growth industry. if you're looking for a growth stock, i guess the answer is, not here. stuart: okay. you look like you're freezing cold. >> you're right. stuart: looks like macy's in some trouble. i feel will see some ghost malls around the country when macy's closes 68 stores. some will be anchor stores in malls. look at stock performance. amazon, straight up 22%. last 12 months. macy's down 18%. jeff, thanks very much indeed. i'm staying on amazon, they're getting into the bricks and mortar business. they have bookstores on west coast and now here? liz: smart move. why is it smart move? if you're a prime member, you will get charged full list prices. more way to get prime members and "alexa" voice activated echo. you can test out the gadgets. still 85% of all retail sales are still in brick-and-mortar this is way for more people to get them into prime. by the way, watch this, the amazon echo "alexa," order food. "alexa," i want sushi or cucumber sandwich or

i spoke to macy's ceo terry lundgren who said he is disappointed with holiday sales saying we thoughtong thanksgiving weekend, with that a december would be stronger than it ultimately was. momentum didn't materialize for the entire holiday period. regarding the restructuring of real estate updates, lundgren said we don't stand by and do nothing. when we have challenging results we take action. that's good, that's something the street often applauds, the concern about what happened holiday and that sales trend is expected going forward and that is concerning. >> when i see them closing this number of stores, is this macy's throwing in the towel saying we have to be a smaller business unless they can offset it in the online stream? >> i think they're saying we need to be a smaller business in store. i think terry admitted they have too many stores. some stores are profitable, by if these looking three, five years down the road, they may not be profitable. let's get ahead of the game, close now before we get in trouble. it's not always that easy to close stores, especially with lease ag

what did terry lundgren have to do? closed a whole bunch of stores. nonstore retailers up 1.3%. did amazon just do? hired 100,000 new people because of their wholesale thing they have going on. what are cars doing? up 2.4%. by the way, that's a little light too. might have been higher because they're heavily advertising around christmas. i think the auto guys are winning the holiday sales. >> not only advertising but also offering some of their best promotions of the year. that has a way of bringing people in. are they profitable sales or not. >> i got to think people wait maybe until december, wait for those sales and say, you know what, i'm going to spend my holiday dollars on getting that new car, which is weird to think that it trumps a sweater. maybe they're not going to buy as much for holiday shopping. >> all right. >> we're going to do one more thing here, folks, talk about politics and the economy. there's been a lot of discussion this week about the border adjustment tax proposal, call it the b.a.t., where importers get taxed 20%, exporters wouldn't be taxed at all. it