Surging sales at consumers as consumers pour money into Home Improvement. How long can that last in and investors yanked in Different Directions as the biotechs working on covid19 vaccines report both good and very bad news. My colleagueses, ben levisohn is, carlton english and jack howe. Guys, its great to be back from vacation. Did you miss me . Absolutely. [laughter] this much. Jack more than that. Come on, jack, i caught fish bigger than that. There we go. So, ben, good news while i was gone, i guess, the s p hit new records, nasdaq hit new records. But oddly, more stocks went down than went up. How does that work . Well, really this is apples stock market. It went up up 8. 2 this week and was responsible for 60 of the s p 500s 0. 7 gain. Its doing all the heavy lifting here, and its now a 2 trillion market cap stock that makes up for the fact that on a day like today just over 200 stocks were positive, almost 30 were down 300 were down on the day. Its quite remarkable. Jack so what is driving this part of the market . There is no alternative . Or is it just the stay at home stocks are where all the money wants to go . I think its a mixture of both. People need to put money to work. The fed has made sure of that, but nobody confident about whats coming next. Jobs are not doing great, jobless claims back over a million this past week. Manufacturing is decelerating. Its still going up but not as fast as it was from the data were seeing now, and we still dont have another stimulus plan from congress. Investors want to play it really safe, and theyre buying things like apple. Jack gotcha. That does make safe. Two other things, jack, are lowes and home depoe. I guess everybody is in the same place all the time, that they want to make it look a little nicer. Yeah. Look, jack, i made a major investment in my tv background this past week. I know it looks like ive got the same plant and picture ive had all year, but the plant is sitting in a new pot with nice new soil, and it came from home depot. I dont know if you want to call that Home Improvement, but clearly theres a Home Improvement boom going on right now. Home depots stock is up 31 year to date. Lowes stocks up even more, 37 . Both with blowout quarterly earnings. Home depot said its ticket sizes are up creasing, also its number of transactions. People arent just loading up at occasional visits, theyre going more often to the store. And lowes has been catching up operationally and closing the gap with home depot. You dont have to look far into the question of why. If you look at housing, i mean, starts look good, prices look good, home builder confidence looks good, sales looks good. So the Housing Market is strong, but youre absolutely right, people are looking for a situation saying im locked at home for longer than i thought working right now, i better spend some money here. Jack of course what were all hoping for is a vaccine thatll let us get back to our normal lives. For these companies will good news be bad news . I think the housing numbers have been Strong Enough that the results continue, but i would say if youre out there as an investor and youre waiting for a vaccine, like a cruise line or a Movie Theater stock, think of a Home Improvement retailer as a hedge. If that doesnt work out because we stay locked down for longer, were going to keep spending on our homes. Jack carlton, you had a thought on this topic too. Yeah. So we got a lot of good news on the vaccine front, pfizer and bion tech reported positive early data, and we could see Regulatory Approval as early as october. And then theres, you know, Johnson Johnson with its vaccine trial, German Biotech Firm recently went public and is in talks with the European Commission to sell 225 million doses of its potential vaccine candidate. So thats just a handful of a number of companies that are, you know, working on vaccines and, you know, may have some good news to report in the next few months. Jack obviously, were all hoping for a vaccine. There is some money to be made there. But an interesting dynamic in this industry is that solving Something Like covid19 is not where Companies Make the bull of their money. They need to have a pipeline for diseases thatll be around for a while, to be frank. How is that looking nontrade, i guess. Right, and thats whats frustrating from gilead, the company that has remdesivir for covid. Before remdesivir, the company had really been struggling because it hadnt had that blockbuster drug since it had a treatment five years ago. And thats the thing, you know, as you noted, covid treatments and vaccines wont be those blockbuster things, but, you know, this pipeline that these companies have, theres been some bad news on the other drugs, you know, for other diseases occupant there. So for gilead it was their arthritis drug that did not get fda approval. Jack an interesting dynamic in the industry, the etf idp which is capitalization weighted has done okay, but xbi which is equal waited and emphasizes the smaller stocks has done a lot better and thats because i think a lot of these smaller stocks are seen as takeover candidates as these Bigger Companies try to juice their growth. Coming up, how lemonade aims to completely change the way you think about your insurance im a performer. Always have been. And always will be. Never letting anything get in my way. Not the doubts, distractions, or voice in my head. And certainly not arthritis. New voltaren provides powerful arthritis pain relief to help me keep moving. And it can help you too. Feel the joy of movement with voltaren. That selling carsarvana, 100 online wouldnt work. Feel the joy of movement but we went to work. Building an experience that lets you shop over 17,000 cars from home. Creating a coast to Coast Network to deliver your car as soon as tomorrow. Recruiting an army of customer advocates to make your experience incredible. And putting you in control of the whole thing with powerful technology. Thats why weve become the nations Fastest Growing retailer. Because our customers love it. See for yourself, at carvana. Com. Theyre going to be paying for this for a long time. They will, but with accident forgiveness allstate wont raise your rates just because of an accident, even if its your fault. Cut sonny. Was that good . Line the desert never lies. Isnt that what i said . No you were talking about allstate and insurance. I just. When i. Lets try again. Everybody back to one. Accident forgiveness from allstate. Click or call for a quote today. Jack even in an interesting crop of ipos this year, insurance startup dem lemonade seeks to solve problems, and investors have sent shares up from 29 to a high of 96 before selling around 60. Joining me now, ceo and cofounder daniel schreiber. Thanks so much for joining us all the way from tel aviv. I want to start with this idea that insurance salesman is up considered to be a we scoretive, and its that trust gap that your Business Plan sets out to close. Yeah, absolutely. So the traditional insurance model is kind of come into town and build the tall est sky scrape, think about the metlife building in new york or others around the world. Project your final prowess in the financial prowess in the hope that people will be cowed into trusting you. [laughter] thats not how trust built, and people distrust Insurance Companies not was they dont think they have the wherewithal to pay their claims, but they dont have the will to pay their claims. Weve tried to change the model that we never deny money, that leftover money goes to charity. Jack can you explain that dynamic . So when i dont want when i file a claim for the actual amount of the loss and i dont embellish it, i know that extra money doesnt go in your pocket, it goes to the charity of my choice. Thats right. We kicked off lemonade by speaking to Nobel Laureates in game theory e and behavioral economics and figured out the problem wasnt the players. My moral fibers in no way superior to colleagues in other Insurance Companies. The problem is the game, not the players. And if you have incentives misaligned, if i make money by denying your claim, then youre going to distrust me, and i might be tempted to deny your claim, you might be tempted to embellish it, and that spirals. We take a flat fee, 25 cents, the rest is going to pay your claims, and if theres money left over, it goes to a chair tiff of tearty of your charity of your choosing. Youre less likely to embellish if you know youre hurting a charity that you care about rather than an Insurance Company that you really dont. Jack and many aspects are different from traditional Insurance Companies. You built it from the ground up. Can you give us one more example of why you are so different . Really the whole thing was built from a Technology Sub strait. Myself and my cofounder are newcomers to insurance policy, so we built everything on a. I. And bots to that you buy insurance in 90 seconds, thats the median time to buy insurance. So during a commercial break you could start the process, youll have it complete before the program has returned to normal. And we also pay claims the same way. You have a bot that will talk to you, and about a third of our claims are paid in less than three seconds. So pretty transformative, that slashes costs. It means for many customers the costs can be half of what it would be with a traditional Insurance Company, in addition that it generates just incredibly power and the core of insurance is data to price and underwrite risk which we think these new data structures and being built as a tech Company Rather than a traditional Insurance Company allows us to transform the plumbing of the entire sector. Jack now like others, you invest part of the premiums, and you pay claims, but even your investments process is a little bit different. Can you explain that . Well, youve got i believe the only Insurance Company in the United States to say that we will not invest premiums in heavilypolluting industries. And beyond trying to do the right thing, we just found when we got into the sector we found it kind of unbelievableful that insurance premiums that youre paying somebody to protect your health or your life or your property are being invested rather in the very harms or industries that generally the very harms against which the Insurance Companies are meant to protect you. So so Climate Change can affect your home insurance, you know, flooding and fires and everything else. And air quality will affect your health is and your life insurance. So we are the only Insurance Company that we invest the premiums in good rather than investing them in the kind of industries, the kind of companies that can cause the very harms we purport to protect you from. Jack now why is this it make sense on one level, but why is it actually Good Business . I think a lot of the things we do at lemonade are enlightened selfinterest. We spoke earlier about how if theres money left over, we give it to a charity. In fact, just a couple of weeks ago we gave back over a Million Dollars to 34 charities of our customers choosing. Thats about ten times more Charitable Giving as a proportion of revenue than traditional fortune 500 Companies Much bigger than us would give. And we think of that as really solving the trust problem that you spoke about earlier and aligning interest with our customers, and that generates very rapid growth when Customers Trust you. They behave better, claims behavior is better, brand loyalty. Loads of goodness. So on the one hand, were being charitable, but we think in the long term that builds better brands, better experiences and lowers costs. The same thing, i think, is true in terms of investing in coal. Ultimately, insurance is the business of trust. You give me premiums every month, and you expect that i will be there for you in your hour of need. That trust breaks down all manner of ills plague the entire sector, and if we can invest the relationship with trust and goodness, then i think we will be repaid for that in spades in the years to come. Jack really interesting project youve got going there. Good luck, dan yell, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you. Jack coming up, for millions of students across the country back to school now means logging in from home. How this major shift will impact businesses and investitititi at Fisher Investments, we do things differently and other Money Managers dont understand why. Because our way works great for us but not for your clients. Thats why were a fiduciary, obligated to put clients first. So, what do you provide . Cookie cutter portfolios . Nope. We tailor portfolios to our clients needs. But you do sell investments that earn you high commissions, right . We dont have those. So, whats in it for you . Our fees are structured so we do better when our clients do better. At Fisher Investments were clearly different. I am totally blind. And non24 can make me show up too early. Or too late. Or make me feel like im not really there. Talk to your doctor, and call 8442342424. You can adjust youriggest sacomfort on both sides. Eep your sleep number setting. Can it help me fall asleep faster . Yes, by gently warming your feet but can it help keep me asleep . Absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable. Will it help me keep up with mom . You got this. So you can really promise better sleep . Not promise. Prove. And now, all beds are on sale. Save 50 on the sleep number 360 limited Edition Smart bed. Plus, free premium delivery when you add a base. Ends monday. To learn more, go to sleepnumber. Com. Jack covid19 is making the start of this school year different from any other back to School Season is. Baer rons looked at the impact of parents new reality, on the economy and the stock market. So, ben, this morning i was standing in the street talking to my neighbors about the only thing that we ever talk to our may notes about, is what are we going to do with the kids this fall, what is the school going to look like. I imagine its just the same for you. Yeah, exactly. Our schools given us our plan, and were going to have kids in school half the time. Its going to be great. Jack yeah. Thats same thing with us. The other half of the time that means they will be under foot, and you and i and hundreds of millions of other americans will be trying to work in that scenario, and as your story shows, its just not going to work out quite the way it does in normal times. Right. I mean, my colleague looked at the impact of back to school this year on the u. S. Economy. Normally this is a great time for retailers, schools are a big contributor to the local economy through the money that they have to spend fors services, but the biggest thing this year is just going to be the impact on u. S. Productivity. Because our kids are going to be home, were going to get whats done. Were going to have to be teachers as well as our normal jobs and that could impact as much as 56 billion a month. And to put that into perspective, thats a little bit more than 2 of the u. S. U. S. G. Its a pretty big hit. So were going to all have to learn how to do this better x it really means every day a child can be in school, it means we get a little more of that productivity back, and it helps the economy a little bit more. Thats not how we should be thinking about this, obviously. We need to be thinking about this first, but its a way of thinking about a potential impact as we go back to school. Jack and longterm implications will be interesting too. I hope they can all catch up, but they are losing some school time. Immediately, carlton, we can see an impact to the stock market. Absolutely. And in terms of importance, the back to School Shopping season is second to holiday season, accounts for about 15 of sales for a department and other kind of specialty retailers. Were seeing back to School Shopping for new clothes the probably not happening like American Eagle and gap. But then School Supply shopping isnt really going to be the same. Kids arent going the need one set of items to keep in their backpacks or lockers and another set for home. So youre going to see brands which make a lot of School Supplies suffer. Even the big box retailers that have been doing well, the targets and retailers, have noticed their back to school spend, theyre really not seeing the same level of sales that they have before. Jack and, of course, weve got some winners here. I suspect im not the only person who just told my 16yearold daughter, okay, go ahead, well buy you that new laptop. So a few stores are doing even better. Yes. A few of the stores that might be doing a little better, you know, your best buys and, again, you know, the targets and walmarts are getting some of that spend. The ore interesting dynamic is the servicing aspect for the schools, and these are areas that respect going to be doing as well. Your aramark, the kids arent going in, thats going to be an area thats going to suffer. Janitorial services for schools, again, youre not going to have students there, theyre going to take a hit. So its a tough time. You know, we even looked at a company like bluebird which makes school buses, whats going to happen there and some of these companies. Jack indeed. Past the school bus era, jack, of course, its college time. And you see a real reckoning for the college industry, the Fouryear College industry as a result of this crisis. Yeah. I mean, if you missed freshman orientation this year, i can tell you that the dining hall and the Recreation Center [inaudible] because of the pandemic. I think thats really driving home when you take away all the extras and look at just the course information, i think its causing families to think carefully about what theyre paying. Schools like harvard, theyre not giving a price break at all, its almost 50,000 a year even without room and board, and prices have been is spiraling out of control for decades. I spoke with a finance professor at nyu and a real expert if on valuations. He says theres a reckoning coming right now while people are paying attention to this. He said the harvards of the world might be okay, but some of these less prestigious colleges will suffer. If a kid came in and said xyz State University has accept me but i have to pay 40,000 for the next four years, economically it makes absolutely no sense. You can hear the whole conversation on my barrons street wise podcast this week. Jack thatll be cool. And it really is fascinating, the third tier schools may not have reason to be in business, and harvard, why cant they just stream everything and educate a lot more people . Something to think about. Tada did you know Liberty Mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need . Given my unique lifestyle, thatd be perfect let me grab a pen and some paper. Know what . Im gonna switch now. Just need my desk. My chair. And my phone. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Aso the national eye instituteon did 20 years of clinical studies on a formula only found in preservision. If it were my vision, id ask my doctor about preservision. Its the most studied eye vitamin brand. If it were my vision, id look into preservision. Only preservision areds2 contains the exact nutrient formula recommended by the nei to help reduce the risk of moderate to advanced amd progression. I have amd. It is my vision so my plan includes preservision. Jack jack, tesla shares just seem to have nowhere to go but up. In fact, if you took the total value of gm, ford and Fiat Chrysler and then multiplied that by four, youd have the value of tesla. Whats up with that . Yeah. I mean, if this year is a bit of a financial freak show already, i think tesla is the strong man, the fire eater and the bearded lady combined. [laughter] the stock is up, its multiplied nine times in price in just a year. You mentioned the comparison with car makers, its very valuable than walmart more valuable than walmart. Our colleague al root points out its more valued about 10,000 for a car, i think the one thing that stands out is remember the famous 4 20 tweet when elon musk said he was thinking about securing 420 a share, it didnt happen9 and the stock tanked . Theres still lawsuits going on about not being able to deliver on that 420 even though at this point the actual stock price is more than four times that. Jack thats incredible. Carpalton and ben have some carlton and ben have some stock ideas for us. Ill start with you, carlton. Taking a look at whirlpool this week. We got great housing figures for the month of july, so whether its renovating or buying new homes, theres an interest in appliances. Companys in a good position, and its filtrating below market multiples. Jack and, ben, you found something a little cheaper than tesla in the automobile industry. Thats right. Al root decided that gm the next stock, probably worth as much as the stock now. So if you could find a way to up lock that, it could really talk it off. Jack ev means electric vehicle. Thank you for that. Thank you, ben, carlton and jack. To read more, check out this weeks edition at barrons. Com. Dont forget to follow us on twitter. That is all for us. Stay healthy, wear your masks. Well see you next week on barrons roundtable. From the fox studios in new york city, this is maria bartiromos wall street. Maria hello and happy weekend, everyone. Welcome to the program that analyzes the week that was and helps position you for the week ahead. Im maria bartiromo. Thanks so much for joining us. Coming up in just a few moments, my oneonone exclusive with Vice President mike pence on the democratic ticket and what a joe biden presidency would mean for the country and your money. Allianz chief economic adviser Mohamed Elerian is here to talk about investing in the second half of 2020 and 2021. Plus, we will hear from the ceo of walmart giving us his take on the state of retall. It was a