Which means they were the vast majority of the comp sales the in store sales were. 9 . The stores fulfilled 80 of the digital orders in some way Brian Cornell said the retailer will spend 500 million from the beginning of march through july 4th on higher wages and other operational expenses related to the covid crisis so this spending goes beyond q 1 into q 2 not directly comparable with what we heard from walmart yesterday. The sales came at a cost their operating Income Margin was 2. 4 compared to 6. 4 in the same period last year and the gross margin rate was 25 compared to nearly 30 last year but then look at lowes, Michael Baker calls lowes perhaps the most surprising result of the quarter for retail their comparable sales grew more than 11 total up more than 12 in the u. S. Thats only the fourth time in at least ten years we think that lowes beat home depot in the u. S. Both retailers had identical online sales growth in the quarter of 80 but that is a huge growth compared to last quarter at 3 . Lowes said it had 340 million in covid19 related spending and its really soared past expectation. Brian cornell of target called the quarter stressful for the country and retail but the results showed they were able to at least deliver on the sales. So many questions remain, though, about what is going to be permanent and what is going to be temporary with some of the trends weave seen in retail getting past this crisis. Which is why im sure the guidance has been pulled thank you for bringing us the latest on the retail break down. Bio tech and pharma also on the move this morning. Our next guests company signed a deal to produce generic and covid19 drug ingredients here in the u. S. , drugs that have fallen in short supply since the pandemic were joined by dr. Eric edwards. Thanks for being with us today good morning. So you just got awarded this very significant contract by hhs earlier this week. Certainly weve seen experts ringing the alarm on u. S. Dependency on china for Raw Materials and drug manufacturing in general for quite some time, the pandemic seems to be accelerating that. But there is an industry, at least to a certain extent, here in the u. S. That exists around Contract Manufacturing how much is this focussed on producing drugs versus stockpiling and developing those Raw Materials . Great question. Flow corporations mission is to provide high quality low Cost Pharmaceuticals and their ingredients. So its both Flow Corporation is not only going to make the essential medicines along with our partners but were also going to be using advanced manufacturing, Continuous Manufacturing technologies that has been p proven to lower the cost of active pharmaceutical ingredients so our goal is to stand up the infrastructure and were working with partners already to begin manufacturing essential medicines in shortage today for covid19 so phlow is only what a couple months old right now. How quickly can you produce these drugs and materials . Especially given the fact you are just now starting to build out your facilities . Sure. The work actually began over a year ago we began working with a team and built a world class team, world class partners we were trying to figure out what type of Corporation Structure could highlight the impact mission, then once we figured we could do a b corp. Structure we put it together in january. Then we were getting to work on how we were going to manufacture these and which drugs were most vulnerable these were drugs in shortage long before covid19 then we put together a proposal involving rapid surge for ingredients at risk of shortage right now, get them to the stockpile and ingredient reserve. And second build the rapid infrastructure to bring back endtoend domestic advanced manufacturing from precursor chemical to api to finish dosage form we should be up and running in a year thanks for being with us. Its jon fortt whats it going to take for phlow to compete in the open market on not just ingredients but finished drugs and how far out is that . Great question. And an important question. So phlow is incorporating advanced manufacturing development. We were founded with our cofounder at the medicines for all institute who had proven over the last three years that he could reduce the cost of active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing by upwards of 40 . So the first goal was lets use advanced Manufacturing Technology that has not been incorporated for generics here in the u. S the second is lets realize supply chain efficiencies. For example our manufacturing partner has figured out a model to produce affordable Generic Medicines here in the u. S. With our 1,300 Hospital System partners so well realize efficiencies in the system to drive competitiveness and bring back the important Industrial Base eric, you know when we talked about when weve been talking about bolsters domestic supply chains for a long time, and the question was where are they going to find the workers to do that, train the workers to do that, certainly thats not acute a concern given what unemployment is doing and about to do, but what will hiring look like and how easy is it to transfer some of the skills . So we have already over 20 employees, were growing every single day within the next few months well have over 50 employees we have not had a problem attracting world class talent. A lot of individuals are raising their hands saying ive had successful careers, some of them have been in retirement, i want to work on something now significant. This is significant most importantly for patients and the health of americans. We have fantastic job opportunities. Well hire up to 350 employees in virginia. Some are highly technical jobs, forei fortunately some are manufacturing jobs where individuals have been out of work or previously worked at facilities were linking to as part of the project. So were proud to put americans back to work in american factories. In a week, dr. East sidwardse moderna is in focus for the medical communities and investors given the Vaccine Development there, in general are you going to be involved in manufacturing vaccines if and when the time comes . How quickly can the stockpile of vaccines be ramped are you involved in operation warp speed great question. So as a part of this federal award with the research and Development Authority underneath hhs, we are building an endtoend manufacturing structure which also includes a fill finish facility that facility will begin breaking ground and working on that facility very soon. And as a part of that contract, the federal government does have the option to utilize expansion space that we have included in the plans for vaccine manufacturing. Right now our focus is on the essential medicines that are in shortage to treat hospitalized covid19 patients but certainly well be partnering with the federal government to make sure we utilize this important american infrastructure for whatever the needs are as a part of the covid response. Theres been a lot of talk over the past few years especially about moving manufacturing back to the u. S. Sometimes it gets talked about in terms of iphones and pcs and things like that but what i keep hearing from industry is that if you move manufacturing from low cost countries to the u. S. It looks different. There wont be a lot of human beings employed in those manufacturing plants certainly not as many as are in china, for example i wonder for your operations if they scale up beautifully, perfectly, the way you would hope, how many human beings are going to be employed in those facilities versus mae versus mad how much economic boost will it give the area you base them . First and foremost, as you know up to 80 of active pharmaceutical ingredients and precursor chemicals are made abroad phlow is not against a Global Supply chain but were for making sure we have an endtoend solution here in the u. S. To prevent vulnerables that can occur in the supply chain. We need that here in america so as part of that, you have to have multiple infrastructure to do that. One of the things that phlow is doing is were standing up the first strategic act of pharmaceutical reserve, this is modelled after the petroleum reserve. Instead of drug products in the national stockpile, well be holding the ingredients. That requires a lot of work. Stability work, analytical work. Well have hundreds of jobs focussing on multiple efforts, not just the manufacturing you are correct once we get the Continuous Manufacturing plant up and running, there will be less human being capital that has to be employed on that element, but there are many other elements part of the plan that are going to require a lot of high paying and great technical jobs. Thats interesting to hear you talk about the spr, a lot of what youre discussing reminds me of what weve seen in terms of standing up the defense base as well. But i have to shift gears. For better or worse theres been issues about your last company, issues around the price of a drug offered by them to counter overdoses. How do you respond to critics that point to that background . I respond that im a cofounder and coinventor of multiple drugs that have saved thousands of lives i left that company over 18 months ago and i was in charge of r d, not on the commercial and never made a pricing decision but those kaleo drugs have saved countless lives. In terms of the fact that phlows contract with the government represents this public, private partnership, what does it mean for prices its set up as a Public Benefit corporation. We did it to have social impact. We put independent Board Members on the board to hold us to our goals, which means affordable medicin medicines, one of the reasons we partnered with one of the nonprofits in america. Phlow is about putting the people, planet and patients before profits thats one of the reasons were taking this social impact model. Dr. Edwards, thank you for joining us congratulations on the contract. Thank you. And John Thompson is with us ayitus other side of this break. Were back in two. With pure pr. High protein. Low sugar. Tastes great high protein. Low sugar. So good. High protein. Low sugar. Mmm, birthday cake. Pure protein. The best combination to help you stay fit. There are times when our need to connect really matters. To keep customers and employees in the know. To keep business moving. Comcast business is prepared for times like these. Powered by the nations largest gigspeed network. To help give you the speed, reliability, and security you need. Tools to manage your business from any device, anywhere. And a team of experts here for you 24 7. Weve always believed in the power of working together. Thats why, when every connection counts. You can count on us. Welcome back the outbreak of covid19 has left a lot of job seekers in tech out in the cold several tech giants have avoided job cuts to this point but have frozen recruitment including al alal alphabet this comes after a big cry from some about techs influence. Joining us is John Thompson, microsoft partner, and light speed. Theres a start up that i certainly want to talk to you about. But john, first of all, thanks for joining us and good morning. Good morning and thanks for having me. Always great to have you. First, lets take a step back. Tell me about Large Tech Companies and the factors that theyre looking at dealing with this a lot of them have big cash hordes, a lot of resources, but at the same time the big customers who are who would be dealing with them, perhaps are strapped what are they trying to balance and what do you expect them to do from here microsoft, included but i wont ask you specifically about just microsoft. All right i think in any economic crisis like the one were going through now, any company has to go through some evaluation of where i am and how do i get to where i want to be over the course of the next, lets say, 24 to 36 months i think every large and Small Company is going through that exact same exercise right now. The unfortunate thing is we dont know enough about when the end for covid19 might occur so every one of these companies is going through an evaluation process that assumes multiple l legs however, every one of them knows theyre going to have to take some cash cuts or at least some expense cuts in in the short term and there may be head count related issues as well so every company, large or small, is going through that today, in light of the environment were operating in. Usually when there are expense cuts and potential head count cuts we see it in contract workers first, might see it in the sorts of incentive bonuses that are paid to partners in the sales and reseller is that what were seeing now . And how long before we know whether it gets more dire . Well, i dont know how long it will be before we know because we dont know when this is likely to come under control, that is the virus itself as opposed to the economic crisis that is the back end of that i think when we look at where we are, there are many, Many Companies that are going to go through this exercise. I have several in my portfolio already who said were taking a set of actions now and within the next 90 to 120 days we may have to take another set of actions as well. This is going to be an ongoing exercise for every company as we go through this crisis. Tell me about the m a landscape. The ceo of microsoft Just Announced during a conference yesterday that microsoft had made a Strategic Acquisition i think thats interesting i think theres a question about how much of that can go on during this period on the one hand theres concern that big Tech Companies will take advantage of those that are cheap but then on the other hand theres a lot of start ups that would like to be acquired and keep business moving during this time how are you thinking about m a and whats appropriate to do, whats necessary to do during this time . I dont think this crisis changes the way about how Companies Think what they need to add to their portfolio. Many of the transactions that microsoft has recently announced theyve been engaged with them for quite some time before announcing the actual deal this week or last week. I think the same is going on for every Large Tech Company theyre looking at footprints or capabilities that theyd love to add to their portfolio and trying to determine whether or not thats an asset they can acquire during this period of time not uncommon for what goes on during these financial crisis periods. 2008, 2009, the exact same thing happened. John, i want to go back to the labor market whether its through the microsoft lens or the vc lens as an investor. Will tech hiring rebound quickly, and how will those jobs look will they be different given the fact were seeing more companies tell their workers they can work remotely or stay at home as i said earlier, we dont know when the end is in sight. Its not in sight at this point in time. So being able to forecast what Companies Might do on the hiring front is difficult at this point. Yeah. I would say every company is looking at its head count pool today and trying to determine, are there areas in this aggregate pool of resources that we have that arent necessarily going to be with us as we move forward . I think, as you think about consumer facing businesses, as you think about businesses that really do have an online outreach, all of them are going to have to expand, if you will, their footprint in such a way they can reach customers without having to necessarily be physically engaged with those customers. I think its easy for consumer and Enterprise Companies but the Enterprise Companies have to think about how they package the plukt products and deliver them to customers to deploy the Services Quickly without having to have physical engagement along the way im curious how youre thinking of liquidity. We have this conversation a lot with our guests because you can come at it from a defensive point of view, meaning you need a large Rainy Day Fund to survive the economic effects were still about to see, but then you can also take an offensive point of view, and thats you want to launch some m a efforts as you take advantage of competitors who have been hobbled, how do you think about that again, i think every company is going to go through this evaluation ill give you a classic example of a Young Company where early in this process they decided they needed to have 36 months or more of cash on their balance sheet. As a result of that they took actions that reduced spending by about 35 to 40 . And that will, in fact, give them leverage. Ironically enough, the growth rate of their business has accelerated since that time. Because theyre in the ecommerce space where theyre doing b 2b commerce and every Company Looking at how do i grow, their bigger competitors could that be a great addition to my portfolio . This is going to be an interesting time on m a as well as Young Companies emerging from this period of time as the hot tickets if you will for the next five to ten years. Lets talk about your portfolio more security start up that raised a series a last july 9 million on that, i believe, 20 million series b now its in the space that im hearing a lot about over the last couple of years, kind of smart detection of threats how do you sort out kind of signal from noise in that space since it seems every security startup is claiming to be able to do that smart, surgical detection . And what are the metrics that you as an investor are watching within this company as it seeks to continue growing and hiring in this crisis its about a 2yearold company and they had an idea when i first met them that was all about not just real time detection of a threat but realtime blockage of the threat thats not something that many, if any, Security Companies had done prior to that that was what prompted me and lightspeed and others to consider it in the seed round. Whats happened for the company in the last two years, theyve not only gone from a cloudbased service but recognized through the engagement with customers they had to have an on prem offering as well so theyve built a really, really capable product that allows them to detect and block realtime threats showing up in large enterprises. Theyve had great success, seven or eight customers so far, however one of them is a u. S. Federal defense contractor that really does position them to do very, very well. Not just in federal but more broadly in the enterprise space. Interesting i wonder, john, just to broaden this out further where do you see the greatest opportunities to invest in the private market right now and what are the metrics youre evaluating more broadly when you look at companies and opportunities . That might be a better question for a partner at lightspeed since much of what i do helps our portfolio companies. Okay. And what the company does as alternative for investments. Often ill say i like that and i not only like to investor from the fund but id like to invest directly in the company. Which is what i did to a couple Security Companies in our portfolio. Im not the guy at lightspeed to make the choice but i work hard to make the Company Scale and become very, very successful. To close along those lines, what is the advice that entrepreneurs these days are asking you for young ceos trying to build their companies and another but related question, whats the insight and advice you see they most need . Perhaps that theyre not asking for, but that this generation really needs to hone in on to grow those companies to their full potential the contrast that these companies have right now, some of them are growing very, very well but recognize there are actions they need to take to position the company post this crisis and so, thats a tough, tough challenge for many of them ive had several of the ceos in our portfolio say the growth rate is x and equal toor bette than expected but we need to take some actions here or there. So ichb an adviser to a number of companies saying if you think there are quality issues, head count capacity related issues, you need to take action now, dont wait thats the thing i think most important for every leader during this period of time dont defer a decision if you have a point of view, execute on it and move on so youre prepared todeal with whatever occurs downstream two months from now or two years from now tough advice but necessary. John thompson, chairman of microsoft and investor thank you for being with us. Thank you, appreciate it. As we see sessions highs here, s p up, dow up 434 look at the airlines as well as we get continued anecdotal evidence that traffic does at least not get worse. Looking at 5 increases in the stocks y r e rline index above the 50 dafothfirst time since mid february on your interests or whats trending. Get realtime insights in your customized view of the market. Its smarter Trading Technology for smarter trading decisions. Fidelity. 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M, i hear you. Feels like theres no barriers between departments now. Do you think everyone appreciates it . I do. Huh. Forgot my glasses. Serivcenow. The smarter way to workflow. We stand across the major averages rebound for stocks today with the dow, s p and nasdaq erasing yesterday losses the do you up 1. 8 the s p up 1. 9 and the nasdaq up 2. 2 stay with us good morning and welcome back everybody im sue herera. Heres whats happening at this hour the centers for Disease Control and prevention quietly released guidelines today for how to safely reopen schools, mass transit and nonessential businesses the plan outlines a three phased approach for reducing social distancing and suggests that the potential for a rebound in cases will require a low threshold for reinstating strict measures. Jetblue will keep seat distancing in place through july 6th. The airline is blocking middle seats in rows where parties are not traveling together and blocking aisle seats on smaller aircraft. Nearly 80 of unemployed americans describe their layoff as temporary but new Research Shows that 42 of layoffs due to the coronavirus will become permanent. That is not good news. Jon ill send it back to you. Lets hope its not as bad as that, sue thank you. The ceo of trivago joins us after the bareak well talk the impact on travel and leisure and recovery stay with us ted . Depends. Are you gonna want faster speeds . I will. More reliability . Oh, also yes. Better response times . Definitely. Are you gonna be making sourdough bread . Oh, is that 5g related . No, just like why is everyone making sourdough now. But yes, youre gonna want 5g. At t is building 5g on americas best network. Visit att. Com to learn more. Find a stock basedtech. On your interests or whats trending. Get realtime insights in your customized view of the market. Its smarter Trading Technology for smarter trading decisions. Fidelity. Were committed to making college more affordable. , thats why were keeping our tuition the same through the year 2021. [student] i knew snhu was the place for me when i saw how affordable it was. [narrator] find your degree at snhu. Edu. Online travel site trivago seeing declines in its business from a year ago. The ceo joins us this morning to talk about travel and the road ahead after the pandemic axle thanks for the time today, good to see you. Thanks for having me. Sad to say no one is can really be surprised by some of the revenue forecasts youre making for 2020 but are you of the camp were hearing increasingly, especially from some of the airlines that it does seem that may and june are going to be better than april and march . Its a matter of what you compare against. So the travel really stopped end of march and we had more than 95 lower revenue than a year ago. And weve seen the last couple of weeks some recovery, in particular domestic travel, particular to beach destinations, but on a low level. But relatively speaking to a few weeks ago, more and more people are comfortable in traveling and are reingauging but the levels are far below what we would normally see one of the things you pointed to is a lack of a universal standard for what it means to travel safely, to come into a new country safely are you seeing that sort of patch work get stitched together more quickly in asia or europe or i mean, within the continental United States . Thats very difficult to say. Because the i think its not a oneway street so you have, in particular in europe and the u. S. , different regulations by states by National States but then also by regions. And then in some countries, even like for example in germany, the plan is to reimpose restrictions, actually even on a city level if the number of new infections are rising by a certain threshold. So from a travelers perspective its difficult to know where you can travel and what kind of experience you are expecting in destination. Its jon fortt, good morning. The ceo of the u. S. Travel Association Says that the travel industry is in a depression. 51 of travel related jobs have disappeared since this crisis started. Even best case scenario, how does this scale up how quickly . So our view is that it will take a long time, and the reason is, i mean, there are a couple of reasons, one is obviously that we are at the same time in a deep recession, so that has a negative impact on traveling but more importantly, this crisis is a Health Crisis and a Health Crisis is very personal and so, depending on your age, your Health Condition and also your personality, you perceive the real risk that is out there very differently and it will take some time to get comfortable with safe travel when it is possible and then it will be very different person by person we think the safest assumption is it would be a gradual step by Step Recovery where more and more travelers are getting comfortable and by traveling getting others more comfortable. So what would you say the Industry Needs to do maybe in terms of communication or standards to get people comfortable traveling as quickly as possible . Im not sure that getting people traveling as quickly as possible is the right objective no, get them comfortable traveling. Yeah. When it is safe, what kinds of communication and standards are going to be necessary so people will say i understand whats going on, now im willing to do . Its information and transparency so what is actually the experience that you are facing in destination, will restaurants be open . What kind of restriction are you having to expect and what kind of vacation or what kind of trip do you expect . Thats something that we are working on to give that transparency to potential travelers, the more information you have access to, the more comfortable you will feel ahead of the trip. Given the fact that were having the bigger conversation right now what this could look like and the uncertainty over coming months, what does it mean for trivago and how is it dictating or helping shape the way you are now looking to draw more people back to the platform so they the most important thing for us is to accept the travel temporarily disappears and that frees up our mind to focus on the situation were now facing, what kind of travel is the first to restart and how can we help travelers to get comfortable, as you say. And there we added a couple of functions to our existing product showing more prominent free cancellations which reduces risk of traveling. And locally were building a travel product what we can see in the u. S. But particularly in germany and europe where there is traveling starting the first trip is in your car to a destination you can drive to so local travel is the first thing that is coming back. We think it will be important to get comfortable with more long haul travel and we are building a separate user product to support local travel and to offer information what are actually interesting destinations in driving distance you might not have considered otherwise or might not know they are interesting destinations certainly makes sense that people would be gravitating towards things like road trips one of the things you mentioned in earnings is youre gravitating toward more tv advertising versus Search Engine marketing on platforms like google why . So we need to learn from the past the industry is restarting really from no activity to the new normal in a couple of years from now and one of the challenges in the industry in the past has been a large share of the industry profits has been captured by Search Engines and we have started to do some tests on what the right activity, marketing activity of ours on Search Engines is before the crisis and had some indications that the level was beyond what is actually optimal. So, taking that learning now to the restart, we think that overall well be a lower level be reached Going Forward and that allows us to redistribute some of the Marketing Budget into brand, which has been our historic strength. Finally, even as were talking this morning, spiegel has a headline now that germany has agreed on a rescue package there was an earlier headline about air france this morning, theyre going to retire their a380s International Travel seems structurally challenged. Are you of the view to get back to transpacific, transatlantic travel youre talking three to five years or maybe even longer than that . It will take a long time. Im not the air travel expert, to be honest we offer accommodation but Business Travel will be suppressed for quite some time and International Leader travel is, from our perspective, the last to come back, its furthest away from home you get on big planes, go to a country you dont know and that automatic mat cli makes you less comfortable and this feeling of every trip being safe no matter where you go we had just a few months ago i think will take years to rebuild lets and hopefully medical break throughs can accelerate that return to normalcy thanks for the guidance on this, triva trivagos axle heifer. Look at shares of harley davidson, those are up sharply this morning, 7. 5 companies reopening u. S. Factories though at reduced rates, sending dealers fewer cycles but the stock still down more than 35 so far for the year well be right back. Stay witush on your interestsed or whats trending. Get realtime insights in your customized view of the market. Its smarter Trading Technology for smarter trading decisions. Fidelity. And wells fargo employees are assisting millions of customers never before across america through fee waivers and payment deferrals, helping people stay in their homes through mortgage Payment Relief efforts and donating 175 Million Dollars to help hundreds of local organizations provide food and other critical needs. When you need us, wells fargo is here to help. Take a look at facebook this morning. Touching new alltime highs. There it is up almost 6 , 229 a share and change after announcing facebook shops new ecommerce options on the platform, includinstrag inagm. Well take a quick commercial break. 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Reporter good morning, carl. Wealthy new yorkers leaving the city are now looking for the three ps property, private, and a pool. And the biggest states in westchester, new york, and northern new jersey that sat on the market for years with a lot of price cuts are now back in demand this fouracre waterfront spread in greenwich just sold to a Family Moving out of the city. Price tag, 17 million, making that the most expensive sale of the year in connecticut. Its got views of the long island sound, formal gardens, and your own golf green. Now, the stone mansion in alpine, new jersey, thats been on the market for ten years. It had its price cut far enough 65 million to have 36 million. Last month, a potential buyer toured the property and offered to rent it for 500,000 a month. Thats just to rent it the owner turned it down in hopes of a sale. And the late Leona Helmsleys former 40acre estate in greenwich called round hill mann manor that had been listed once for 50 million dropped last year to 16. 5 million because of a lack of buyers now, the broker says hes had seven showings just in the past month and there is serious interest, because 40 acres, guys, could buy you a lot of social distance. Back to you. It sure could, robert and a lot of home offices, too robert frank, thank you. Thats right. Joining us to discuss the path forward for real estate is the cofounder and ceo of compass, robert reffkin. Thanks for being on with us today. Thank you for inviting me so we just heard what robert frank was reporting in terms of some of these highend properties in the suburbs. But in general, we have now got all 50 states in some sort of reopening and then just today, Mortgage Application data thats pointing to a recovery in home buying, as well. What are you seeing at compass so at compass, our yeartodate revenue is actually 47 over the same period in the prior year and last week, our agents put 40 more listings into contracts. So agree to sell in the same period in the prior year what were seeing is an acceleration of a shift from Traditional Companies to techenabled Companies Retail stores to amazon, gyms to peloton, traditional Brokerage Firms to compass and weve been building for seven years, a Technology Platform with hundreds of millions of dollars in r d, to help them grow their business and betterserve their clients being built by the cto of ai and microsoft who came on last year as well as greg hart, who is the sixth most tenured executive at amazon, creating alexa and launching amazon prime video, overseeing it there. So, when i hear you put numbers like that out there, how much of this is compassspecific, given the fact that you do have this platform, you do have this technology and these capabilities and how much of it is a bigger sign or signal that we have seen a bottoming, at least where the Housing Market is concerned in major metro areas. So were in 135 markets and across all of our markets, we saw a bottom two to three weeks ago. We have seen incontract listing activity go back to precovid levels in over 90 of our markets. Buyers right now are saying to themselves, ive been locked into my space for three months and theyre evaluating, do they have enough space inside, outside, the right light, the right home office . And if the answer to those questions are no, they call their agent. And on top of that, you have record low Interest Rates and you have a viewpoint that youre going to get a good price right now. Youre not going to get a better price in two years robert, are you seeing a shift in demand out of urban areas and if so, do you think it will stick yes, were seeing a shift from highly densely Populated Areas to lessdense areas. On our site, we saw an increase in searches for singlefamily homes up 40 , while condo coops are actually down. Searches for homes that have a pool were up three times searches for homes with outdoor space, up two times. And the minimum Square Footage in a search was 10 higher than precovid levels i think this is going to be a continuous shift until theres a vaccine. Well, to that point, robert, i mean, we keep hearing, especially from the white house, that the promise of a vaccine gets stronger by the day when do you think we start or we will Start Talking about value in urban areas, whether thats downtown austin or San Francisco or metro d. C. Or brooklyn, areas where people were locked out because of pricing for a long time so, we have seen a drop in prices of a few points, on average, around 5 the high end has dropped more. That said, we asked if prices generally increase in a recession, and its a nice hedge against inflation. And theres more actual buyer activity on our site, as defined by engagement with our agents around homes that theyre looking than there actually are new listings coming on our site, as defined by new listing inventory in the market. So the supply and demand is still pretty tight with low inventory. Robert, do you expect this shift toward more space, home office, pool, will stick, regardless of a vaccine . Because i imagine a lot of home buying is emotional. People arent going to forget this period anytime soon, and if they wished they had more space now, thats going to be burned into their psyche, right i absolutely agree with that. Buyers have never been so intimately aware of the inadequacies of their home after 9 11, the market froze in new york for three months, but when it bounced back, it was busier than it ever had been that catastrophe created movement and i believe the same thing is going to happen here this catastrophe has locked people in their homes for three months and is creating incentives in emotional reasons to move. So, robert, were talking about increased activity in home buying right now how is the actual process of listing and selling a home changing, given the fact that we do still have, to a certain extent in certain markets, a lot of shelter in place mandates still underway so, sellers are now asking, how can you sell my home virtually . How can you market my home virtually . How can you get buyers into my home virtually at compass, we launched the virtual agent search suite of tools. We have virtual showings, live tours, virtual open houses to meet those needs and thats one of the reasons why our aims have gained market share in this downturn and i know you touched thon this briefly before, but what is your outlook for home prices what are the markets that are poised to be the strongest in the coming months, in the coming year, and how much are Mortgage Rates factoring into that . So the markets that i believe will increase in prices over the course of this year are markets that are safe havens to the highly, densely Populated Areas in the cities. That would be the hamptons, markets in new jersey and connecticut. In San Francisco, that could be sonoma, napa, marin. And i also believe that the markets where theres a Strong Technology presence, say, seattle, austin, boulder, San Francisco, that those jobs have, for the most part, stayed in tact and even in seattle, youve seen net job growth with Companies Like amazon there. And that will be that will help keep prices strong. Robert reffkin, ceo of compass, thanks for joining us today. Thank you for inviting us all right, well, just taking a look at the markets right now, major averages are higher. We have erased losses of yesterday. Were talking about tech in housing right there, but also the internet etf, fdn, hitting another alltime high today. Up more than 51 from its march low, really speaking to what is continuing to fool this market right now, john. Yeah, morgan. And got to mention facebook again. It has cleared 230 a share, alltime highs this morning on that announcement of facebook shops. Also want to mention spotify its at 52week highs after announcing an acquisition in effect of joe roggins podcast for a rumored 100 million or so thats a big draw. Carl thats abig story and then amazon, guys, weve been talking about 2,500 for so long and thats about 15 away. Amazon, one of those that have set record highs today, along with facebook, as john said and chipotle so a busy wednesday morning. Lets get to the judge and the half carl, thanks very much. Our breaking News Coverage of the markets continues right now. Welcome to the halftime report. Im scott wapner good to have you with us our top story this hour, the run towards new highs and the man who says we will get there this year tom lee, making that call today. He is here to defend and debate it with our investment committee. Joining me this hour, joe terranova, jim lebenthal, jon najari najarian, Carrie Firestone is the ceo of asset management. Lets take you to the wall and show you where stocks are currently trading. Highs of the day, 24,618 is where the dow currently sits, a gain obeer