Reported yesterday and a top Infectious Disease expert says its about to get worse. Power lunch starts right now and welcome to power lunch everybody, the election shifting towards joe biden today. He took the lead in the counts in georgia and pennsylvania. Lets go to eamon javers to break down where we stand right now. Were stel loill looking at e same list of uncalled races. Joe bidens lead is increasing weve had more vote now coming in today from pennsylvania, moe are vote out from nevada in pennsylvania bidens lead over trump has grown to more than 13,000 votes. Take a look at the state of pennsylvania we are about 96 complete. Too close to call there. The difference there 13,220. Thats the whole ball game if joe biden wins there, this race is over because thats 20 electoral votes. Biden only needs 17 at this point to go over the top in nevada, press conference just wrapped up in clark county, home to Las Vegas Biden expanded his lead there and is up to 20,000 overall in the state. Look at that, joe biden, this is nevada, clark county, 53. 6 for biden, 44. 7 for trump there with 93 of the vote in in clark county we got a statement from the president of the United States indicating hes not willing to give up the fight. I want to read you the key sentence from what the president said he said we will pursue this process through every aspect of the law to guarantee that the American People have confidence in our government. I will never give up fighting for you and our nation so the Trump Campaign signaling with that statement a defiant attitude toward a lot of whats going on around the country, as a lot of people are thinking that joe biden is inching closer to the presidency, donald trump saying no, hes not, were going to fight this thing. That sets up a dramatic legal showdown in the coming days. Whats the timeline in the near term . Were getting updates nearly hourly at this point each state is handling it slightly differently we do get these press conferences in states every couple of hours. It could be days the philadelphia officials said it could be days before theyve counted all the provisional ballots and have a final tally thats not unusual what usually happens in a normal year and this is very much not a normal year is the Television Networks and Wire Services get enough data coming in from these states to though its beyond the margin of error and theres no possible way for one candidate or the other to win this thing thats when youll start to see Network Decision desks making those calls. Nbc news has not made those calls yet. Too much data is coming in from places where it indicates that either candidate has a chance in those states once the Networks Start to make those calls, i think the politics of this starts to Transition One thing were going to be watching for is whether or not joe biden addresses the nation tonight. I was told earlier today that we should not expect to see biden during the course of the day today, but likely this evening that could change if we dont have any calls so everything is fluid but the Biden Campaign very much wants to watch and wait here and make sure they have all their ducks in a row before they jump out and say anything with their candidate on a national stage. Yeah. Eamon javers with the latest this hour. Tyler. Georgia very important in the president ial race but absolutely crucial in determining the balance of power in the Senate Republican candidates are currently holding leads in the two races in that state, which if those results hold would give the republicans 50 seats the democrats have 48 with two Georgia Senate races likely heading to runoff votes in january. Ylan is following those races for us now this could be democrats last hope of winning the Senate Majority the runoff between purdue and ossoff has been a nail biter nbc has them at 49. 8 but has not made a final call yet. Ossoff declared today he is ready for round two. We have all the momentum. We have all the energy were on the right side of history. Yall ready to work . [ cheers and applause the second race pits gop senator Kelly Leffler against pastor wornock if democrats win both of those seats, they will control the senate if joe biden wins the white house and that means theyll get to set the agenda. Republicans so far have been careful not to declare victory just yet and even today Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell said hes not sure hes going to be able to keep his title. Back to you. So let me understand it here. The split is 50 gop and 48 to the democrats. The democrats have to win the two to tie at 50 if biden holds the lead in the white house race, then Vice PresidentKamala Harris would break the tie. But if it breaks the republican way, it would be 5248 gop, right . Thats right. Youve got the math right there, tyler. This is really important not just for legislative agenda but also for who biden can even put in his cabinet in democrats hold the majority, they only need 50 votes to confirm who his cabinet picks can be and end up crafting his agenda over the next four years, if he does in fact win the white house. Candidates, judges, the whole ball of wax. Thanks very much, ylan and i think 18yearolds can vote in the runoff well learn more about it between now and then how is it all playing out in the markets . We are down today but just slightly this is after a 7 jump over the previous four trading sessions lets bring in bob pisani for more a bit of a pause today but still a remarkable week, not only here in the United States but even abroad. Lets take a look at the dow leadership this is really a flattish, defensive move today with pfizer, walmart. Whenever you see these stocks, procter gamble, in the lead, thats a very defensive Leadership Group health care is lagging a little bit. United healths up 14 this week its had a huge run up on the prospect of less regulation overall in that particular space. I want to point out one of the things thats happening this week is Energy Stocks are not dramatically participating in the rally. Oil is stick around 37, 38, it flies around in that area. Its down again today and you see all these oil stocks, which have had modest rises this week all down today the slowing Global Growth story and the pandemic has not gone aw away International Etfs have generally done very well and its curious to see that the whole Global Market is lifted a lot of traders tell me this is on prospects for improved global trade sentiment in general under biden. Well talk about that more on monday its important to understand there are several components to this rally the most important thing is no major tax hikes out there on the corporate or individual level likely, less regulation of tech and health care, stimulus coming sooner rather than later, indications of course from the senate theyre willing to deal on that. Of course we had the major Central Banks talking about stimulus as well tyler, back to you robert, thank you very much the market taking a little bit of a breather this day but as the election haze clears, what are the biggest risks to stocks . Joining us to discuss is lindsey belle, and ron enson, a Senior Adviser to schroeders ydo i assume that this weeks rally is because there doesnt look like theres going to be a blue wave . Yeah. I mean, i think that is really a fair assumption. Initially last week i did think that the covid case increase was having an impact on the market and that simply really wasnt the fact when you think about what we saw this week. I mean, were crossing 100,000 cases over the last couple days and the market still isnt flinching. So i really think the market is really morning concerned about what policy can come across to help the market and the economy and individual consumers more so than they are about how the vaccine will impact the economic environment. I think theres still the belief out there that theres not going to be major shutdowns like we saw earlier this year. There might be city and state regulations and changes that impact some businesses but overall the economic environment going into 2021, people remain very optimistic about. Ron, should they be you know, im of a mixed mind on that, tyler with respect to the spike in the coronavirus cases here in the United States and europe, you can make the case that, you know, the best economic numbers now from the recovery are behind us and that as a consequence, you know, we may not see considerable acceleration and job growth, for instance, particularly, although this weekend is aberrational to you in the northeast, as we get into the cold weather months, it will be harder to keep open some of those smaller businesses that operate in leashi ileisure and hospitality. And if we do not get state and local assistance from the federal government, you can expect more layoffs. We saw that in the data today. 900,000 private sector jobs were created but 600,000 was the net. If you start seeing state and local layoffs, we could back pedal on growth very easily. I think you saw that not necessarily in equity markets around the world but certainly in Interest Rate markets overseas im more concerned these days about main street than i am about welfare reform street. Thats what i was going to drive in on there. The markets say one thing about the big publicly traded economy. Main street says quite another when you drive down in streets in my area, theres a lot of real estate for lease. Its not reflective whats happening literal little on main street where Small Businesses are still struggling, dont have additional access to the payroll p Protection Program or other forms of relief. As measured by the jobless reports this morning going up, not going down thats problematic Going Forward for the economy as well. If theres a skinny package as the current Senate Majority leader argued today, we might not have acceleration. I think the markets may have its mind made up on a certain policy issue Going Forward but they dont reflect some of the underlying damage being done to the economy that could last quite a white. November and december are traditionally the sweetest months for stocks, but this november and december there might be a bit of a pall over the market if the race runs into a protracted and angry legal wrangle. Talk me through it we always look forward to the santa claus rally tend of the year, november and december have historically been the best perform being moning months fork market in most years, including election years so we look forward to that but we do think volatility will be a mainsta mainstay of this market over the next couple months and thats because of a lot of the things that you and ron just spoke about. It seems like the market is ignoring the risks theyre concerns and risks that have been around for several months now were talking about stimulus, about another wave of covid cases, about the timing and distribution of a vaccine or treatments so its a lot of the same rhetoric and then you add in a potential legal battle related to the election and that adds another element of uncertainty for investors. So we recommend that our customers, you know, take this rally in stride. Were go 2 off the highs that we saw in september and thats a pretty good place to be. And were optimistic about next year, but dont get too comfortable here is what we would say. All right lindsey, thanks very much. Have a great weekend ron, you, too. Enjoy the nice weather, folks. Kelly. Tyler, coming up, we are all over the battleground states with six races still uncalled. Well bring you the latest numbers. Plus a betterthanexpected jobs report pointing to a steady economic recovery. But could could that progress be derailed marc morial will join us to talk about that next. You can go your own way go your own way your wireless. Your rules. Only Xfinity Mobile lets you choose shared data, unlimited or a mix of each. And switch anytime so you only pay for the data you need. Switch and save hundreds on your wireless bill. Plus, get 300 off when you buy the Samsung Galaxy note20 ultra 5g. Learn more at your local xfinity store today. Zrjs we. Welcome back to power lunch. We have been watching a huge spike in coronavirus cases, 120,000 new cases reported yesterday, according to johns hopkins. Thats another daily record. Lets go to meg tirrell for more on this spike. The number of cases were reporting, we passed the 100,000 new daily cases just yesterday this is so much bigger that anything we saw in the summer and back in the spring these date wa come on the covid tracking project, they report on a state basis. Any way you look at it, we are going into the wrong direction headed into the colder months. If you look at the total cumulative cases in the United States, were up at 9. 6 million now, quickly approaching 10 million. On this pace, well hit 10 million by tuesday its down to ten days it takes to hit the million number. It this is the biden harris plan. Theyve got seven points here. Number one is improving testing and Contact Tracing in this country. They also say they want to produce more personal protective equipment, talking about using the defense production act third is giving National Guidance and resources to schools and Small Businesses fourth, vaccines and treatments, including a 25 billion plan for Vaccine Distribution and manufacturing. Five, protect highrisk groups and since is reestablishing the Surveillance Systems in place and reestablishing our relationship with the World Health Organization and seventh are mask mandates. Theyre talking about working with states and local governments to implement them there. Ive been talking with people about this plan and dr. Scott gottlieb gave me interesting feedback he was fda commissioner in the Trump Administration a couple years ago. He calls the plan thoughtful and particularly focuses on the testing part of the plan saying, among other things, the intense focus on testing will mean more will take precautions to limit their contagion. Thats going to reduce spread. Guys meg, thats all well and good but if joe biden succeeds in becoming president , he doesnt take office until january 20 and there could be millions more cases by then. I just observed that you know that as well as i do. Let me ask you about hospitalizations and deaths. How are they trending across the country as case counts go up they are going up as well we now have more than 53,000 americans in the hospital. Deaths are rises in addition, there are reported 1,200 deaths across the country yesterday. On the sevenday average its rising more than 750 the good news is the number of deaths is not anywhere near as high as it was back in the spring there are multiple studies showing we have gotten better at treating covid19. The concern is that as cases mount and hospitalizations mount, Health Care Systems get overwhelmed and it gets harder to give everybody that same level of great care. Thats why the cases need to be stopped in order to get a lid on this thing thank you very much, meg. Kelly. On that note, lets bring in micha michael osterholm. Its good to have you. The big question on everybodys minds, are we talking about this winter lockdowns, curfews, those kind of mitigation efforts or are we able to cope with this pandemic and keep the economy open this time around . First of all, we have to understand that the term lockdown means a lot of Different Things to different people and how are we going to respond and what does an uncontrolled pandemic do to the economy by itself, even if you dont do anything in terms of official government action. I think the Important Message here, as meg just laid out, we are seeing this very rapid increases in cases at labor day, we were at 32,000 cases a day. Today were at 120,000 case as day. My prediction is that number is going to go much higher that be 120,000 each day hospitalizations will ten contie to increase substantially. Many Health Care Systems will be overrun in the next three to 14, 15, weeks. And finally, the other piece about this that isnt being talked about is the fact that weve identified 40 drugs right now that are really key to treating patients who have covid19 not the kind of drugs you think of in terms of regeneral rjenng regeneron and like that. Of thousands 49, 20 are in shortage status and other countries wanting those drugs largely coming from china, were going to see real decreases in quality of care over the course of the next few months as we run out of those drugs, too. So this is not a good picture at all. Based on what youre saying, we should do shutdowns, stayathome measures today nationwide how do we go about trying to keep this disease from spreading so quickly i would agree with you 100 let me add context to this so many people have equated lockdowns as some kind of restriction on their personal freedom or financial ruin. And i understand particularly the latter one the president of the Minneapolis Federal reserve bank and i wrote an oped piece in the New York Times predicting whats happen