Begin tonight. Retailer started the day at a new high after the Company Reported better tha expected earnings and said the future looks bright. But thats not where the stock ended t day. Shares drifted lower after the open this morning and down fractional by the close. But the lowcost retailer sales are on a fiveyear win streak. A good sign when it comes to the health of the consumer and the econom and the drivers of walmarts business. Here is courtney reagan. Walmart continues to grow sales in the u. S. Thanks largery to the grocery business. S. Omparable sales grew the 21st straight quarter with strong traffic intores and growth online. Digital sales increased 40 . Chief Financial Officer brettgs told me being capturings were strong, the food business and pannedingelivery and pickup optionss driving shoppers to spend. Pickup, all are building grocery Customer Loyalty that continues to drive the positive growth that we see at walmart. Ecommerce was only about 5 of walmar u. S. s total revenue last year. But here its growing, upwards of 40 . And if you look, walmart versuz ecommerce, thats triple the growth rate of azon. Ats whats really driving the overall same store sales growth. And is really driven by the grocery pickup and less so grocery delivery. While analyst are largely positive about walmarts grocery programs, there is some concern about where gwthill come from next. A lot of e growth right now is t coming from rollout of Online Grocery pup. To a third of gross in the u. S. Business. As they fully penetrate that, the rollout o that it may be a littlearder to sustain the 3 plus comgrowth. Grocery is more th half of walmarts totals sales. Its been the most important category for someime. While new Online Grocery options are driving business to walmart, grocery has low s, margaking it less profitable business than a category like kroegting. And the Retailer Online business is stillxpected to lose more money in the meantime the bigger near term test is the holiday season. With black friy just over two weeks ago. For nightly nightly Business Report, im couney reagan. Lets turn to chaerls oay to talk more about walmarts better than expected earnings he is the retail analyst for moodys. Welcome back charlie, to see. You good to see you, sue. You say the Business Model walmart put in place speaks to its execution and sensibilityf sttegic investments. I would assumehat means tt they are well positioned for the lidays. Oh, yeah, i dont think there is any question walmart will set the tone this holiday, along with, you know the usual suspects that we talk about a lot wheee i you guys. Amazon, best buy, target, costco in the mix. Th p offvides stores as well. But walmart is in as good a sh e as eveseen . The 17 yearat moodys. Good ecommerce numbers yes. But i is sense from thes comme from Doug Mcmillon he is a little not upset but impatient with the growth a rate he see was the ecommer division overall. What do you think . I think Doug Mcmillon is alwaysay impatient and a thinks the company can do better. Successful as its been over the last four or five years sce he took over. He p a strategyn place four years ago. It got beat up pretty well by thet equity. Ts paying off. Of the team at walmart are very focused on ccess. And theyre well positioned to win in most places now. Speakingef everywh what about the International Business, charlie, domestic seems to be execu well. Yes. The exception of the they want to improve the om experience. Pu they bought flip card and expanded aressively internationally. How are they doing. The International Business s always been a focu and always been kind of trantory. They tried to get out much as that didnt work. The British Government shot that down tp but they made a strong and large and successful push into china with the joint venture with jd. Flip cart is going to take time. I think the company realized it. We realized it. We didnt feel flip cart with short profits until aat best 2020. Theyre not upsetting us from that perspective. But the dechl graphics in indiap are ling. If you want to be a true global retailer i thi t you need to be there. They punched out of brazil. Brazil was challenged. But what walmart has done historically since i covered it they rog cze one t losses, when to get out and better opportunities somewhere else. Theyve done that in germany. Did it in south korea. Now they have done it in brazil. Trying to do it in the uk. And the place to deploy assets is india and china right now. On that te, charlie oshay with moodys thanks. Thanks. Now whilemart says the consumer remains strong, Business Investment is stillg showigns of weakness. Cisco says it sees a slowdown in cosporate technology ding. And it issued disappointing guidance which we told you about last night. And its something the ceo reiterated gwen today. Those of us who rely on buness investmennd Capital Investments have been expressing hancerns over thingswere seeing in the marketplace. And we actually mention to do ol ourt call. This is not something that has just new emerged. And what we talked about at the end of last quarter of q 4 when we said we began to see weakness manifested itself throughout the quarter. You heard chairman powell yesterday talking about his concern over Business Investment an i think thats t issue that were facing. The consumer in the u. S. As you see from walmart and others has remained very strong. And its a bit of a dichotomy in the market right now. Cisco stock down 7 making it the worst performer in the dow are dow today. In washington Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell back on capi sl hill fond day of testimony on the economy. He said that even with stocks at or near new highs there are no signs ofumes brewing. Look at todays economy. There is nothing really booming words. Ould want to bust in other sustainable picture. I point out though that the ricks in manufacturing. Manufacturing is declining but not sharply manufacturing isore sensitive economically to cycles so it does decline so. In the meantime the president of t new york fed said today that Interest Rates are at an ofmic growth. Evel given the pace according to economists, that is of an indication that he thinks no further rate cuts are likely if Current Conditions remain. Speaking of the economy,s Producer Prices saw theiniggest in six months in october. Theeport from the Labor Department showed increase of 0. 4 lifted by gains in Health Care Costs and scifically Outpatient Care at hospitals which posted the largest rise in a decade. A separate report showed the applications for Unemployment Benefits rose by 14,000 to 225,000 last week. That was the highest reading in five months. As we mentioned, the s p 500 eekd out a record close. There was little excitement, enthough g the pullback in walmart and cisco shares. Just about where they did sed yesterday. En. The dow joneser industrial e down 1 point to 27781. The nasdaq slid three. And the s p 500 rose more than 2. Small capsls today pulled back slightly. The group has been underperforming the rest of the market the past two years. But some say the c gainsld start to pick up. Were joined by lor even gilbert, president f wealth Wise Financial Services thanks for joining us tonight. Thank you so muchn theres b a lot of hope surrounding the small caps a few years now. Why are they lagging this rket, do you think . You know, i think that this entire year has bn marked by trade and the uncertainty around a trade deal. We e said that since the beginning of the year and we have seen that in theerarkets. Time we think there is a trade deal the markets go up. And when the is trade uncertainty the markets go down again. That would be characteristic of the small caps. When people feel uncertainty and want to become more def sive they go upward in capitalization, up towards thea Larger Companies that they feel more comfortable with. If yere to investn small cap stocks at this point, where would you go . If we look at whats less expensive than other parts of the market, i would look at your small capve value. Rela to lets say small cap growth. So i would say the small cap growth is more expensive and the Small Cap Value is less expensive. And so that kind of value would lean towards making investments in that area. But what youre saying here is that as long as ts market is defensive for the most part we ar seeing the defensiveu outperform this market, smal caps will also underperform when we get the trade deal does that change, do you think. It does. I think we could see a popnd thats what i think people are waiting to see, waiting for in hopes of a tradeteal t we would see a pop in the small cap arena that would encouge investment. Where would you go specifically, what areas if you decided to go into Small Cap Value . What areas do you like . So, Technology Overall has been the winner year to date as far as a sector is concerned. And certainly there are areas of technology that could be invested in. That tends to be more of a growth storyhan a val story. But another aa would be the way tha technology is impacting other sectors of the market, for instce health care innovation. And there are opportunities there. And that would be more of a value story. The other area that i woulde encoureople to look at as a possible investment in small capitalization would be international sma cap. Thats not just the u. S. Because our u. S. Industries tend to invest more in the united states. And they tend to forget about other areas of the rket. Right. And small Cap International companies are an opportunity. Lor even gilbert with wealthwise finanalervices thank you for joining us. Thank you very much. Time to look at the upgrades and downgrades tapay. E downgraded to sell from hold at maxim. For lower than expected iphone les next year. The pris target is 190. The stock fell a fraction to 262. 64. Craft heinz downgraded to sell from neutral at goldman sachs. The analyst says he believes profit at the company will continue to shrink. The price target 29. The stock fell about 6 to 30. 96. Verizon w downgraded to hold from boy at hsbc with the analyst citing increased competition and the changing Business Model for content these days. Price target now 65. The sck down slighy to 59. 34. And uber was upgred to buy from hold at argue usresearch. The analyst cited improving Competitive Landscape for the core businesses. Price target now 35. But that stock didall more than 2. 5 to 25. 99. Still ahead, how ibm is using big data to mak bigger improvements to weather forecasting. There are reports tonight that the states massive google antitrust probe is going to exnd into searchnd into the companys android businesses. So far the investigation is onl focused on its aertising business. The attorneys general representing 48 ates, washington, d. C. And puerto rico are all part of the investigation. In washington, speaker of house set said a i breakthroug the nafta trade deal otherwise known asmc could come soon. Nancy pelosi suggested that kmkts in the white house are making progress on a final agreement. We are moving positively in terms of the u. S. Mexico canada agreement. I do believe that if w in to the place it needs to be, which is imminent, that this c be a template for future trade agreements. The white house hopes to ratify the trade agreement by the endthe year. Charles schwab saw a 30 increase in the number of new accounts added in september. That happens to be the spam month that the broker stopped charging commissions for trading stocks, etfs and options. And rivalsin have been t the same steps and dropping commissions. Schwab hopes the free trades will attract more clients. There by offsetting the decline in venue. T number of fidelity 401 k and ira milonaires mitt a record in the Third Quarter. One third of savers increased contribution rates during the last year making the average 8. 8 notncluding the employer match, the highest percentage evy. In the Third Quarter retirement report said baby boomers have too mu exposure t stocks. And run the risk of big losses in a market meltdown. Ssible businessan p as has more. And baby boomers overinvested the stock market process np a new report found mm 401 k account holders had suffolk allocations high are than recommended for the age group. 23 of a highers percentage of equiti a recommendng baby boomers 37 . What does that mean . It means a small subset of investors might want to pay more attention and rebalance poefrmts a little bit. But it may also mean that a fideli other Fund Companies need to reexamine the allocate between stocks and bonds. For example fidelity recommends a maximum allocation of stocks for ten years from retirement wait a minute if you rire at 65 and you live another 20 years having a higher allocation to stocks m makeerfect sense. Longer lifespans means investors can hold riskier assets longer. That simpl simple. For nightly Business Report im possible pisani at the new york stock exchan what is the right mix of stocks and bondeson for those of us of a cerin age . . Thats been a lot of talk about this recently. Bank of America Mailer lynch put a note to clients that the 60 40 Portfolio Allocation is dead. Byrnes mckinney joins us to. Where are we going f growth, especially for income of a certain age as long as were dving longer theses and Interest Rates are as he low as they are right now . What do we do re, byrne . Being could go nizant tha there is no one size fits all rule for allnd retirees baby boomers. I think when you do see a greater portion are holding more equities than suggestedy the m fidelityel its a symptom of the world of ultralow Interest Rates. You ve you have a supply demand issue whereby the supply of yielding alternaerves is low. You have low bond yields that the lowest theyve been really in history. Right. And t deman for yield is very high. Generation really at not so much the Capital Gains but at the rvests, the cash income stage of their investment cycles. And so you have an entire generation of investors who are just seahing for yields anywhere they can get it. And so some of the old metrics may be need to be updated. Right. But at the same time, you know, i think these areust peop looking for income wherever they can find it. And you say that that makes diversefiation key. I think thats crucial. And with People Living longer as previously noted, i think there is a case to be f made perhaps having a little bit higher allocation to equities. But within that if you are lacking at retirees and people within the ages of 55 to 75, theyhould probably look at equities that are more than anything paying attractivend Divi Companies that are a little bit higher quality. And in many cas to reduce risk and reduce volatility looking at larger cap namest might be a bit more domestically focused. Where do i go n in equities and i want income of some kind . I mean the only Master Limited partnerships and some of tho things so popular a generation ago, do i look at those still these days . I think that there is a case to be madeor those. Yeah, i think that there should at le some allocation to i think onehat would be contrarian would be inflation adjusted treasurys. You have Inflation Expectations almost theower theyve been. You cant imagine them going too much lower from here. Ak which would a case for these secuties. But nkreally, i t that, you know, i think investors should have a dynamic diversification of the portfolio whereby they reduce the exposure as they and set targets suggesting if you have a year like this when stocks are up 20 processes plusn ou reallocate at the end of theier take the winnings off the table thats voers forcing investors by definition to buy low and sell high. Indeed, old that doesnt die that adage there. Byrne he is mckinney with Global Investors thank you for joining us. Thank you for having zblee a ad growth he sales at via com thats whe with begin the beating expectations thanks to increase in Domestic Television ads. Viacom paramount Division Posted fullyearrofit full first time if four years rose 2 to 22. 47. Cano roth growth reported wider than expected loss for the latest quarter hit by restructuring charges but revenue did come in higher than analyst expected. The company also says it will not make any large investments in canada due to only moderate demand f cannabis products there. Canopy shares down more than 14 to 15. 84. After the bell, and s. E. C. Filing for the Third Quarter realed that Berkshire Hathaway has taken a position of moril than 1on smars in retailer r the h used to be called restoration hardware. Rth initially rose on the news closing at 175. 22. Andike hikes dividend to 4. 5 cents a share. The yield a littl over 1 . I dont know if boomers want to look at that for income. Nick ee shares higher after hourse oing the loss from the regular session. Us youplaint about the most of weather and the incorrect forecast. Ibm is trying t fix that. Its combining the power of supercomputing with big data to provide far more accurate forecasts which is which businesses can use to make operations more efficient. Steve liesman got a firsthand look. Te rep in developed countries like the united states, our smartphones warn us of looming storms. Bitter cold. Or seerg heat but billions of people lack even bait base basic weather forecasts makin world a more chaotic and dangerous place. But in a historic marriage much big data and tisupercom ibm is launching graph today, a global High Resolution forking model. Providing forecasts not for a few places around the world but the entire world. What you hears the sound of the ibm supercomter that runs the Global Weather model named after the ancnt god ruling the daytime sky. Consisting of nin cabinets and 84 nodes. Out puts a trillion pieces of weather data every day f 26 million locations around the world. The superimpurity is so fast the massive monthly model providesf casts every hour instead of every six hours. Were actually getting down to kd of the Cellular Level of the thunderstorms now whe we werent able to do that before. And with that information we can now provide better support makers. Critical decision ts big potential business because, Big Companies increasily accurate weather data. Any businesshat doesnt have a weather strategy is recurensoutn and ing in advance for. Retailers energy companies. Transportation bllinesses. Its we do. Better International Weather forecasts can be mean more comfortable flights foren passger routed around turbulence and even shorter flhts. F we can d a more fuel efficient flight we can save mofuy on el. There is a variety of ways that operating on time and efficient manner improves the American Bottom line. No matter how good the a new weather model has to prove itself over time. Americanill wait several months before relying on it and then only along with all of the other weather data. Bichl has plans to continuously upgrade the plodletidding re weather data from airplanes in the sky and even from smartphones. For nightly Business Report, im steve n. Lies and coming up, the new list of the most reliable vehicles on e road. Do you drive one . Ches the Postal Service lost nearly 9 billion for the full year. And while that may seem steep, a closer look shows not everything is bad. Free cash flow was positive. And postal sales grew slightly even as first class mail volume shrink. Nextier they plan to raise pricis in the the parcel shipping b 3 . One year after dropping tesla fromhe list of recommended vehicles Consumer Reports changed the mind. Reliability survech has he auto some troubli news for cadillac. Here is phil lebeau. Reporter its the question everybody asks themselves in the showroom. Will this car or truck hold up after i own it . Consumer reports which tests hundreds of models once againas d members to review their vehicles. The result, our cars are better but the Technology Still has the bigge thing is that you no loer see engines fall out, major problems with the power and drive train but you do see electrical system. President entertainment asmus Computers Work for all systems tend to be problematic. Consumer reports rates lexus as the most reliable followed by maa and toyota. But some otherndesults sta out. For exampl every korean model has average or better reliability. Meanwhile, Consumer Reports is returning tesla to its recommended list. Thks to improving reliability with the modland 3 and the model s. What we have seen much like the industry, as the tesla builds more a vehicle another model year and another problems. T they go and fix this year, cadillac was rated dead last. B rightind alfa roam row and arca. Does it hurt sales i brand is rated near the bottom of reliability list . Maybe not jeep histocally struggled with reliability ratings in this country. And yet its one of the hottest brands when it comes to sales. Phlebeau. Nightly Business Report pb and that is nightly businesseport tonight. Im sue herera thanks for joining us. m bill griffeth. Have a great evening. See you tomorrow. Narrator funding for this presentation is made possible by. Man babbel, a lguage learning app that teaches real life conversations and uses speech recognition technology. Daily 10 to 15 minede lessons are voy native speakers and they are at babel. Bbel. Com. Narrator funding was also provided by. The freeman foundation. By judy and ter blumkovler undation. And by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. Woman and now, bbc world news