Of the maj indexes we follow for you here on nbr closed at records today, something that hadnt happened simultaneously since 1999. Back then technology played a big role in driving the markets. A combination of factors that boosted investor oil prices, strong earnings from Department Stores and positive news on the jobs market. Lets get right to those recordbreaking numbers. The Dow Jones Industrial average added 117 points to a record 18,613. Nasdaq up 23 to a record 5228 and the s p 500, ill say it again, gaining 10, a record 2185. As for domestic crude, it settled up more than 4 on comments from the Saudi Oil Minister about possible action to stabilize prices. Bob pisani at the New York Stock Exchange has more now on what drove stocks to historic highs today. Reporter how did we get to new record highs . We did it the oldfashioned way. We rotated into it. For most of the year investors chased anything that paid a dividend, telecom and utilities and Consumer Staples and reits and since the start of the Third Quarter theres been a rotation. These names are now out of favor. Tech has been the new leadership due to the likes of microsoft and others and the rally has been even broader than just technology. For example, big Global Industrial names like illinois toolworks, united technologies, dover and eaton have towered to new highs in the last six weeks. And in the last couple of weeks Energy Stocks have become a new Leadership Group as oil stopped its slide and has stabilized around 42. Now for everybody wondering why we keep holding up theres seve reasons. First the u. S. Economy while choppy is still among the best in the world. We also see second half earnings relatively stable. Next crude oil which gave everyone a scare a week ago is stable around 42. Third, theres a lot more talk of fiscal stimulus, not just monti stimulus, japan, the uk, europe and the u. S. , and finally its a cliche but there is no to stock, no yields in bonds and no yield in cash. All this means stay in bonds. Im bob pins at the New York Stock Exchange. Speaking of stocks, Retail Stocks were bolstered by a surprise announcement from macys. The Worlds LargestDepartment Store is shuddering a handful of its stores to keep pace with the dramatic changes happening in that sector. Today macys also reported earnings and revenue that topped expectations, and it reiterated its fullyear profit and sales guidance. Its comparable sales drop wasnt as bad as feared and sales improved each month of the quarter. Investors like that report and macys longterm plan as well. As a result, shares soared 17 , making it the best performing stock on the s p 500. Courtney reagan has more on macys new direction. Reporter is the magic of macys back, or is it just adjusting to a new reality . Macys Second Quarter profits and sales turned out better than expected and still below last year, but Ceo Terry Lundgren says the company is not one to sit still as shoppers increasingly go online. The retailer is closing about 100 of its more than 700 stores by early next year, most of which are cash flow positive but showing signs of declining profitability this. Will allow macys to focus on its strongest performing locations. Wall street applauds the aggressive move saying there were simply too many stores. This is absolutely the right decision. Ecommerce continues to grow. Brick and mortar continues to be constrained, and i think the brands, you know, over the last couple of weeks have really played a part in this. They are pulling bnal activity, think macys is making this decision today. Its the right decision. They are getting back to a stronger, leaner store base that has best in class brands, and i think its their way of competing with amazon and the offprice sector. Reporter macys is also considering alternatives to extract a shareholder value from its real estate for four of its large city Flagship Stores as well as the San Francisco mens store. For the remaining stores, macys says its investing to make them better for shoppers by increasing vendor shops, adding Technology Upgrades and beefing staff for Services Like personal styling. The retailer continues to invest in its online operations as well. Lundgren thinks more seasonable temperatures and less drastic drops in Tourist Spending are helping retail right now, he also thinks its time for Consumer Spending to swing back to more discretionary goods like clothing. The consumer has been spending. They have just been buying automobiles and they have been buying home improvement, paying for medical expenses and paying all these things that are not sold by me, and so, you know, i think this is good news because they dont need another car now. Weve had record sales of cars. Dont need another car and dont need to fix their home anymore. They did that. Home depot has been awesome. So its my turn. Its our turn. Reporter if lundgren is right, it could mark the end of a year long downturn for Department Stores. For nightly business report, m courtney reagan. Macys did well, but shares of mall operators did not do so well on news that macys planned to cut 100 stores. The nations largest mall operator Simon Property growth fell along with macerich and kimco reality. Kohls contributed to todays stock market optimism. Ed as the retailer cut out exc inventory and they cut its forecast and reported a sleepily steeper drop in samestore sales. Investors remain positive on better than expected earnings sending shares 16 higher. Has retail finally started to figure out what has been ailing it for so long . A quick fix. Is it as simple as, hey, close stores and everything will get better for the big Chain Companies like a macys, like a gap, like a best buy . Sure. Well the issue is that many of these stores, especially the large chains are very overstored. In the u. S. We have about 25 square feet of retail per capita, and thats about ten times higher than it is in europe so we have way too many stores and i think that the street knows that a lot of these big retailers have too many stores. Now is that the only thing they need to do . Of course not. They need to invest in their dotcom channel. They need to invest in alternative distribution and look at other ways to diversify and grow their businesses in addition to closing the stores that that just arent working that well. It sounds simple to say they are going to close stores but it sometimes isnt that simple. Especially if they dont own the underlining real estate. Correct . Exactly. And i think thats really part of the reason that some of the mall operators are being challenged today because these are leases that have helped them historically because particularly the Department Stores will have leases that are decades long, and thats sort of the tradeoff for getting good terms on the lease in the first place. Thats part of the issue with with a lot of the Department Stores is that you cant simply just flip the switch and close stores when sales are down. You have to wait out the end of your lease, and thats thats not just an issue with Department Stores. Also applies to big box as well. So we look to just the item right before we introduced you was about some of the mall operator stocks, and they didnt do well today. What youre describing to me in this overstored environment looks like a coming depp call for mall operators, the people that own the strip malls and so forth. Whats going to happen to them . Well, there is no question that there is a coming shakeout in retail, and theres been no shortage of people who have been predicting this shakeout for a long time. Like i said, there are ten times as many stores in the u. S. Per cap as in markets like europe, and what that means is that we just have too many stores, and that so your options are to close those stores, redevelop a lot of that real estate into other types of things. Like we see that already happening where real estate is becoming redeveloped, you know, into dental offices or schools. Look out below. Thanks so much. More positive news on the job market. The number of americans filing for Unemployment Benefits fell last week. Initial jobless claims declined by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 266,000. Claims have been below the key 300,000 level for 75 consecutive weeks, the longest streak since 1973. The price of goods shipped to the u. S. From abroad rose slightly in july. Import prices which measure what u. S. Companies pay for things like south korean cars, middle eastern oil gained. 1 last month and import prices are looked at closely for any sign that inflation might be in the pipe like. When it comes to the economy Hillary Clinton and donald trump are taking off their gloves. Both are laying out their agendas, and both are on the attack. John harwood has more on the war of words from washington for us. Hi, john . Reporter well, sue, they are taking off the gloves, but its interesting. When you look at the two speeches they made this week, there is some overlap in their positions. Hillary clinton went to michigan today and said she, too, like donald trump, is against the Transpacific Partnership except that she said her view is that wellstructured trade deals can work and america can compete and trump is much more pessimistic. Normally you would say you want to reduce your debt, and i would like to reduce debt, too, as much as anybody, and the problem is you have a military problem. You have an infrastructure problem, a tremendous infrastructure problem, and you have other problems. Whats going to happen when the rates eventually will go up and you cant borrow. You absolutely cant borrow because its so expensive. Youd be paying so little interest right now. This is the time to borrow. That was the different kind of overlap. That was donald trump talking about borrow and spend which is usually associated with democrats. Heres Hillary Clinton on the trade policy. Reporter his approach is based on fear, not strength. Fear that we cant compete with the rest of the world even when the rules are fair, fear that our country has no choice but to hide behind walls. If team usa was as fearful as trump, Michael Phelps and simone biles would be cowering in the locker room. Reporter so counting on the olympic metaphor to carry her argument there, sue. John, you know, they do agree, as you mentioned, on few things, but Donald Trumps critique of Hillary Clinton today, what was that about . Well, it was a couple of things. First of all, he says that she would raise taxes, that he would cut them. Shes for obamacare which he says is a disaster hurting jobs and her Senate Record was bad, and he also repeated what he said over the last 24 hours which is that she and president obama would cofounders of isis, trying to discredit her more broadly. All right. John. Thank you so much. John harwood in washington tonight. Both candidates say one way to fix the economy is increase spending on our infrastructure and fix the nations failing bridges, rails and roads. As Morgan Brennan reports the plans differ in the details. Reporter who wins the american presidency expect a big push for infrastructure spending. Both candidates have been criticizing the poor state of americas roads, bridges, railroads and airports. Just today republican nominee proclaiming the nations infrastructure is in, quote, the worst condition its ever been in, likening certain airports to, quote, third world countries. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton opineing request quote were living off the investments made by our parents and grandparents generations so how would the opponents address this massive issue . Trump will spend, quote, a lot more than the 500 billion drummed up by clinton saying hell potentially take advantage of low Interest Rates to borrow and make it happen. Basically youre going out and youre borrowing money in the United States to rebuild your infrastructure. It would be infrastructure money, and maybe theres ways of giving additional, you know, credits to people that buy these bonds, but, you know, frankly the Interest Rate would be so low. Reporte such a strategy would represent a potential break with the official gop platform which prioritizes reducing the National Budget deficit and curtailing spending. As for clinton shes offering a fiveyear 275 billion proposal, including a 25 billion to be dedicated to a bank that would extend loans, loan guarantees and bonds to raise an additional 225 billion in investments. A big part of our plan will be unleashing the power of the private sector to create more jobs at higher pay and that means for us creating an Infrastructure Bank to get private funds off the sidelines and complement our private investments. 25 billion in government seed funding could unlock more than 250 billion and really get our country moving on our infrastructure plan. R clinton is also looking to build out a Renewable Energy grid and provide more Broadband Access for her infrastructure plan. Trump hasnt put forth a detailed policy on his website, at least not yet. Both candidates also promised to use domestic suppliers and manufacturers for the work but proposals from the campaign trail are just that. Since any plan would still need to clear congress. For nightly business report, im Morgan Brennan. Still ahead, cashing out. Why Mutual Fund Investors are nervous about this market, even with stocks at record a lot of talk out there these days about the socalled millenials. Sure, now the largest Demographic Group and only by a little and not the richest. The baby boomers are. Thats why more and more entrepreneurs are targeting the boomers. Aditi roy reports. Have your clients hands on the shoulders. Grab underneath the belt and youre going to count and say ready, gary, were going to stand up together, okay. Reporter these individuals work for honor, a company that connects seniors with caregivers who help elders live independently. One thing we didnt talk about earlier is that you want to make sure that the belt buckle is in front. You dont want to have that in the back or the side. You want to make sure that the buckle is in the front. Reporter caregivers go through extensive training to become part of honors demand service which users tap into through its app. Its just one example of a tech startup courting baby boomers and seniors. A market thats grabbed the attention of investors and vcs. This is a huge market, and as we think about health care it is one of the biggest markets that actually spend health care dollars. Rep lynn okeefe, a senior partner at Kleiner Perkins says onethird of the digitals Health Portfolio targets older adults because their numbers and spending power make them such a formidable economic force. Nearly 75. 5 million boomers live in the u. S. , acornsing to u. S. Census data. The care giving market alone is expected to reach 72 billion by 2020 according to the aarp and the aarp says the annual Economic Activity of the 50plus demographic is more than 7. 5 trillion. A baby boomer is the most economically attractive to most companies and also really loyal. This is what i love about them. Reporter marcy roguo cofounded stitch, a subscriptionbased service that helps boomers connect and find xan joins. The 2yearold company has 50,000 paying members in 50 cities worldwide. While rogo says older adults may not be as techsavvy as millenials, she thinks they are more willing to pay for online services. They also have far more disposable income than any other generation. Purchased their house and the big things so if they are still work, they still have income come in and very few expenses so its a great combination for a good group to serve of. Reporter the aarp tells us its seeing increased interest from entrepreneurs with more than 200 applicants to its startup demo day last year. Thats more than double the number in 2012, and theres also a boost in Venture Capital money. Just this week honor raising 42 million in funding. For the nightly business re aditi roy, San Francisco. To read more about startups targeting baby boomers head to our website, nbr. Com. Profits top expectations at nordstroms and thats where we begin tonights market focus. The apparel retailer said its annual anniversary sale helped list results. Revenue in samestore sales fell on the quarter, but they were better than expected. The company also raised its Earnings Guidance fo the year. Shares were sharply higher in initial afterhours traileding after finishing the regular session up 7 to 47. 55. U. S. Officials are investigating valeant again. According to the wall street journal the justice departmen is looking into whether the Pharmaceutical Company defrauded insurers by hiding its relationship with a Pharmacy Company filador and this could result in criminal charges against management. Shares fell 10 . Alibaba reported higher profits. Alibabas executive vice chairman says sales were strong. For the quarter that we just, we generated 4. 8 billion of revenue, thats 59 growth. Its the highest growth rate weve ever had since our time of the ipo. Shares up 5 today to 91. 77. Brinker international saw its profit and revenue rise as the Restaurant Company benefitted from an addition of more than 100 new store locations. The results topped strexpect expectation. The owner. Restaurant chain chilis also gave upbeat guidance for the year. Shares bopped 12 to 52. 72. Well with stocks at record highs a new report shows that investors have actually been funneling more of their cash into bond mutual funds, less into stock funds. With us now to talk more about this trend is icis chief economist brian reed. Good to have you here. Welcome. Thanks for having me on tonight, sue. Thank you. I was surprised by those results. Why the continued attraction of bond funds given the fact that were at record highs in stocks . I think part of the reason is that there are a lot of Asset Allocation models out there such as target date funds or other types of strategies, and so weve had a pretty substantial runup in the stock market as youve pointed out. Probably the first one in several years, and so what a lot of these programs will do will rebalance then away from stocks and into bonds to keep the ratios that they are targeting about the same. So youre saying that this is more on autopilot than individuals making decisions. Which category are bond funds in terms of total return outperforming stock funds this year . No, they are actually still underperforming somewhat. At least looking at february. Thats where the low was in both the stock market and where Interest Rates had peaked out and since then stocks have certainly outperformed. Whats been attractive are areas such as Investment Grade bond funds and muni bond funds for that matter. Part of this, too, is some investors riding that wave as Interest Rates have fallen, bond prices have risen and coming into the bond funds to take advantage of those rising bond prices. So as we as we look at these markets at new record highs does that sort of phenomenon tend to turn the tide with investors, you know, when they watch nbr at night as they do every single night, i know, and we sit as these record highs, do they then take a look at their and say, you know what, maybe i shouldnt be sitting in a bond fund . Theres always repositioning. Most investors though use a Financial Adviser or are investing in Something Like a target date fund through their work or 401 k plan, and the Financial Advisers are working with the portfolios and they do try to keep them in balance, but there are investors who are looking towards these falling Interest Rates, particularly with Central Banks in europe lowering Interest Rates, pushing rates, lower globally and bond Prices Higher and i think investors are moving in to take advantage of those potential capital gains. The outflow from equity funds into bond funds or the flows into bond funds it hasnt just happened suddenly. Its been going on for years. Has a whole generation of investors here from 2009 forward missed this bull market . No. Whats really going on here is that weve actually seen Investors Holding as much equity as they did in 2009, but part of this is a demographic phenomenon. We have the baby boomers who are holding the bulk. Asets in those 401 k plans and the assets generally moving into retirement and as they do they begin to reposition their portfolio to decrease their equity exposure and increase their Bond Exposure slightly. These arent large moves, but when you have billions of dollars moving this is what happens. Brian, thanks for clarifying everything for us. Brian reid with ici. Coming up, why rio de janiero issin attractive vacation destination if you want to call it that for people who want to come home with a brand new look. Brazil isnt just a hot spot for World Class Athletes right now. Theres another Huge Population of tourist rio de janiero who are looking for a little nip and tuck. Carl quintanilla tells us why rio is the hemispheres happening place if you want to get some work done a reporter brazil is known for its beautiful beach etz and Beautiful People with good reason. Brazil is second only to the United States in the number of cosmetic surgeries, and despite the countrys recession the Brazilian Society for Plastic Surgery says the number of surgeries have increased 10 each year since 2010. The industry gets a big boost from medical tourists who go to brazally to get cosmetic procedures at discount rates. And you are going to find prices around 30 , 50 less than in the u. S. With the same quality of services. Reporter cosmetic vacations caters to medical tourists in rio and work with 100 patients a year, mostly from the u. S. Company reps make doctor appointments, arrange travel and recommend restaurantconsultant, part concierge service. Before the surgery they come and take some days to do some tourism, of course. They want to see brazil. Reporter this surgeon at copa cabana are 40 Years Experience gets 10 of his referrals from cosmetic vacation. His specialty, performing multiple surgeries at once. Together, lip sioux. Reporter onestop shopping. Yeah. Reporter and thats part of the appeal for pats who travel across the globe. One thing the doctors in the United States, they are kind of skeptical about doing all of those surgeries at one time. Reporter medical tourism to brazil is expected to grow 45 over the next five years, an attractive figure to the industry and its patrons. I do plan on going to have some other things done. Reporter for nightly business repor. Before we go, heres another look at the record close for the three major indexes. The dow added 117 points, the nasdaq rose 23 and the s p 500 gained 10. And that does it for us on nightly busines and thanks from me as well. Im tyler mathisen. Have a great evening, everybody, an are you surprised . Im surprised. Ive always had these and i love them and i would never part with them because theyre my heritage. What is interesting is what was put on the reverse of this an original menu from the titanic. Its the luncheon menu from the day that the titanic struck the iceberg. Yes yes laughs what are you going to do with all that money . Oh, gosh, im gonna pay dillards off. Captioning sponsored by Liberty Mutual insurance, subaru, Franklin Templeton investments and viewers like you announcer now, the p now, the people who make antiques roadshow possible. birds chirping mom