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American Morning

America's New War: Dow Down Again

Aired September 21, 2001 - 09:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: To give us a better idea of what that all might look like later today, Bruce Francis joins us from the trading floor of ABN-AMRO, where some Nasdaq traders work.

Hi, Bruce. What are you seeing there?

BRUCE FRANCIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

It's an emotional opening to what has been a very emotional week. At this point the Dow is off about 1400 points from the opening on Monday, more than 13 percent. ` It's been very difficult for traders and everyone involved in the Wall Street community because not only is almost everyone here dealing with some sort of personal loss or major question about a pending personal loss, but also, of course, we're dealing with a tremendous financial impact.

Margo Vignola of ABN-AMRO is here with me here.

Margo, how do you deal with these twin -- very difficult factors here that we have, the emotional situation for so many of us, and, of course, a very dire financial one as well?

MARGO VIGNOLA, ABN-AMRO: Well, I think that most people in this business, as you say, have a sort of bifurcated impact: one is very personal, they know people, and one is business related. And what we have seen as people have struggled to find footing in this marketplace, they struggled to return to some level of normalcy against the backdrop of a very turbulent environment, and what we have seen is that the market has begun to trade and we in research have begun to provide import (ph) and facts, you're sort of moving in that direction.

FRANCIS: Do you find that people are kind of harried here, they're really -- they're out of emotional gas at this point to deal with it? This is normally a tough bunch here on Wall Street, but we've never gone through something like this.

VIGNOLA: No. What we have seen this past week has been unprecedented, it's been unprecedented for this nation, it's been unprecedented for financial markets. The people are very eager to channel their energy somewhere.

FRANCIS: That there's a desire to get to work here.

VIGNOLA: It's a desire to find a focus. It's a desire to see what they do every day and at least provide some level of input and guidance, not only for their clients and for our customers, but quite frankly, for themselves.

FRANCIS: is it hard to get up in the morning and get back to work when we're dealing with the enormity of what's been happening just a few blocks south?

VIGNOLA: Yes and no. Because as people come in they get caught up with one another. They find community, they find fellowship, and increasingly they find purpose, because we're heading into a very busy time of year, we're heading into to third period earnings, we're beginning to see feedback from companies, and people really do find some comfort in responding to that, whether they're salesman, traders or analysts.

FRANCIS: All right, Margo, thank you very much for joining us. We appreciate it.

VIGNOLA: Thank you.

FRANCIS: Margo Vignola of ABN-AMRO.

Paula, back to you.

ZAHN: Thanks so much.

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