Breakthrough theyre preparing a long promise but never delivered infrastructure bill. The s p 500 is higher by 2 . Broad rally today well speak with the House Majority whip about his call for big banks to die eventualth more information about the Paycheck Protection Program and whether it favored Big Companies over Small Businesses plus, as sarah mentioned, a major breakthrough thats what searchers are calling a new study into the effectiveness of an inexpensive steroid to treat covid19 patients you dont want to miss that interview. One of the factors behind the surge in the markets today lets focus in on the big markets. Mike santoli, we have the highlights from chairman powells testimony earlier today. Courtney reagan is covering the surge in retail sales. And meg has details on those new hopes for coronavirus treatment that we just mentioned mike, lets start with you the Broader Markets are up about 2 on the s p 500. This is an impatient. 3130 is the high of the day. There is a high early march. People are watching on the way up as if that is going to halt things this is a two year chart i want to make note of the other almost v bottom where you did start to have bumps. Maybe that is the process that we could be in for here flat ening out. Dont know if thats going to serve to be the upper end of a range. Ment that would have been last mondays highs over 3200 on the s p 500 take a look at one explanation or a couple explanations actually as to what is supporting the market. The Goldman Sachs index has been quite supportive it is loose as its been during the last couple of years except for the very end of last year youre basically, by the way, this is coming into this week. My guess is its down a little bit. Down means loose it means easy financial conditions it has hardly been better. Look at that dramatic spike in going up to tight conditions and then back again. So does the economic numbers coming in better than expected the citigroup economic surprise index for the u. S. , almost literally doesnt get any better than this. This is all time high after retail sales number. What does this mean . Just means better than expected. It doesnt mean peak levels. It doesnt mean as goods as it was before we have the massive down side surprise guess what else . 2009, 2011, the major shocks to the maco data. Sometimes it means that people are getting ahead of the story and forecasters are going to start to come up maybe the markets have already figured this out it helps to explain why its been very tough to get the market down and keep it down at least for the last few months. Guys all right also means the economists were way too gloomy in the forecast when it comes to predicting the rebound. Lets be clear. What models do and what they dont do models kind of get on trends not complete whipsaws in the numbers going from collapse to come backs. I think can you give be a little forgiving the they better get june right. Sure. Steve liesman has details. Jay powell on day one of the testimony, hell go again tomorrow he acknowledged the better data including that blockbuster retail sales report. The outside beat on the may jobs report but he also continues to emphasize the uncertainty about the outlook you were talking about. As well as concern about a second wave and said its going to be a long recovery in which not everybody is going to get their job back first part is the shutdown. The second part will be the bounceback you should see during that period the economy opening, Stores Opening all kinds of different economic entities opening and people going back to work during this second period. There is the bounceback or beginning of the recovery. And we think, i think most if not all forecasters think that will leave us well short of where we were in february. So he emphasized the commitment to all of the pramentz it has in place including bond and asset purchases and massive lending programs and urged congress in his own way to do more including helping state and local governments as well as helping workers or continue to help workers who are unemployed, sarah. Steve, given he clearly wants the market to believe that he has that unwaivering commitment to all of the policies they already announced, does he have any incentive at all to express any optimism in the economy even if he does have it . Theyre talking about triggers for an exit program. And some run off naturally some are priced at market. A market created by the idea that the fed is in the market. So its unclear when the fed needs to back off. I think the fed i think powell wants the fed wants the market to think that theyre not thinking about exit strategy and thats part of their policy wilf, is to convince the market theyre in it for the long haul to support the economy and i believe he thinks that it was a mistake last time for the fed to always say were going to do this and were going to stop here always looking over its shoulder about the down side of the program. Steve, thank you. Despite measured take from chair powell, the positive surprise today on the economic front was retail Sales Numbers big beat there we have the breakdown for us hi. Yeah i think retail mays retail Sales Numbers are the best on record you cant deny that just really a true recovery or pent up demand or when you look at last year, is it actually not so great after all . So mays retail sales grew 18 or nearly 17 minus autos. The core number is also very strong consumers bought again, spruced up the outside and inside of homes in may more than the month prior in april comparing all the numbers made in may, it looks a little less like retail spending is back the big numbers are still good the core retail sales in may, down 1394 compared to last may. That is even with much of the country partially still closed this time around. Nordstrom is higher by 14 abercrombie up by 7. Kohls up by 8 and gap up by 8. 5 the you have dsw up 13 . Tapestry and Capri Holdings that sell accessories, those are higher too bed bath and beyond. Look at this name. This is often very volatile avs late up 16 this is part of that home related name group that have been soaring, many of them benefiting from the stay at home and fix it up trend. Really an outperformer in the group here today back over to you what are retailers saying about the sustainability of the rebound . Clearly, there was pent up demand and clearly after people were in their homes for months, they shopped then what . Do we continue to see the strength in the month ahead . What do the retailers say . Kind of like you were talking about before with the models and having it be so hard to predict. There is a lot of reluctance before we can point our fingerses on the trends becoming permanent. Then if you want to talk even specifically down to things like the furniture or the home salers, after you have redone the office, you dont need to do that again so not all of these trends are going to be sustainable. That being said, look at Something Like grocery or Online Grocery sales. The trends really accelerated three and four years in just three to four months if they introduced a new option to consumers that didnt try it before, and really liked it, that could actually be very beneficial and seeing some of the investments pay off sooner than before. There is reluctance to call everything permanent in some cases, we may be on to something. Sure. Yeah. Courtney, thank you. Now to the coronavirus some developments out of the uk surrounding a steroid treatment that researchers are calling a major breakthrough meg has the details for us meg . Its a big news this morning. They tested a lot of existing drugs to see if they could have any benefit against covid19 and they found a pretty substantial benefit in a commonly used steroid. They used 6500 patient as cross the uk they found that this drug compared with standard of care reduced deaths by a third in patients on ventilators. A fifth on the patients receiving patient thats are not receiving oxygen it seemed to work for more severe patients. But still, the scientific and medical community are calling for more data. They tweeted this morning, it will be great news if a cheap steroid really does cut deaths by a third and ventilated patients with covid19 but after all the retractions and walk backs, its unacceptable to tout Study Results by press release without releasing the paper. They say that they stockpile the drug in the vent of a positive trial outcome and they now have enough supply for 200,000 people so pretty big news this morning, sarah and wolf were the results the outcomes for serious and critical patients to look better than other drugs . It saved peoples lives and it didnt go that far. The nih study trended in that direction. It wasnt significantly different. They can help people recover faster its no the if give that drug earlier it is more beneficialful versus this one being real recovery, a drug that can save people that are most severe. Dont miss our interview with one of the leaders of this very important study. Martin landry coming up in just a bit right here on closing bell. Of. We have a news alert on at t jewel gentleman has the details. Julia . Yes the Union RepresentingCommunications Workers cwa says that at t has informed it of its plans to cut over 3400 technicians and Clerical Workers over the next few weeks saying that Company Plans to close more than 250 stores which could impact more than 1300 retail jobs in this press release the cwa laid some of the blame on activist Hedge Fund Elliott management which bought a stake in at t and pushing it to cut costs. At t just moments ago responding telling us that there will be targeted but sizable reductions in our workforce across executives, managers and Union Represented employees consistent with our previously announced trance formation nirve initiative, also saying, well be eliminated more nonpayroll workers. The vast majority of outside of the u. S. They are managers or Union Represented employees saying reducing the workforce is a difficult decision we dont take lightly. Were offering sefrns pay for up to six months for eligible employees. Aalso, as to the comments of retail stores, were closing Summary Stores to reflect our community. These plans are not new. They have been accelerated by the covid19 pandemic. Saying most of these employees have a job offer guarantee that ensures theyll be offered another position still, a resoundingly broad and positive day after the break, House Majority whip jim clyburn will join us with his call to disclose more information about Small Business loans and his take on whether infrastructure bill can get through congress before the election youre watching closing bell. At mercedesbenz, nothing less than worldclass service will do. Thats why were expanding your range of choices. Many dealers now offer optional pickup delivery and athome maintenance, as well as Online Shopping with Home Delivery and special finance arrangements. 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Switch and save hundreds. Xfinity mobile. The ppp program coming under fire by house democrats. The select subcommittee object Coronavirus Crisis sent letters to the treasury department, Small Business administration and some Big Bank Ceos demanding documentation showing how loans are distributed to far the Committee Also listed steps they want taken in order to ensure the remaining funds go to businesses that need them the most joining us for more on this is the charmz of that subcommittee and House Majority whip representative James Clyburn thank you for joining us tell us what was in that letter you sent and what you hope to actually have happen here thank you very much for having me. It is asking for information that is supposed to be public that, is called for in the c. A. R. E. S. Act that the secretary mnuchin is refusing to make public. We think its important for his activities to be transparent we need to know who is getting the money so that we can determine whether or not they were eligible. For the money. Already weve seen some people who answered that letter and one particularly sent 10 million back immediately because he was not deserved of the company was not deserving of it. And we know that this could be the case with others lets be transparent and thats all were asking who do you think which group of people do you think has something to hide here you never know flaz why were asking. It could be that minuchin doesnt want us to know the relationships. Dent just jump out of the sky. He came into the federal government after living for a long time operating the business world. I want to make sure that everybody who is getting this money is deserving of it we know full well the first time the money went out, a lot of people admitted that it went to long time customers. It went to people based on their ability to repay what were saying is this money is supposed to go to companies that need it that need to keep people working. Thats what we want. We dont want personal relationships, long time relationships. The law makes it clear that there that should not be the case well to that point, congressman, i mean we now know according to politico that four members of congress were indirectly or directly recipients of the ppp loans from the spouses or direct family members. Is that who you intended that for . Does that create a conflict of interest especially whether it comes to approving the next aid package . Shouldnt that be revealed yes, it should be thats what were saying i found out two democrats and two republicans have come to my attention. So there is nothing partisan about this maybe the companies are deserving. I dont believe that a spouse ought to suffer in his or her business because the other spouse got elected to congress congressman, do you think there should be more coronavirus related stimulus and if there is any chance of that happening before the election . We already passed a 3 trillion bill even when we pass it against the objections of the people that said that is too much money. The chairman of the fed, chairman powell said shortly there after, three million 3 trillion may not be enough so the fact of the matter is, i do believe that there are things in it that heroes act that need to be done right away. For instance, one trillion will go to state and local governments. Theyre in need. Some of the programs will expire july 31st and we need to keep the governments functioning. So i do believe that we need to pass the heros act. We need roads and bridges and broadband deployment were not going to do right by educating our children without broadband. I believe the 86 trillion it will cost to billed our broadband throughout the country is a great expenditure worth making so yes to infrastructure and it should be heavily laiden with broadband deployment thats interesting to hear. You could be onboard with the infrastructure plan. I want to bring up something that happened on the show. We talked to larry kudlow, the chief economic adviser for the white house. Listen to what he told us. I will grant you there are some people who may be racist. I will also grant you in the police there are some bad apples but my view is always been folks have good hearts in this country. And folks do not work in the basis of discrimination. And folks understand the need for equality and opportunity heres the thought president obama, the first black president was elected twice. And he got 79 million white votes. 79 million in two elections. Now therefore i find it hard to understand something called systemic racism. Now can changes be made . Absolutely your reaction, congressman . I saw that last night again this morning he ought to be ashamed of himself. He knows better than that. The guy is from new york there is no institutional racism because he lekted an africanamerican president of the United States. That africanamerican president is a part of a system that was built on two pillows one pillow of people who came to this country of their own free will. White people came here from european couldnt nent european continent of their own free will running way from tyranny in search of freedom black people came to this country against their will captured in the base of ships it, chained, shackled and enslaved for 244 years this institution we live under is built to maintain the existence of these two pillows if you doesnt know any more about this countrys history than that, he ought to go back to new york and find some place to hide. Congressman, just wanted to quick final question if i may. Vice president bidens already committed to picking a woman as a running mate should he commit to picking a black woman . I said time and time again as a father of three black women, i would be proud to see a blam wok on the ticket. That would be a big plus but its not a must. Congressman, thank you for joining us. Thank you still ahead on the show, labcorp performed millions of tests. Will they be able to do more