In this weeks edition of the talkers. Watch. Now youve got 18 states joining your lawsuit in the same argument. Does that make it more likely that the Supreme Court takes it up or not . Im certainly hopeful given how important this issue is not just for this election. This is about how were going to view our future elections, is this type of election going to be allowed . Maria what can you tell us about the inspection of voting machines, jenna . This is a lawsuit that an elector actually brought himself. This isnt the trump campaign, its a completely independent group. Its not our how assessment. Maria Speaker Pelosi is not giving in on this idea of business liability. Some members of congress in states with much lower unemployment are saying how much money are we going to be asked to send to Nancy Pelosis california, to Chuck Schumers new york. Maria if the governments trying to forgive all these peoples student debt, what about the res of us who had two and three jobs during school to pay for school . Youve absolutely nailed the point that to ask taxpayers, two out of three of whom have not gone to college, to help underwrite the forgiveness of those one in three that have is fundamentally unfair. Maria theyre talking about potentially getting the approval by the end of this week. You attended the white house summit yesterday. What can you tell us . To try to put this into perspective, maria, as a doctor, this in terms of being able to save lives is right up there with the discovery of insulin or penicillin. Maria and it was a huge week on the vaccine front. In fact, at the end of the week we see that the biotech and Pfizer Vaccine was given emergency approval. I spoke with health and Human Services secretary alex azar, and he told me we could see the beginning and the first of the inoculation ares beginning this upcoming monday. Heres alex azar. As soon as we get the final document signed by fda, well give instruction on pfizer. Theyll use fedex and ups. They drop ship through a very tightlycontrolled system to the 636 sites our governors have designated for this initial tranche, and we could see advantage su nations beginning on monday or tuesday. Maria still aing rocky week for stocks, the s p 500 and nasdaq scoring new record highs this week. Two new highlyanticipated ipos as well, doordash and airbnb both soaring. Joining me to talk about that is brian bell city. Brian brian belski. Thanks so much for being here. Thanks for having us. We with really appreciate it. Maria so you just heard from alex azar were going to see the first inoculation probably this monday or tuesday. Whats your take on what a vaccine in the marketplace does for investing and markets. I also want to get your take on year end and these record highs that were seeing and whether or not were going to see that sustain into 2021. Great way to start the segment, maria. I would say this, obviously, not to state the obvious, it is wonderful news. Its wonderful news for society, for business, for the United States really taking and demonstrating the lead on this. Now, the one thing that we would caution everyone, its the number one question, quite frankly, with respect to fielding from our private wealth clients around the world is one vaccine is not an end all, be all. We need to see implementation of that. We want to caution people that 2021 is not the only year that were going to see this, quoteunquote, transformation to normalization. Its going to take a couple of years. Anytime that you shake up human nature and the emotion and fear that really coronavirus and the pandemic brought upon us, its going to take some time. So, obviously, this is very good news, and the markets digesting it. I get the feeling a little bit on a near term basis, however, maria and you certainly covered it on your show to this week its a little bit of sell the news especially given how strong stocks were in november. But i do think setting the pace for 2021 is what we said is another year of the unprecedented bull market in the United States. Maria yeah. And i mean, youve been talking about this 20year secular bull market for a long time, brian. Youve been wright, and youre with expecting a broadening out of performance in 2021. Walk us through that because so far weve seen really technology, health care among the groups that are the Leadership Groups on wall street. We had this ipo bonanza this week with doordash as well as airbnb doing very well. How do you see the market broadening out in 2021 . We see it broadening out just due to fundamentals, maria. But we do think that investors should be very balanced. Although we do favor financials, Consumer Discretionary and industrials for the year, our secular favorites in terms of sectors have to be Communication Services, technology and discretion flower. Heading into 2021, especially Communication Services and tech, maria with, are 40 of the s p. Weve seen a lot of concentration there, and we we do think investors should maintain those positions but trade around them. If you have apple stock and you in position to increase it by 25 basis points when the market rallies, peel off a little bit. Thats good oldfashioned bottomsup stock picking. Maria brian, its good to see you this weekend. Thanks so much. Thank you. Maria brian belski joining us there. A quick break and then combating covid with new technology. 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And eliquis has significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. Eliquis is fdaapproved and has both. Dont stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. If you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling, numbness, or muscle weakness. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily and it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Whats around the corner could be worth waiting for. Ask your doctor about eliquis. Maria welcome back. Using technology in the balling battle against covid, ibm has been Adapting Technology to help business and government inform the public. I spoke to ibms executive chairman Ginni Rometty about how big blue is adjusting. Two different perspectives. The first is what did we do in actually responding. In the responding, you just mentioned things like watson. From the consumer perspective, we are the a. I. Answering consumer questions in 25 countries. If you go to the Weather Channel on your phone, thats ubm, and you can track ibm, and you can track covid and what is happening. We also, you might have noticed during one of the president s briefings during covid, we pulled together what i call the consortium for the cure. This is all the high performing computers around the world, a billion dollars of horsepower, a hundred world class sign terrific teams, and this is all part of the therapeutics that are running their tests there. And last but not least, right now weve got watson works, and thats all about tie thing together People Management and facilities management. So when i bring people back, do i know the space has been cleaned, are we separated, etc. I do that in dealing with the momentum right now. And, of course, clients Mission Critical work running. Just a quick statement on the go forward because really as many people are dealing with the current now are as focused on go forward, and its really put a premium on people wanting to modernize and build i resilience into everything they do. Ive spent my whole tenure building a hyper cloud and a. I. Platform. This is work were doing with delta. But the second thing is put a really big spotlight on the issue around diversity, inclusion and Economic Opportunity for all. You talked about the jobs report, so weve got some very big programs going on around bringing people back into the economy into these kind of technology jobs. Maria that sounds great. What has been the response from your clients . Do you see businesses increasing capital budgets, increasing spending on some of these things . I mean, you know, the pandemic hit us like a fastball and a curveball, and it became very quickly clear that companies were going to have to pay up to actually address this whether it be from a security standpoint or, as you say, making work continue innovatively. Well, i think you see very different response in a different timeline by different industry. And so clearly, the industry some most capital strapped right now are still in a preservation mode. But others already are starting to come out of this. And the words you hear from many clients are to build back better, to emerge stronger. Any kind of phrase you want. And i use the example of until that airlines. This is a moment theyll move to the hybrid cloud, they will modernize many platforms. Theyd already done a great job, but theyll take it to the next level. Or a company like schlumberger in oil and gas. Can i now with our hybrid cloud write something once, run something myrrh . You see it by industry coming back differently, but theyre all pointing the same direction. Maria what about all the competition out there in the cloud, ginni . How does ibm stay in a leadership position when youve got Smaller Companies trying to get that market share . Yes. Look, this is, as i said, weve really worked hard to rebeings position the reposition the company completely for cloud, a. I. And day that. When i say cloud, how we are dump shaded differentiated, its the hybrid cloud. Most clients that we deal with, theyre going to be in a hybrid world meaning theyll have many public clouds, things in their own private cloud on their premise, and they will have to connect all of this. And its just like remodeling a house in many ways, you dont do it all at once. Thats why we brought red hat, as you know, one of the largest act by suggestions in history. Its now tripled in its customer size, and it is the leading hybrid cloud platform. So thats where we if fit in. Maria certainly, your legacy is very much about the increase in art official intelligence investment, the increase in investment in the cloud, you mentioned the red hat acquisitions, to ,000 client 30,000 client engagements with watson across 20 different agencies. Let me ask you to look ahead and tell me where you think the most pressing needs are for companies, your clients and how technology is changing the i way they look at stay at home. I mean, today youre hearing corporate ceos saying, look, you know, what ive learned is some of my employees are doing better at home. Im going to keep this unit whether its pr or hr, im going to keep that unit advertising at home because theyre actually more productive than they were. So how does that change from your standpoint with clients changing the way people work . Well, look, i think one thing ive learned over these last, again, eight, nine years has been one of the most important things in addition to changing your portfolio and changing how you work. Now the panic really accentuated it. The outcome, well all be in a hybrid working environment. So depending on your job, youll come in sometimes, not others. Collaborate remotely. Some may be 100 remote, but i do believe many will be a hybrid model instead because at the intersection of why we meet with people physically is around innovation. In many industries, you learn from others. So thats ooh why im quite convinced and clear it will be a hybrid model going forward. Maria my thanks to executive chairman Ginni Rometty. Holiday shopping very different for most of us this year. We are taking a look at retails winners and losers as we head into year end with the former chairman and to support a strong immune system, your body needs routine. Centrum helps your immune defenses every day, with vitamin c, d and zinc. Season, after season. Ace your immune support, with centrum. Help the world believe in holiday magic. And this year was harder than ever. And yet, somehow, you all found a way to pull it off. Its not about the toys or the ornaments but about coming together. Santa, santa, youre on mute just wanted to say thanks. Thanks for believing. Maria welcome back. The state of retail in focus, we are two weeks away from the christmas holiday. Consumer demand is surprisingly strong despite the shutdown and this pandemic. Core retail sales up 8 president yearoveryear the last few months as americans are spending big going into the holidays. Toy sales have been a win, sales actually have have surged. Joining us to weigh in on the retail environment and the backdrop from the if economy is former chairman and ceo of toys r us, jerry storch. Its great to see you, thanks very much for being here. First, assess the situation for us. Id love to get your take on where you see retail going, how its changed and whats really in demand right now. How do you assess where we are right now . Well, as you say, retail has been tremendously strong, and i dont know, sometimes people report, no, its slowing could be. I dont see any sew slowdown at all. Its been very strong for many months, way up over prepandemic levels. Its actually people generally have money, there was a report that came out recently that showed that Household Net Worth was way up. People have money. They dont have a lot to spend it it on, theyre not going to be moot suv i os or movies or vacations, so we we see this giant increase in retail sales. Very Strong Performance in everything christmas, in how many goods, in electronics. Big numbers coming out of costco reported a great number just on thursday, you see big numbers out of wall or mart, target, home depot, lowes, best buy. You know, huge numbers. And, of course, amazon is doing tremendously well. So theres no real consumercon statement on the growth in retail sales. The only sort of cloud i see is there are capacity issues. You have some limitations on capacity in physical stores, particularly if hardhit states or those with severe restrictions, and then you have issues with fedex and ups being able to ship all these goods that are moving to ecommerce in massive numbers which makes amazon the biggest winner because they can handle increases in volume. The losers are apparel, apparel, apparel. [laughter] sorry, go ahead. Maria thats what i was going to ask you. What has happened in terms of the bifur caution of retail . We were talking with don peebles a couple of weeks ago, and hes a big owner of commercial real estate. He said the brick and mortar retailer is dead, say goodbye to it. Increasingly, were going to see the Digital Economy take over when it comes to retail. Doesnt sound like youre buying into that. Thats an extreme characterization. We have seen several years in ecommerce growth come press into a single year. Its going to be big. But youre still only talking about 20 roughly of the total pie that is,ing you know, strictly ecommerce. Much of whats categorized is when you buy it online and drive to the store. Or at target, a lot of their success has come from their shipped acquisition where you buy Products Online and use the store as a fulfillment center. So id hardly say that bricks and mortar is dead. But what is clearly stressed is apparelbased retailing because malls are full of, you know, Clothing Stores. And, of course, Department Stores have been struggling for a long time. There has been at least a decadeslong shift of Consumer Spending out of apparel and into hard lines, electronics and other products. That has accelerated during the pandemic. Theres no point in getting all dressed up when theres no place to go. So this has only increased, but it doesnt mean its not going to come back later because it was dying already. We had way too many Clothing Stores in america, and you see them going bankrupt. I think thats what he might be talking about, the mallbased spending apparel retailers, i do think that is a permanent shift thats taking place. Maria interesting. What do you feel are the hot items or the demand right now, and where is the money moving this Holiday Season . Are you seeing any trends . Oh, its cheerily going to home. Clearly going to home. People certainly have discovered the pathos of baking, right . Air fryers, anything related to your home. Its just selling like crazy. Every ad for every retailer has the kitchen aid mixer in it. Thats the new normal. People have discovered that, and i think some of that is going to be a longterm shift. Electronics will continue to grow at an incredible pace, partly because you need it for work from home, and some of thats going to stay, and partly because leken tronics have been electronics have been hot for 10, 20 years. Toys, i know a lot about toys, toys have had a fantastic year because you have all the kids at home, no real bear townment options entertainment options, so you get toys. And thatll continue for a whil still a lot of months, back in school, until everyone has vaccines in their arms. Afterwards, im a little worried because the fertility rate in this coun