Transcripts For KQED Nightly Business Report 20171128

Shopping day in u. S. History. Consumers bargain hunting on their computers, their phones, whatever. That brightened the outlook for the long suffering Retail Sector thats been beaten, bruised, battered all year long. The biggest player in online retail, of course, is amazon. And today its shares briefly rose above 1200 apiece. They close slightly below as you see right there. Human workers at its Fulfillment Centers toiled like caffeine crazed elves. Reporter it was a record breaking weekend for online sales and shoppers arent done yet. Cyber monday is forecast to be the Biggest Online sales day in the u. S. Hitting more than 6. 5 billion by some estimates. Above last year, though still just a fraction of alibabas singles day in china which tops 25 billion. And when asking consumers where they were shopping online today, one site is king. Yes, amazon. Amazon. Ive already bought something. Amazons online dominance is likely to swell on key shopping days. Some say amazon may have gotten up to half of all online sales on black friday. Thats a little more than whats seen on a typical day. This is one of about 75 of amazons u. S. Fulfillment centers. This covers a million square feet. There are 14 miles of conveyors, thousands more Seasonal Workers and thousands of robots Work Together to fill your cyber monday orders. Cyber monday is one of our biggest shopping days. Last year customers ordered more than 64 million items worldwide. Thats a staggering 740 items per second. And we are off to a great start for our holidays. Reporter when amazon grows sales the ecommerce industry. Reporter amazons already outsized influence can still make it feel like the entire industry is growing right along with it. For nightly Business Report im Courtney Reagan in new jersey. The rise in amazon stock means the net worth of its founder and Ceo Jeff Bezos is being pushed even higher. Robert frank has more on his 12 digit fortune. With smarch shares hitting new highs jeff bezos is now wort 100 billion. Thats the first time anyone has reached the 12figure mark since bill gates in 1999. Bezos is worth 33 billion this year and up over 50 billion over the past two years. To put that wealth into perspective, bezos could spend over 6 million a day or 250,000 per hour for the rest of his life and still have billions left over. Whats he going to do with it all . So far hes not announced any concrete plans for philanthropy and pledged to give away only 68 million or one tenth of 1 of his wealth. Hes not signed the giving pledge unlike all the other tech founders he doesnt have a foundation or a charitable llc devoted to social change. In june he did tweet out a request for ideas for philanthropy saying he wanted to focus on the here and now of needs. So far he hasnt said which of those ideas he will choose. Bezos may be about to redefine philanthropy just as hes revolutionized retailing. Hes sold a billion dollars worth of amazon stock each year to fund blue origin, thats his Space Company that aims to colonize mars. And he purchased the Washington Post which he sees as important for democracy. Bezos has said that, quote, for profit models can improve the year more than philanthropy models. What would it take for bezos to become the first trillion dollar man . Amazon stock would have to hit 12,500, about ten times where it is today. For nightly Business Report im robert frank. The nations Home Builders are getting busier. Sales surged for the Third Straight month hitting a tenyear high, well sbuv expectations pap diana olick has our story. Reporter the supply of existing homes hit another new low. Thats fueling demand for new construction even though new homes come at a price premium. New home sales surged to the highest pace in a decade in september and then again in october. While some of that may have been demands pulled forward from two major hurricanes sales have been rising steadily all year. This as existing home sales have been falling due to tight supply. We believe that you have a number of positive factors influencing the Housing Market year to date including job growth, consumer confidence, as well as modestly easing lending standards. Reporter the builders may be benefiting from the severe shortage of existing homes for sale but theyre stilnot ab ers d like. Arteromes they cite the high cost of land, labor and materials as well as a labor shortage. Slowly, however, they are meeting the demand especially since the biggest buyer group, millennials, have waited longer and may now have more buying power. You certainly have a shift of the Home Builders catering more towards the entry level. At the same time, i think the millennials are starting to come into their own. Reporter the october report shows that a number of homes sold but not yet started also hit a decade high which means the builders have a lot of work ahead. The only trouble is they still arent finding enough workers to do it all. For nightly Business Report diana olick in washington. Were joined now to talk more about the health of the Housing Market by the chief economist at zillow. Welcome. Nice to have you here. Thank you for having me. So give me your read this report especially give thfact that thiss the second row thas a biof a spre for the street and strong than expected. Right. You know, good up surprise on this one. And we certainly didntnk it would be as positive as iwas. Were close to 700,000 units being built annually and that was great news. Also good take on the fact that prices are being kept in check. So were seeing a bit of a turn by builders to try to cater to the entrylevel segments, not superlow entry but at least targeting millennials which are coming into the market more and more. And baby boomers as they try to scale down what their current living situation is as well. Healthy demand is being at least met by a little bit more supply. Not enough yet. But were on the right track. You and many others in your field say that we are in and have been in a sort of an inventory crisis for some years. Right. Why is that . The population isnt growing that fast. Well, you know, its sad to kind of think about this, but inventory levels are kind of back where they were in the early 90s even though the population has grown quite a bit since then. Builders are having trouble keeping up to demands. The three ls, lumber, labor and land really, trying to find cheaper land to build on. And that makes it really hard to build in urban centers which are in high demand. On top of that were seeing a bunch of homes that used to be existing Housing Stock that arent available because theyve been converted into rentals. So were seeing a lack of actual homes tradesing hands at this point. And all these things in some areas like vegas, chicago, we still have a fairly high amount of negative equity where you owe more than what your home is worth. These homes are also not being sold. Some of these characteristics are keeping inventory back. At the end of the day, a bit of a Musical Chairs phenomenon where you actually have people not wanting to sell their home even though its a great sellers market because they dont want to become buyers at the end of it all. They just stay and renovate their home basically. Theres also a worry, at least in our neck of the woods, you know, the east coast and the west coast, where the cost of housing is very expensive. Right. In general. The tax plan, which may eliminate or vastly reduce the mortgage deduction, how do you anticipate if it goes through as it is put in place now, how do you anticipate that affecting the inventory cycle . You know, the good news is that if possibly mortgage Interest Deduction gets capped or reduced, that should have no effect on the vast majority of buyers in the u. S. It will, however, negatively impact very expensive markets such as manhattan, san francisco, san diego, a lot where youre basically spending so much on a home that you want to spend more than half a million on a loan. Capital gains taxes could really keep inventory in check. Okay. People will be impacted to not want to move quite as soon as they perhaps would have originally. So it still remains to be seen what will happen. State and local taxes, depends on what happens with those, people that deduction their property taxes. That means well have you back when we know whats in the plan. Thats right. Thank the ral reserve is widely expected to raise Interest Rates at its meeting next month. And today the president of the dallas fed backed that stance. Robert kaplan said that waiting too long to tighten policy could put the centra bank behind the curve and increase the risk of previously he said he wast certain whether a rate hi was needed in december. Kaplan is a Voting Member of the fed thiar. As we mentioned the doum industrial average closed at a record today helped in part by shares of retailers. Investors looked ahead to a possible senate vote on tax reform. Here are the final nbers the dow added 22. To 23580. Nasdaq lost 10. And the s p 500 was off 1. With the dow at records and other indexes close to 1s, could the market power even higher heading to the end of the year . Once again were back at another new high and the Market Leader technology back at new highs. Is this it . Is this the top . Some insist that it is, but for the moment the market shows no signs of leveling awe or pulling back. First, the advance decline line, the number of stocks advancing versus those declining, it starts dropping fast. Second the driving force in the market switches from buyers of stocks to sellers. But none of this has happened. The advance decline line is at a new high and theres been no significant increase in selling pressure. The declines in the advance decline line have begun on average four to six months prior to the market high. You base it on this metric, you were at least months from a market top. At least. What would kill the rally. On the back of three factors, first, rising earnings which could drop if a recession happens in 2018, second a tidal wave of buy backs that could drop if it becomes too expensive to borrow money from the buy backs. And finally, if the fed starts raising rates much quicker than the market expects. Most traders agree that would be the final blow to this amazing nineyear rally. For nightly Business Report im bob pisani. Still ahead, lawmakers back at work although maybe not like caffeinecrazed elves. They do have a list of things to get done before christmtime. Republican senators are going full speed ahead with their tax overhaul plans returning to washington and meeting with the president a their prol. Its going to be tax relief for hard working middle income and lower income families. Thats definite. And the other definite part of this tax reform is making American Business competitiv john harwood is following the story from washington. Hi, john. There will be a lot of talk, a lot of arm twisting over the next few days to get the votes needed. Where do things stand . When is the vote planned . And how does it look like its breaking . The hope for republican leaders, tyler, is to have a vote as early as thursday or by the end of this week. Now, of course, as weve seen in previous fights over health care, if they dont have the 50 votes they need to pass and there are only 52 republicans in the senate, you need 50 of them. If you dont have the votes, you will delay the vote because they dont want this to be killed. As of right now, shaky votes, but we do not have firm declared noes to oppose this bill. Republican leaders are confident they will be able to pass it. Well see. Theres significant criticisms of the amount of growth that would be caused by this bill. Some of the analyses say not very much. About the amount of deficit increase, those would be significant. And the fact that these tax bills are tilted toward the top of the income scale. Theres the looming threat of a possible government shutdown. The deadline is friday, the 8th. It is unlikely there will be a shutdown, but that depends on, probably on the Trump Administration as its done in the past giving into democrats on some key issues like the daca issue, for example, those dreamers who have legal status in the country. They need democratic votes unlike on taxes or healthcare, they need democratic votes to keep the government open. Democrats are going to play hardball. It was, if nothing else, an unusual day at the cfpb, the Consumer Finance protection board. Two acting directors, one of whom arrived with doughnut, john. Thats got to ingratiate him. Whats going on here . How is this going to play out . Eventually donald trump and the republicans are going to win because the president has the authority to appoint a permanent director and the Republican Senate will confirm one, but as of now democrats who participated in the creation of dodd frank and people sympathetic to them at the cfpb, staging a year guard action to slow that down. The Deputy Director under Richard Cordray who quit was installed as acting director but the president has installed Nick Mulvaney as acting director. This will be resolved by courts. Theres a lawsuit involved. But at the end of the day president trumps going to win this fight. John, thanks very much. John harwood in washington tonight. The Supreme Court today heard oral arguments in a fracking patent case, a case that got the attention of both the Worlds Largest Technology Companies and some of the biggest drugmakers. Thats because the suit focuses on how patents can be challenged, a key part of both business. And in a unusual twist a native american tribe has a lot at stake as well. Reporte thee ha to do with the america invents act heralded when it was passed in 2011 as the most Sweeping Change to our patent system in half a century. It was supported at the time by both the technology and pharma industries. Formy eli lilly ceo was there when president obama signed the bill into law. Its being challenged in a case called the Greens Energy group on one side and big pharma on the other side. It gives patent challengers a route through the Trademark Office to try to invalidate patents. The argument for it is that system is more efficient than going through the federal courts. Its been a really useful tool for companies to defend against patents that shouldnt have been issued in the first place. Joshua landau estimates its already saved 2 billion in legal fees alone. But the Pharma Industry says the ipr system requires it to defend patents in multiple venues with different standards. Critics say its lowered the value of patents in the u. S. By as much a trillion dollars although that figure has been disputed. That was an effort destroy the u. S. Patent system. And theyve done a pretty darn good job of doing it. One drugmaker allargan converted theirs to a native american tribe. It paid the tribe to use its sovereign immunity to shield it from ipr challenges from generic drugmaker. The st. Regis mohawk tribe received much needed new funds. Its always been our intent and intent to pass councils to look at creating Revenue Streams that are not completely dependent on the gaming industry. If the Court Upholds the ipr system, the tribe looks to diversify. As the nearby st. Lawrence river has been polluted over decades by three nearby factories now designated by the Environmental Protection agency as superfund sites. We are experiencing high rates of cancer, autoimmune diseases, thyroid issues other Chronic Health conditions due to the toxic legacy of industry along the st. Lawrence river and weve had to deal with that. And thats quite expensive. The allargan deal has been heavily criticized with Claire Mccaskill looking to trip the tribes from these patent challenges. The tribe called the move a double standard as state universities have the same protections. Almost like an economic apartheid where were not allowed to do certain things unless otherwise given permission. The court is expected to decide the case by june of next year. The magazine publisher meredith, think better homes gardens, where buy time incorporated. Meredith with backing by the koch will buy time and people. The koches will not have board seats or influence editorial operations. Shares rose to 18. 50. Share of mer he dit popped more than 10 . Barracuda networks will go private. The Data Security company said it agreed to be bought by the private equity firm toma bravo for about 1. 5 billion. Shares of barracuda took off rising 16 to 27. 59. Keva outlined a reorganization plan it hopes will improve profitability. The Worlds Largest jen iric drugmaker will combine its generic and specialty drugs businesses into one unit. Last week we told you about reports that teva was cutting up to 25 of its work force. Shares gained 7 to close at 14. 65. Strong demand is driving growth at the rvmaker thor industries. It said that price hikes and a increase in production helped. It finish the regular day down a fraction to 136. 25. Macoming up, steals and dea. Why this Holiday Shopping season could put you at a higher risk of being hacked. Bargain hunters are out in force this time of year but so are hackers, raising the risk that your data will be stolen. Aditi roy reports. Reporter concekevin harder to shop online i buy all things from amazon, from my clothes to photography equipment, you know, shoes. Electronics, cell phones. Pretty much everything. Reporter despite high profile breaches involving Companies Like equifax and uber, hardy doesnt worry about getting hacked. On this cyber monday, he says hell be looking online for deals. You never know what youre going to come across. But what he may come across is the wrong type of steal. It finds that hacking attempt goes up during the holidays. The threat assessment ably sis revealed a 20 spike in attempted Cyber Attacks in december of 2016 over the previous month. Behind every attack theres a person. That person understands how we behave. And so theyre trying to drive their attacks that theyan get us to click on a ling. The companys ceo says the hackers dont even have to work that hard because they can often distract Holiday Shoppers online through fake seasonal promotions. Those links can end up being click bait. Ecommerce companies are fighting back, pouring significant resources into securing their networks, one example is paypal. It has a command center to preempt threats. It has shelled out more than 2 million to individuals who have found vulnerabilities in their system. New yorks attorney general also came out with an alert on how consumers can protect themselves online. One recommendation, shop only on secure internet connections, when entering Payment Information make sure your url begins with https and not just http. And beware of fake websites. If you see a link to a deal on email or social media, dont click on it. Instead, type the address directly into your web browser. Despite warnings, some shoppers like hardy say theyre not worried about getting hacked. I think these people have too much time on their hands to sit around hacking other peoples accounts. But Security Experts warn it often doesnt take hackers much time, effort or even money to pull off a successful breach. For nightly Business Report im aditi roy, san francisco. And thats nightly Business Report tonight. Im sue herera. This is the time of year your Public Television station seeks your support. Im tyler mathisen. We thank you for your support. Well see you right back he again morright. This is bbc world news america. Funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, and kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for americas neglected needs. Planning a vacation escape that is relaxing, inviting, and exciting is a lot easier than you think. You can find it here in aruba. Families, couples, and friends can all find their escape on the island with warm, sunny days, cooling trade winds, and the crystal blue caribbean sea