A weaker u. S. Dollar as well. 105. 38 to the japanese yen. Gold back about 2000. 003. 35 an ounce right now. Walmart benefiting from online orders but store traffic was hampered by the coronavirus. The companies cfo said comp sales growth slowed last month as the government relief waned. Lets bring in Morgan StanleysSimeon Gutman. How did the Company Managed to get margins around 42 . Comp. they had a 9 rising tides lifts all boats, but they had gross margin in the u. S. Swing from down to 200 basis points to up this quarter. The primary driver is the mix of food and consumables, which tends to be lower margin, was mother in percentage, and a big shift toward general merchandise. A nice swing in gross profit to hire to cover those higher costs of operating, but the results were better sales and gross margins, allowed them to generate that growth. Vonnie walmart was only really getting going in the last couple of quarters. Did the digital improvements help out this quarter . What does walmart do next in terms of digital growth . Ecommerce grows 97 . It was in the 70s in the prior quarter. Probably some stimulus hoping to drive those results but that is still a good result nonetheless on what is a big growing base. Lets not forget, they have a large physical brickandmortar business. Narrative for the quarter, which i dont think got a lot of attention, the digital profitability improved. They said losses significantly narrowed. We have been estimating that walmart is losing around 2 billion online, so losses there win is a key piece of what i would call the bull case for investors, where the losses narrow and eventually contributes positively to the bottom line. Making progress on that during this quarter is a standout, which tells you they are making progress on the business overall. Vonnie how much of the gains were due to stockpiling . Walmart all around the country, so when some places have stockpiled, others are just beginning. Does that have anything to do with it . Comps 9 . Y grew let me frame it this way. For all the retail spending, it could have helped by about 8 . There is a wallet share shift, meaning a shift from traditional categories like leisure and you saw thatand shift toward consumables, home categories. We think that could have been worth about 12 points. Put those together, you are looking at a 20 potential lift for some companies. Walmart grew nine. In the prior count, i think it was 10. So it is starting to slow but you are starting to see the benefit of some of these vonnie final question on walmart before we move on. It will be back to school, whatever that means this year. Mixdoes walmart change the and it stores to reflect what consumers can pay for . It sounds like we lost simeon. We wanted to talk about home depot as well. Faring as weare have Construction Spending doing much better as well. Lets get to first word news with Mark Crumpton. President trump makes a quick trip to iowa today. His support has been slipping in the state which he won by 9 in 2016. Last week, a powerful storm struck iowa with a hundred mileperhour wind about three people dead and dozens injured, and wiping out millions of acres of corn and soybeans. On monday, the president said he approved an Emergency Declaration for the state. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is writing a book talking about his experience leading the state through the pandemic. Beerican crisis will released in october, chronicling the actions starting in march as new york quickly became the epicenter of the outbreak. The book comes as governor cuomos handling of Nursing Homes falls under scrutiny. About 6500 nursing home residents in new york have died as a result of the virus. The u. K. Is seeing some signs of progress in the coronavirus outbreak. England and wales recorded the fewest fatalities in 20 weeks. Scotlands weekly death toll dropped to its lowest in march. The outbreak is continuing to take its toll. A government report says the percentage of people in the u. K. Suffering from depression has doubled since the pandemic began. China is denouncing the latest u. S. Limits on huawei technologies. Beijing calls him nothing short of bullying. The Trump Administration moved to curb huaweis access to commercially available chips. Its goal is to prevent adoption of 5g technology. President trump told fox he does not want huaweis equipment here because they spy on us. Global news 24 hours a day, onair, and on quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. Im Mark Crumpton. Vonnie thank you for that. I believe we have Simeon Gutman back. Lets move to home depot. We also saw some Great Results there, also some great housing data, Construction Spending, a leading indicator of where builders think we are going. How does home depot profit from this, considering it is very urban centered . Simeon there is a surge of working from home, spending at home. That goes to that wallet shift i mentioned earlier. As long as there is not a vaccine yet, and these patterns will continue, and some will even linger after a vaccine is found, some of that spending will remain in place. One of the more telling observations they made on their call is that the business, quarter to date, is running about as strong as the entire quarter. We are talking north of 20 type of growth. That tells you that the spending shift continues, and by contrast, some of the slowing that we heard, from walmart. Vonnie is it taking any share from lowes . Do to try ands take shares away . They are in just a good position. Lowes is reporting tomorrow. Strongct at least of a samestore sales result as home depot. The market expectation is somewhere between 25 and 30. That tells you they are both doing quite well. I think they are both taking share from others. There are large pieces of the industry that are not visible to the consumer, some of the professional businesses, electrical, plumbing, higher and appliances. Lowes should be on a good trajectory as well. Lower thanins are home depot, so we think it will help to accelerate their internal transformation. Vonnie how sticky is a home depot leadership . Simeon the management has been there for a long time. Each ceo has had a pretty good tenure. Greg grew up in the business, was a merchant. They tend to create legacies with merchants. I think he will be there for a while. The Management Team is very transparent. If there is any shift in leadership down the road. Vonnie you cover a lot of retailers. Many of them are the stayathome retailers that are benefiting from covid. But you have some others as well. Lumber liquidators, wayfair. Im curious as to who you think will not survive this. Is there any company that you are covering . Simeon in general, companies with high leverage and there are a bunch of retailers with high leverage. Note companies that were essential. Potentially where the Consumer Spending shift is not benefiting that category as well. I think the home categories broadly are in good shape. Underweight in some of those other companies you mention, that was more tactical. It comes back to companies with leverage. Mentioned,nies you wayfair is wellcapitalized. Lumber liquidators has some debt, but they should be benefiting from the current shift to spend. Vonnie what is your base case for the next round of stimulus, assuming there is one . Paycheck, additional Unemployment Insurance benefits . What will people need to stock up their pantries, get some back to School Supplies . Simeon our view is there will be some sort of stimulus. We think there will be some direct form and some indirect form. The way that we have modeled our forecast for companies is we will see a material step down. If it comes in the form of a 400 Unemployment Insurance instead of 600, that is a material percentage decrease. Keep in mind in the back half of the year, theoretically, the economy is still in recession, so we have moderated the deceleration across the board for our companies. By and large, we think investors have as well. Vonnie thank you so much for your time, Simeon Gutman. More on retail earnings tomorrow. This is bloomberg. Vonnie this is Bloomberg Markets. Im vonnie quinn. Considering a bid for a part of tiktoks business. Bloomberg has learned the company has approached others to partner to own parts of the company. Us now to talk more about the escalating tensions in the is. Tight china tech spat paul triolo of the eurasia group. Oracle not a company that you usually associate with somebody like tiktok. A lot of companies are seeing tiktok as a potentially valuable asset, getting into the social media space. It is unclear who is pushing this, whether it is the chinese side looking for new suitors or whether companies are jumping in. We see the same thing in india where a company was related, interested in tiktoks india operations. The question is, does the Company Really want to selloff these assets . How does beijing feel about essentially having the u. S. Forcing the sale of a valuable asset for one of its leading Global SocialMedia Companies . There is a 45day window also where the clock is ticking, so there is still a lot of uncertainty about where this is headed. Vonnie Larry Ellison has some kind of relationship with the administration, the white house. As that got anything to do with it here . Sense that is some the administration is looking for a way out of this dilemma, what to do about tiktok. Tiktok is different from we chat, which is different. The feeling is the administration has been out in front on this, mentioning banding tiktok, senior officials talking about what to do with tiktok. Now you will also have pushback from tiktok, a lawsuit. So there is a lot of desire to find a suitor to solve the issue around data, which is surrounding this, privacy and user data. It is messy. You have a window in which to make a deal before the company would be under some sort of ban in the u. S. , and you have uncertainty about what this would mean ultimately because of that executive order that came out around banning the company. That would have to be lifted. A lot of pieces at play here. It is hard to see how this comes foron the positives side bytedance, also a key player, the owner of tiktok in the u. S. Vonnie President Trump has landed in cedar rapids, has said that he is not happy with china, also mentioned that they made the largest corn order in history. Ambivalence, push and pull between the president and china. We are also learning that china of oil froms buy the united states, partially because it has to, but also because it fulfills the trade deal. Where does the relationship go from here . On the one hand, it seems everything is fine on trade, both sides are willing to work together, and on the other hand, you have this ugliness that is not getting any better. Paul the trade deal has been amazing in terms of weathering the other downturns in the relationship. Nobody on either side wants to walk away from the deal. You will see some purchases around soybeans, energy. At thestep back and look broader relationship, it is all negative, the tech issues around huawei, wechat. Alsoresident and others pushing to put other Chinese Companies on the entity list. And then you have the bigger geopolitical issues like hong kong, the new National Security law, South China Sea tensions. The relationship before the election was still headed down. The challenge is how far will it go . The chinese are sort of hoping to see if there is a new administration to deal with, a reset of the relationship. The problem is that china hawks in the administration are pushing a lot of buttons, pushing forward some serious initiatives. For example, yesterday, further restricting huaweis access to semiconductors. Vonnie also has followon effects in europe, which also may decide not to use huawei. What about the election . With the a morass usps, mailin ballots, potential threats from outside as well. Does china have any influence over the selection . If there were to be a biden presidency, what would that look like in terms of the changing relationship with china . Looksat this point, it like china would like to see an alternative to president in the oval office, but the influence on the election is minimal. The big influence is their handling of the pandemic, how china. Sident blames that will be one of the big factors in the election. If we did see a new Biden Administration, our base case shows a reset across the board on china. There is bipartisan support for being tough on china, but some of these actions pushing into the tech sector, seemingly with no coordination internally to the administration, impacting the u. S. Tech industry pretty heavily, i think you would see a step back from that. Assess what is the strategy, what is the endgame . China is not going away. U. S. Companies are still eager to play in that market, get back to trade talks that would begin to open up the market again. A Biden Administration would be a major change. I think china is hoping for a change in november. Vonnie thank you so much for joining, paul triolo. , righthony fauci now, joining Bloomberg Quicktake to answer questions about the pandemic. You can watch that on bloomberg, twitter, and facebook. Bloomberg users can also watch on live go. This is bloomberg. Vonnie this is Bloomberg Markets. Im vonnie quinn. Wanted to bring you a headline from the bloomberg. Javi becerra is also joining that multistate action against the president to try to challenge his attack on the usps. California joining in that suit. Abigail doolittle is with us. Halfway into the trading day, what can we see . Abigail lets take a look at our stock of the hour, american campus communities. Lots of news here. Of course, this college year is unlike any other. Some schools bringing students back, others not. It has been a rough start for schools that have been bringing students back, including unc, one reason why they are tumbling on the day. They are moving online after being in School One Week after a big outbreak. Notre dame has reported 58 cases from just one party. In the university of oklahoma has quarantined a sorority. A rough start. Many schools have not even return students yet. As for the breakdown relative to where students live, if they are at college, 37 living at home. Excuse me, 34 living on campus. 29 living off campus. Campus communities really provide for about 60 of this pie. With students not going back, it is clear they are struggling. For those that are going home, hitting this stock. However, on the year, they have had an easier time that some of the other reits out there. Tomore than 60 relative office, apartment, and other real estate reits. The year,ing, but on not surprisingly, american campus communities, down 30 . Vonnie abigail doolittle, thank you for that. Our stock of the hour. No reminder that colleges are being hit badly in this downturn. Lets take a quick look at the market before we move on to subjects. The s p 500 still in the green, up a quarter of 1 . The dow jones down 1 . The nasdaq continuing to go higher,. 6 . Coming up, we will have a look at the potential nomination of Christina Freeland to take over bill morneau after a spat with the Prime Minister, according to people familiar with the matter. This is bloomberg. You doing okay . Yeah. This moving thing never gets any easier. Well, xfinity makes moving super easy. I can transfer my internet and tv service in about a minute. Wow, that is easy. Almost as easy as having those guys help you move. We are those guys. Thats you . The truck adds 10 pounds. In the arms. Okay. Transfer your Service Online in a few easy steps. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Transfer your service in minutes, making moving with xfinity a breeze. Visit xfinity. Com moving today. Where you can find games, news and highlights. All in one place, right on your tv. The xfinity sports zone. Use your voice to search every stat and score. Follow the teams you love. And, even get notifications with breaking news alerts and more. With the xfinity sports zone everybody wins. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Say xfinity sports zone into your voice remote today. Mark im Mark Crumpton with bloomberg first word news. Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered but 2016 hacking of Democratic Party accounts and the police of emails intended to harm Hillary Clintons campaign. That is the conclusion of the Senate Intelligence committee in the final report of its russia probe. The investigation also found numerous contacts between Trump Associates and russians, as well as efforts by donald trump to take advantage of the leaks politically, but the panel said it did not find evidence of collusion between President Trump and russia. Meantime, attorney general william barr is promising more revelations from the Justice Departments probe into Russian Investigation meddling into the 2016 election. He said last weeks charge against an fbi lawyer is the first of what he called several Significant Developments he expects to come out before the president ial election. But critics say Justice Department policy gives barr until september 4 to make any information public. Chrystia freeland will become canadas next finance minister. Bloomberg has learned Justin Trudeau will name her to replace bill norm bill morneau. Mornea trudeau proved impossible to repair. She would be the first woman to hold the position. France is making masks mandatory in all workplaces. The country is trying to contain growing Coronavirus Infections without shutting down the economy. France currently has among the highest infection rates in europe. It becomes one of relatively few countries in a world that is universally requiring workers to wear masks on the job. Global news 24 hours a day, onair, and on quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. Im Mark Crumpton. This is bloomberg. Vonnie live from bloomberg world headquarters, im vonnie quinn. Welcome to Bloomberg Markets. U. S. And china trade tensions simmering as the u. S. Announces further restrictions on huawei. It comes as a review of the phase i trade deal is on hold. Rufus yerxa, the head of the National Foreign trade council will join us for his insights in a moment. Chrystia freeland is expected to take on a new role. She handled the negotiations in nafta with the u. S. And mexico and could become the countrys new finance minister. A bright spot in the u. S. Economy, housing. Building application surging by the most in three decades as buyers take advantage of low interest rates. I will speak to ivy zelman. Lets get a check on the major averages. Your typical tuesday trade. Dows p 500 is up small, the down small, and the nasdaq up bigger. It is not official yet but it looks like Chrystia Freeland will take over. The dollar index is weaker broadly, including against the euro and sterling. Gold back above 2000 an ounce. The risk off trade right back on. Bloomberg has learned canadas deputy Prime MinisterChrystia Freeland will become the countrys net finance minister, replacing bill morneau. He quit after a rift with Justin Trudeau route impossible to repair. Freeland handled the negotiations of nafta between the u. S. And mexico and would be the first woman in the role of finance minister. Joining us to discuss this and more is rufus yerxa, president of the National Foreign trade council. Your reaction to the possibility of Chrystia Freeland becoming the finance minister in canada . Will this leave a gap or a good trade person should be . I dont know about that. She has been the trade minister, foreign minister for some time. I am sure that she will do a good job as finance minister. We will just see who canada has replacing her in that Critical Role. It could be an Important Role over the next several years, sorting out some of the problems with the u. S. , the multilateral trading system. Vonnie exactly. What is next for canada in particular when it comes to trade . Freeorth america trade agreement has been ratified, attention turning to china now. Rufus yes. Lot going there is a on between the u. S. And china. I am sure there are concerns about where that relationship goes. Of course, a lot of potential friction between the u. S. President ial campaign. President en already bush ramping up the rhetoric against china. Interestingly, the two sides dont seem to be disrupting the trade agreement. They seem to be leaving it in place and not taking steps to directly ramp up tariffs directly. Parts of the deal will not be met, in part with the coronavirus, but also they were unrealistic to begin with. That will be an interesting angle on this. The other question is, a President Biden would probably have a different strategy toward china. Not clear how he would deal with the existing agreement that trump negotiated. Vonnie commentators say that he would be pretty hawkish on china, too, if he becomes president. Do we know for sure that he would not backtrack on what some of the president has done, if he is the next president . Bidens criticism is that trumps strategy has not worked, that it has been very chaotic, that haveosed tariffs impacted u. S. Exporters particularly, farmers who are upset about that, but that he has not gotten real results from china. At the same time, simultaneously waging trade wars against our best partners and allies, rather than working together with them, strengthening the multilateral system, putting pressure on china collectively. Biden will have an entirely different approach. He will probably have a more strategic approach. Trumps has been pretty much a bilateral, mano a mano trade war, assuming that if she upped wouldte enough, china succumb to his will. It has not turned out that way. It is a problem that he cannot walk away from the agreement, but it is even harder to tout it as solving the american problem. Vonnie some breaking news, the postmaster general making a statement, suspending usps changes until after the election. He isthe joy saying that suspending changes until after the elections. Processing facilities will be closed. All initiatives suspended until. Fter th election postal workers will also work to bring in reforms. He also says overtime will be approved as needed. Hitting back at some of the claims being made and suggesting that all initiatives that were underway have been suspended until after the election. The usps will play a Critical Role this year in delivering mail to millions across the country. We know the postmaster general will be testifying next week before congress. Back to rufus yerxa. I want to ask about the wto. There is paralysis there. What happens to the wto, depending on whether President Trump gets another four years, or if we have a President Biden . Trump is reelected, obviously, youll see a continuation of the u. S. Attack on many multilateral institutions, perhaps a weakening of u. S. Support for them. There is already a proposal that this administration has put forward to reset the tariffs within the wto system. This is rather ominous because it suggests he wants to raise u. S. Tariffs by renegotiating them in the wto. That whole system has been about reducing tariffs. If biden wins, there is a greater likelihood that he will try to strengthen wto agreements, do some needed reforms, but also try to use the wto as a bludgeon to work on chinas practices and policies, show more u. S. Leadership in that regard within the wto, rather than threatening to walk away from it. Vonnie what happens to the impasse about whether an american or german should be the interim leader . This interim leader thing, at this point, is not that significant. The real question is how long it will take to get a new director general appointed. Going through a selection process, they have to we know it down from eight candidates down to one finalist. That will be sometime in september shortly after the u. S. Anytion, and therefore, interim management is for a very brief period. As a former deputy, what an interim director general will do is simply manage the secretary, make sure the bills, staff are paid, lights are kept on. I dont think that youll see any major policy initiatives, no matter who the head is. The best guess right now is all the deputies will share that management burden and they will not be a single head. That will be a little awkward but it is doable for a short period of time. Vonnie thank you so much for all of your time, rufus yerxa. Deputy director of the wto. A quick recap of those headlines from the postmaster general. Suspending usps changes until after the election. He said to avoid even the appearance of impact on election mail, im suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded. Of course, these initiatives include processing facilities being closed. In a statement, the postmaster general specifically said no Mail Processing centers will be closed, postal Union Leaders will join a task force and work toward reforms after the election, and overtime continues to be approved as needed. Next monday, the postmaster general will testify before a rational committee. Congressional committee. This is bloomberg. Vonnie canadian Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau will name Chrystia Freeland as canadas next finance minister, replacing bill morneau. Morneauacing of bill means that Chrystia Freeland will be the first woman to hold the position. For more, we are joined by our canada economic reporter. Was this a done deal for some time, was it clear that mornaeu was going to go at some point . It all happened very suddenly over the last week and a half, actually. The policy differences that have is a newn recent days part. What we did know is that both men were implicated in an ethics scandal, Justin Trudeau and his finance minister were kind of caught up in a conflict of interest situation with a charity. That had created a lot of tension between the two men. Suddenly in the last week and a half, you started hearing all of these issues around policy differences, how much they wanted to spend in the economic recovery plan. The finance minister want to be more cautious than the Prime Ministers office. Are at the point now where the finance minister resigned last night, and the Prime Minister has been forced to appoint a new finance minister who was his deputy Prime Minister. Chrystia freeland is a wellknown entity in markets, a former financial journalist who has been in politics in 2015. It all actually happened suddenly. Vonnie she has been very roleiar to us, given her in trade negotiations and so on. The government of canada has not managed to get around to the budget because it was to be tabled in march, then the pandemic hit. Freeland will have a huge portfolio to deal with, including coming up with policies to stimulate canadas economy given the pandemic has laid waste to it. Canada is running a major deficit this year, just like every other major vonnie it sounds like we may have lost you. Rest assured, we are going to see a new finance minister within the next hour. Prime minister trudeau on the way to a venue, and it is expected that he will be naming Chrystia Freeland as his new finance minister. Coming up, home sweet home. Why the Housing Market may become a bright spot in the economic recovery. We will be joined by ivy zelman. This is bloomberg. Vonnie this is Bloomberg Markets. Im vonnie quinn. It is time for the latest Bloomberg Business flash. Bid foronsidering a part of tiktoks business. The company had propose other parties to partner including sequoia capital. Microsoft has confirmed it is in talks with tiktok owner bytedance. Amazon making a bet that the future will not be all work from home. The Worlds Largest online retailer is expanding physical offices in six u. S. Cities. The company will be adding thousands of corporate jobs in those places. Formula that is working well for homebuilders. Strong Housing Demand fueled by record low Mortgage Rates. Demand rose by the most since 2016, and applications built by the most in decades. Lets continue on that theme now. Zelman. Us now is ivy thanks for joining. It is one thing to suggest we have seen a rate of growth we have not seen in decades it is a pretty unusual time in the u. S. , so you would hope to see record rates of growth but what does it mean that Housing Starts were up 22 . Over all we are seeing tremendous strength in single family, people focused on their home in the pandemic. While they are not spending on other things like travel, entertainment, going out to dinner, restaurants, they are really focused on where they are holed up in their homes. Housing market has been a significant beneficiary of the pandemic and will likely continue to be so. The fundamentals prior to the pandemic were exceptionally strong. We entered 2020 with overall sales up 45 in january and february from our proprietary surveys. Inventory at alltime record lows in the u. S. With Mortgage Rates plummeting, today is an excellent time to be buying a home, and it is more affordable than renting in many parts of the country. Vonnie we are hearing people are moving to the suburbs, countryside, smaller towns because they dont need to be in big, urban areas anymore. Our builders more enthusiastic about building in those areas . At what point do people stop buying in those areas because it has gotten too expensive, it is easier to live in the city . That we areawl seeing started in 2016. They were initially not wanting to build in these outer rings because they didnt think that consumers would drive to qualify. The entry market was forced to go out to those further markets. We are just seeing an acceleration of that trend. If people are leaving urban markets, a lot of that was lifestyle decision, starting families. Seeing the trend today, it is more people accelerating their decision that, i may not have started my family yet, but i want to move out of these densely populated markets, i want more space. The big seachange is remote work. Optionality, more flexibility, will allow them to consider going out further with less commute time. Builders have already been building far out. There is opportunity for them to build this substantial shortfall that we have in the Housing Market right now. We are very constructive that the fundamentals remain very favorable for the builders. Vonnie what kind of homebuilder benefits from an environment like this where there is a lot of construction going on in suburbs . New families buying a starter home, families that had been living in the city that maybe want to move out . Entrylevel the level, starter homes for millennials in their mid to late 30s, having children, has been where the builders sweet spot has been. During the pandemic, the move up market, which had been lackluster, really took off. Its a combination of people spending a lot of time at home, and they are recognizing they are not satisfied with their current space. When they meet with builders in the move up market, they are saying, i wanted area for home office, home gym, they want swimming pools, even suites for their inlaws. They dont want their elderly parents potentially going to Nursing Homes. Kitchens, more space, more outdoor space. It is across the spectrum, which had not been the case prior to the pandemic. The move up market had been underperforming entrylevel. Ieally interesting stat was chatting with a builder on friday. They indicated that the number of people buying spree pandemic was 5 , and now it is 15 . That was surprising to me. Vonnie 50 of buyers are single . Ivy 15 of buyers are single. Prepandemic, 5 , for that particular builder. Vonnie that is fascinating. We are still only at prepandemic building levels when it comes to construction. What will be the leading indicator when we rise another 20 beyond that, 50 . Not asdays numbers were strong in the singlefamily category, only up 7 for starts. Permits, up 16 . Our proprietary surveys have been much stronger than that, so builders, starts are not keeping up with demand. Had and july, our surveys 60 and 61 yearoveryear growth. I think youll see a much bigger ramp in singlefamily start. Multifamily starts, which were up 8 over the year, that series has been volatile. It does not triangulate with what we analyzed and that multifamily analysis that we do. We know that is a volatile series. Saidensus bureau has even that there should be a disclaimer that there is a potential in the data aggregation because not all municipalities are open. The singlefamily market is not yet showing the true power that will come to fruition. Vonnie always a pleasure to speak with you, ivy zelman. Stay tuned. More markets, next. This is bloomberg. Live from bloombergs world headquarters, this is Bloomberg Markets the close. Im carolyn heinz. We have revved up and there is a rally in tech, mainly in amazon, driving u. S. Stocks to a record. Dollar the lowest in more than two years. A consumer crunch. Walmart is warning of failed pressure with the end of stimulus checks. What it means for the sector in the second half if shops are left without government aid. Curaleaf posting Strong Revenue in the Second Quarter despite endemic headwind. We hear from the companys active chairman. More. G into that and romaine the s p 500 did break ab