let s start with starbucks, because the world s largest coffee chain has announced a sharp drop in sales for the first quarter. before global lockdowns were put in place, getting a coffee on the way to work used to be a ritual months. between october and december last year, starbucks global sales fell by 5%, which is larger than the 3.5% drop many analysts were predicting. however, one country bucking the trend was china, which is one of starbucks biggest markets. sales their rose by 5% during the first quarter period. joining me now from new york is hitha herzog, who s a retail analyst at h squared research.the most recent estimate for the sector puts the decline in value at 24% over the last year. this % drop in global sales, when hundreds of millions of people have been housebound in national lockdowns. why are sales of coffees not lower? it s a really good question and part of the reason why is because no one is walking into the source. you saw traffic drop into starbucks
70% or so of the population being immunizeed would allow for true herd immunity to take place. that s likely to happen somewhere in the month of may or something like that based on our plans. trace: the vaccine developments come as over 2 million americans pass for airports this weekend for thanksgiving travel despite cdc guidance to stay home this year. as even more states impose new restrictions to combat a surge in cases across the country. laura engel is live on long island, new york. what more can you tell us on these vaccine results? good morning. good morning, trace. the news about effective vaccines and antibody drugs can t come fast enough as the nation braces for what is predicted to be a new holiday wave of covid cases despite the dire warnings and all the restrictions put in place to keep people safe. the news you mentioned there at the top today a major announcement from astrazeneca that says its late stage trial shows high-level results from clinical trial
unusually long portions of court transcripts. sometimes, i do, you know, end up reporting breaking news because the news drags us along. but other times, we will try and do historical back ground for understanding what is important in the news today. i recognize that we do weird stuff on the show and if you have been watching the show for a while you probably know that, too. we mostly do weird stuff on the show because my brain works weird, and i m aware of that. i know the way we heard things can occasionally be a surprise. but even with all the weird things that we have done over the years to cover the news, i have never before done this nor have i ever anticipated that one of the things i i would need do on the air someday to explain the news is break down a new trend in the recent amazon.com reviews for yankee candle. but that day has arrived, and so here we go. review number one, quote, no scent, very disappointed. one star. review number two, no scent, very disappointed
that too. we mostly do weird stuff on the show because my brain works weird. and i m aware of that. i know the way we approach things can occasionally be a surprise, but even with all the weird things that we have done over the years to cover the news, i have never before done this. nor did i ever anticipate that one of the things i would need to do on the air some day in order to explain the news would be to break down a new trend in recent amazon.com reviews for yankee candles. but that day has arrived. and so here we go. review number one. quote, no scent, very disappointed, one star. review number two, no scent, very disappointed and embarrassed as this was a gift. one star. review number three, fraud, smells like wax when lit, definitely not a yankee. one star. now, those scented candles purchased online could theoretically have been duds that got sent out to amazon customers even though they had no scent. theoretically i guess that could be true. that s not actually wha
we re also following breaking news from wall street. look at this number. the dow down something like 3.5% as we speak. with an hour until close. it s the worst day of the year so far for the markets. why? tech stocks, they re dropping. we re going to talk with labor secretary, marty walsh, about this, inflation, and about tomorrow s big jobs report. i m hallie jackson in washington. good to be with you. we re with our nbc news team, too. carol lee covering the white house. cal perry is in ukraine. we re joined by helene cooper, an msnbc political contributor. also with us, the former ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul. carol, let me start with you and these new details we re learning about the first lady s trip to the border in eastern europe here. a significant trip for her. a real step on to the international stage. it really is, hallie. and so if first lady s going to spend four days in eastern europe and she ll start in romania where she ll meet with u.s. troops at a