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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Dow Fights Back; France Honors American Heroes; Bush Visits Border. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired August 24, 2015 - 12:00   ET

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


[12:00:00] KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Points at this point. LEGAL VIEW with Ashleigh Banfield is going to pick up with that right now.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm Ashleigh Banfield, and welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BANFIELD: And we want to begin with this breaking news, the global markets getting absolutely hammered today as many I'm sure wanted to have covered their eyes watching these numbers plunge on the Dow, as many as a thousand points. If you slept a little late this morning, you missed a walloping.

We've got a live look right now at the big board. It sure doesn't look the same as it did just a short time ago, but check out the massive drop in the graphic in the red. S&P sank into correction territory. And it's all because of really what's happening in China and the reverberations. We're going to get into all of that in a moment. But three big, red down arrows.

And guess what? There still is good news to talk about, and that's the bounce back, because it is bouncing back considerably. Right now you saw the numbers, down into the 200s and 300s. And I say 200s and 300s because things change so incredibly quickly. Two hundred and forty- three right now, 244 right now.

I've got my expert team stand big to sort all of this out for us. Cristina Alesci is live at the New York Stock Exchange. A fury of activity there. And chief business correspondent Christine Romans here live with me on the set.

First to you, Cristina, at the New York Stock Exchange. Take me there. Not just to the actual numbers and what's happening, but to the energy as well.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this morning, fear gripped the market here on the floor. You saw a thousand point drop. Things have calmed down since then. Traders on the floor saying, you know, this morning was absolutely crazy but there is a sense at least for now that things have stabilized. The true question is, where we close today. That will be a big one to watch.

Now, we've been at the negative 300 level for the Dow for the last couple of hours. So that could be an indicator of how we close. But one thing is for sure when you speak to the traders and also investors out there, there is a new dynamic in the market. We're not going to have the steady rise that we've seen over the last couple of years. Volatility is back and that could bring opportunity for some, but also I would urge caution for the investor that is not in the market every day because you don't want to be in a situation where you're getting into this market and experience another downturn of a couple of hundred point, which we now know could happen very easily.

And you mentioned this earlier, Ashleigh, this is all tied to global economic growth. There are a lot of concerns that are finally setting in about the emerging markets. We saw those markets melt down. The Chinese stock market has officially crashed. Forty percent drop since the peak. That is creating concerns. That with - China was our number one global growth driver, now traders on the floor and investors are questioning whether the country may be in a recession which, again, we have no clear evidence of that at this point, but the fact that those questions are being raised is what's getting everyone so nervous.

And another thing we have to kind of understand about these market moves is that they're not necessarily tied to any rational fundamental reason. Like - there's no answer as to why this is happening now. From a U.S. perspective, we have great - we have good job numbers. We have good housing numbers. So what is really going on is investors are saying, listen, what can the government do at this point, the U.S. government, what lever can it pull to stop this slide? And there aren't that many out there because it's the international factors that are weighing in right now, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: All right, hold that thought but don't go away because I want to ask you a little bit about those traders who are working behind you. I know a lot of it is computer driven, but there's still people, real people, down there.

But I want to turn to Christine Romans because when this happens, I turn to her. I pick up the phone and I say, "please, get me off the ledge."

And here's what I want to know. There are so many people out there who are watching us right now who have self-directed accounts.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BANFIELD: They have brokerage accounts. They're working their own 401(k)s. There are others who can do nothing about their 401(k)s.

ROMANS: Right.

BANFIELD: But effectively when you see numbers from 1,000 to 274 right now, what is one to do?

ROMANS: Well, now that it's all happened, it's been a 2,000 point move in just about five days, a 2,000 point loss in about five days. If you sell now, what's the point? It's sort of self-destructing, right? I mean you've already had the big move. You don't have a crystal ball by the time the individual investor is freaking out about - about the stock market it's too late. The professional investors have already made their move. So my advice is, if you're just now scrambling to find out what the log in is for your 401(k), don't do anything. Don't do anything right now.

[12:05:07] We've talking to a lot of insiders and professional investors and people who watch the market today who have said, you know, the big money has already made their moves. That's what some of the drama at the opening bell was. Your job is to sit back, find out what do you own in your portfolio, why do you own it, and do you still think it's going to go higher from here.

A lot of people, I'll tell you, have been looking and saying, I haven't been able to get Apple shares this cheap in a long time, I haven't been able to get Netflix shares. Some of the bounce you're seeing from the lows, I mean is never -

BANFIELD: It's a sale! It was a big sale price this morning!

ROMANS: Absolutely. Absolutely.

BANFIELD: Is this a 600, 700-point -

ROMANS: So we've seen -

BANFIELD: You know, acceleration that we've had?

ROMANS: Yes.

BANFIELD: Everybody bought everything on sale.

ROMANS: This is the Dow 30. And now, look, even two of them have turned higher. We have actually green arrows here. So what you find is there was a massive amount of selling at the opening bell and now someone is buying stocks at these - at those low prices and this's why it's bounced off the low.

There are a lot of different companies with different kinds of exposure to China and emerging markets and the crash, quite frankly, in oil prices, but there are a lot of companies whose have been going - these shares have been going up, up, up. I mean we forgot, Ashleigh, that stocks can do go down.

BANFIELD: Yes.

ROMANS: For six years they have been going just straight up. So now you had a selloff this morning at its worst. This S&P 500 was still only at a ten-month low, which just shows you how bullish things have been.

BANFIELD: Are there - I get how the big boys operate, but for everybody else out there, again, who is working the brokerage account probably as we speak -

ROMANS: Right.

BANFIELD: What's - what's likely to be the net affect when we get to close? Are people going to pull out - ROMANS: OK.

BANFIELD: Take this - today's money off the table, sell again and cause it to crash right again tomorrow morning?

ROMANS: What we'll watch is we'll watch the behavior at the close to see if there's more dramatic selling or if you see it kind of grind into the closing bell here. The important thing is the next four days. What does the rest of this week look like. What do we hear from Federal Reserve governors and officials about whether they are going to maybe delay raising interest rates. How concerned is the Fed about what's happening around the world? Because Cristina makes a very good point, every single one of our sources today has said, the fundamentals of the U.S. economy do not - you know, do not indicate a thousand-point decline in the stock market today.

BANFIELD: Despite what Donald Trump tweets out saying that this is, you know, it's all to (ph) the management of China, OK.

ROMANS: Housing prices are rising. The job market is improving, slowly but steadily. Interest rates are still very, very low in this country. So there - there is this moment when, and maybe that happened today already, when investors look and say, hey, wait a second, the U.S. is still the - as a professional investor - or renown investor Mohamed Alarian (ph) always says, the cleanest dirty shirt in the laundry. You know, the United States still is that safest place to invest.

BANFIELD: If I called - well, I just called my banker and said, how about a refinancing meeting this afternoon? You know, wow, what an opportunity.

ROMANS: Yes. Oh, my gosh, yes, yes, yes. Because interest - because the money is flowing out of the stock market into the bond market and that means lower mortgage rates right now.

BANFIELD: Yes, so that's a good thing to do.

And, Cristina, if I can get you back as well. Just about the notion that there are people behind you. It is a very computerized market, but there's got to still be a lot of screaming, yelling, and panic as today sort of has unravel but now seems to be knitted back up again. Can you just take me to the energy of the floor.

ALESCI: The energy at the floor right now is really high, especially in the context of the fact that it's the last few days of August here. It's usually a lot more quiet. And, you know, this is also playing into the numbers that we're seeing, right, because when - when trading is light, which it is in August from an electronic standpoint, and just from a pure portfolio standpoint, trading is lighter. You're going to see more volatility.

Now, that is going to create opportunities for some of the professionals. But as Christine points out, if you're trying to play against those professionals, some of which are on the floor, some of who are on the floor here today, you know, buyer beware. You have to be careful. The other thing that I wanted to make a point of, Ashleigh, is the

fact that America has been a stalwart against these global growth fears, right, but you have to consider it a little bit of a double- edged sword because as America is the stalwart, our currency is stronger. That's going to make it more difficult for American companies to sell their goods overseas. So in addition to this stock market correction, you have that dynamic playing out as well.

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: And we've got those pictures right directly below you in a box - a video box. Our cameraman has just been sort of wandering through the trading floor and they're holding their attitudes in check. They look like they're just - it's another day on the job, but clearly this is just not another day on the job. And I just want to make sure you guys know since everything that has to do with the market is live and exciting, these pictures are actually recorded. So don't think for a minute that this reflects the actual moment that we're - that we're broadcasting. The numbers that reflect the actual moment that we're broadcasting are on the big board and we're watching those really carefully off to the right of your screen.

Christina Alesci, thank you so much. Christine Romans, as always, you get me off the cliff every day. She's my first phone call, I'm telling you, every day. "What do I do?

ROMANS: Do nothing.

BANFIELD: And can - and can you be live on my show today?"

ROMANS: Do nothing.

BANFIELD: Do nothing. I love it.

And, by the way, I want you to make sure that you stay with us because right here on CNN we're keeping an eye on the markets, we're keeping an eye on all the business news, consumer news, international news that feed into the markets and the people who do it the best are cnnmoney.com. Please trust me on this one. Go to cnnmoney.com and just keep an eye on things as you're trying to breathe deeply and do, you know, (INAUDIBLE) yoga, because that's really what the best thing is to do today.

[12:10:19] Coming up next, it is a really, really good thing that they were on that train. American heroes in France yet again and honored today with an award established by Napoleon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Three Americans and a British man, who took down an alleged terrorist effectively with their bare hands on a train, have now been awarded France's highest recognition. It's called the Legion of Honor. It is the same award that Napoleon himself established back in 1802. And it's only reserved for those who give outstanding service to that nation. So, here they are, Anthony Sadler, Spencer Stone and Alek Skarlatos.

Chris Norman is also with the gang, off to the left in the tan suit. They pounced and subdued this suspect aboard a packed high speed train from Amsterdam to Paris on Friday. Another passenger, a French national, has not gone public yet. No matter, he's going to be honored at a later date. And when you look at the list of weapons that the attacker had on him, it's pretty clear the suspect was a major threat. An AK-47 assault weapon with nine magazines of ammunition. He had a Luger pistol with extra ammo and he also, I guess for his good measure, had a box cutter, and he used it. Passenger Christina Coons says she owes her life to those fellow passengers.

[12:15:25] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINA COONS, WITNESS TO FRANCE TRAIN SHOOTING: I feel like I have so much more to do in my life. I'm only 28 years old. And I have goals and everybody else on that train does as well. And they saved us. You know, they are heroes. And if they don't think they're heroes - I mean, they're very humble and I respect that, but they are heroes. They're truly heroes. And my mom wanted to say thank you so much. She's very grateful that they were on that train.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Oh, that is some raw emotion.

I want to go now to senior international correspondent Jim Bittermann, who's live with us in Paris.

It's such a good news story with a terrifying element to it. I want you to take me to the suspect and what we know about him, what the French authorities are finding out about intentions. You know, walk me through this.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, in fact, President Hollande said it this morning about intentions. He said it could have been a massacre here. You do the math, 500 passengers on board the train. The gunman armed with 300 rounds of ammunition for his assault rifle. It could have been a disaster for all aboard that train.

In any case, the intentions of the gunman, well, the authorizes here - the intelligence authorities have been tracking this guy for some time. He was on what they call an (INAUDIBLE) s, which is an s-notice, a special surveillance notice that goes out to intelligence community - the intelligence community throughout Europe basically to keep a watch on him and his travels.

Nonetheless, they had no idea that this plot was coming up. They did know, however, that he took a trip to Turkey in May and that he had some extremist Islamist contacts before going to Turkey. So there was plenty of reason to believe that this was definitely a terrorist attack. The terrorism prosecutor in France has taken over the investigation. Nonetheless, El Khazzani's lawyer says that in fact he wasn't going to commit a terrorist attack, he was only planning an armed robbery, as if that could be less devastating. Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Well, maybe with regard to litigation, but he's not going anywhere for a pretty long time, I think it's safe to say.

Jim Bittermann, thank you for that. Great reporting. Appreciate it.

Coming up next, Democrats say Jeb Bush's language about immigrants crossed the line, but he is not backing down. Maybe he's doubling down. He's heading to the border. Nonetheless, we're going to take you there.

We are also keeping a very close watch on stocks, on your bottom line. We're trying to figure out what this bite back is all about. After losing an eye-popping thousand points on today's market, we're down to the 200 mark now it seems. Will it get better or worse? Update coming.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:21:36] BANFIELD: Breaking news. Something we can only call a huge correction after a massive correction. If that doesn't make much sense, maybe this will make sense. It's the eye on the markets. Socks down significantly, 208 right now on your screen.

But if you're just waking up, trust me, this is nothing. Nothing compared to where we were just a few short hours ago. We were down a thousand points literally just minutes after the opening bell rang. The White House is keeping an eye on things as well. Wondering if we're going to have any conversations from that Briefing Room about the chaos in the markets. So we'll take that president's press secretary briefing as soon as they go live with it. About 9:00 or so. Eight and a half minutes or so from now. We're going to continue to watch that and see if there's any comment from the White House with regard to the correction and the massive stock drop today. It's 205.58, keeping an eye.

I want to take you to politics now. Donald Trump says it's great that rival Jeb Bush is visiting the U.S./Mexican border today and predicts that he'll get an eyeful of what Trump calls "rough, tough stuff." His words. The former governor of Florida due to arrive in McAllen, Texas, a little over three hours from now, amid an intra-party squabble over birth right citizenship. Governor Bush says she supports allowing anybody born on U.S. soil to be a U.S. citizen, which, by the way, is pretty much what the 14th Amendment says and requires. There's some weird language but it's been pretty much settled by the Supreme Court. Some others in the Republican field, though, do not agree necessarily but they all agree they want to beef up border enforcement efforts.

And that brings me to CNN's Polo Sandoval, who is live in McAllen, Texas, awaiting Governor Bush's visit.

So walk me through what Jeb Bush is going to see and do and what he can expect.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ashleigh, immigration and border security going to be the main topics of conversation as former Governor Jeb Bush arrives here in the border town of McAllen, Texas. This really is ground zero and really the epicenter for this debate on immigration and border security. So today's visit going to be key as he continues to campaign for a spot in the White House.

I can tell you that really this is - this is one of those parts of the country that have seen the effects of immigration. Just last summer I was here to report on that tremendous influx of undocumented immigrant children that were just pouring across the border. Well over 65,000 unaccompanied and undocumented children here. And so as you can imagine, that will be one of the main topics once he arrives here on the ground. He's expected to take part in a fund-raiser. Bush will also host a roundtable with several border officials before making himself available to the media in the restaurant that you see behind me.

But what's interesting, Ashleigh, we don't see an actual border visit on the former governor's agenda, even though the boarder really is only a six-mile drive south of here. The Bush campaign saying that Bush is very well aware of what the border looks like and the dynamics of this - of this boundary and what is the Rio Grande and really it does not take a visit to the border today in order to really comprehend some of the issues, some of the very serious issues that are being tackled as we get closer to 2016.

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: All right, Polo, keep an eye on things and update us when the governor arrives as to what's going to happen. Interesting, though, that you say the restaurant, not the actual border.

And by the way, folks, you do not want to miss the second Republican debate. It's here on CNN September the 16th. Mark your calendar. It's going down at the Ronald Reagan Library in California.

[12:25:11] And CNN is going to play host also to the first of six Democratic debates. October 13th is the debate coming at you live from Nevada.

GOOP contender Ben Carson says drones are one way to cut down on illegal border crossers and he's not just talking about surveillance, either.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, you look at some of these caves and things that are out there. One drone strike, boom, they're gone. And they're easy to find. I'm not saying that I would. I'm saying I would use all the possibilities that we have and let this become a military issue instead of a bureaucrat issue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: So if you're thinking the same thing that a lot of people are thinking, caves? My colleague Jim Acosta was thinking it, too. And so he decided to ask that question again when Dr. Carson appeared on CNN's "State of the Union." (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARSON: There are caves. There are caves that they utilize. Those caves can be eliminated. There are a number of possibilities that could be one of them. I'm not talking about killing people. No people with drones.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Doubling down on the caves as opposed to the tunnels. But he says caves. In our latest CNN/ORC poll, Carson comes in third in a 17- person field, though statistically everyone below Trump and Bush are tied.

Let me take you to the Democratic side now. The focus remains on a guy who is not even in the race, but who seems to be giving it some pretty serious thought, it's the vice president, Joe Biden. He's having lunch this hour with President Obama and there's certainly nothing unusual about that. He's the VP, right? But CNN has learned that on Saturday the vice president met privately with this woman, Elizabeth Warren. The Harvard professor turned U.S. senator, consumer advocate and thorn in the side of Wall Streeters. You may recall that Ms. Warren was recruited heavily by liberal Democrats to run for president herself, but said thanks but no thanks. Sources say she and Vice President Biden talked economic policy and not specifically the 2016 election.

But here's another potential sign or signal of how Vice President Biden is leaning. He just hired a communications director whose resume includes - ready - John Edwards' presidential campaign in 2008. Mystery continues.

Well, it looked like Black Monday. It really looked like a Black Monday on Wall Street right at the opening minutes after the bell went off. So what happened? We have a live update and analysis coming up. We're now below 200 at 141. Good God, might we erase the disaster of today midway through the day? We may get reaction from the White House, too. Just look in those faces. Wonder how they'll feel at close today.

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