Return to Transcripts main page

CNN 10

U.S. Stock Market Plunges; Hurricane Michael Damage Described; Astronauts Rescued After Failed Soyuz Launch; Positive Athlete Report; Pumpkin Boat Racing in Maine

Aired October 12, 2018 - 04:00   ET

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


CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Whether it`s October 5th, 12th, 19th or 26th, Friday`s are awesome. I`m Carl Azuz delivering your Friday edition of CNN

10. This has not been a good week for the U.S. Stock Market. Monday and Tuesday stocks were flat for the most part. There wasn`t a huge change in

closing prices for the Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 significant stocks. But Wednesday, stocks took a dive dropping nearly 832 points and

Thursday wasn`t much better. The Dow closed down almost 546 points. So what are investors afraid of? What`s causing them to sell their stocks

generating a drop in stock prices?

The big factor is rising interest rates. If the U.S. economy grows too fast so does the threat of inflation, when prices rise and money buys less.

The Federal Reserve, America`s Central Bank, has a tool it can use to try to limit inflation. It can raise interest rates to slow down the economy.

But one side effect of that is that higher interest rates make it more expensive for American consumers and businesses to borrow money. If they

can borrow less, they tend to spend less. So companies on the stock market make less in profits and investors sell their stock. It`s a connected

chain of events. Wednesday was one of the U.S. Stock Market`s worse days ever in terms of the number of points it lost.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The U.S. Market started the day lower and the losses only got worse. In the end, the Dow closed down more than 800 points and

that was it`s third worst points drop in history. The tech nominated NASDAQ was the worst hit down more than 4 percent. It`s worst day in over

two years. Now fears among investors have been rising in recent weeks. Ironically because of mounting evidence of the strength of the U.S.

economy. We saw that reinforced again last week with news that U.S. unemployment was at it`s lowest level in nearly 50 years.

Now the problem with this strong economy is that it`s leading to higher interest rates. Higher bond yields which effect everything from car loans

to mortgage rates and a potentially faster pace of rate rises from the Federal Reserve which could raise borrowing cost for companies and hit

earnings. Tech stocks were the worst hit. Apple, Amazon, Facebook and especially Twitter all sharply lower on the day.

Now these are seen as the riskiest stocks and that means they`re the first place the investors pull their money out of when interest rate fears are

rising. And on top of that, with no signs of a breakthrough in the U.S.- China trade war, investors are getting increasingly nervous about a slowing Chinese economy. That played out today in some of the luxury stocks that

rely on the Chinese market.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There`s the Drive-In County Emergency Operations Center where I have been all morning, all day long. This is the building

right next to us. As you can see, it`s just demolished.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Half a mile or mile from a hotel we came upon this which was a gas station and a Subway location and you can just see that it

has been destroyed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The temperature is starting to drop a little bit tonight. There is no electricity in this area. It is going to be a cold

and long wet night in this part of the Florida panhandle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARL AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. Which of these space projects was first launched in 1967? The Space Shuttle Discovery, The Hubble Space Telescope,

The Soyuz Spacecraft or the Neer Space Station. The answer and one of the oldest rocket designs that`s still being used is the Soyuz.

You don`t hear a lot about emergency landings for astronauts but one was made Thursday when a rocket booster failed during a Russian Soyuz launch.

Two men were aboard, a NASA astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut and they launched from Kazakhstan at 4:40 in the morning. They were supposed to

take four orbits of Earth over about six hours and then dock with the International Space Station for a six month stay but something went wrong

with the booster. And the decision was made to abort the launch and make the emergency landing.

NASA says the Soyuz was able to get away from the problematic rocket booster but the spacecraft had to make a ballistic decent. What that means

is that it had to come down faster and at a sharper angle than it would have with a normal landing. Within minutes of the launch the capsule

landed about 250 miles away from where it took off. Russian and American officials say the two men aboard are safe and in good condition. The

countries space agencies are planning a through investigation into what exactly went wrong.

A program between Major League Soccer and the Special Olympics is giving a unique and remarkable opportunity to a number of athletes. Two of them are

the subject of today`s Positive Athlete Report. They`re teammates on the Special Olympics Unified Sports Soccer Team and they`re learning from each

other as they play the world`s most popular sport.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just like Major League Soccer has it`s All-Star Game, Special Olympics Unified Sports has it`s All-Star Game. And so each of our

MLS teams has sent one Special Olympics athlete, one unified partner and a chaperone or coach to escort them to the game.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Special Olympics Unified is like an opportunity for kids with disabilities that play with kids without disabilities. Because

for kids with disabilities there`s a lot of limitations for them out there so it`s just a better opportunity for us to play together, get to know each

other. Trade friendships and just have fun together. My sister is autistic and she always did gymnastics, bowling or track. Then she did

soccer and they had a Unified program, my mom convinced me to try it out and I liked it and I just stuck with it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like to have fun and have a good time and I play bowling while I was in high school. And I played track and field while I

was in high school but I do softball, basketball and my first year of soccer for this year for my All-Star game.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are so many things that I think everybody gets out of it. You know, there`s the whole socialization aspect. They`re here

for a week. They`re staying at the same hotel as the MLS All-Stars. They`re being treated like professional athletes. Today they were able to

shake hands and get autographs with them and so there`s the whole social aspect of it. There`s the sport aspect of it. You know, they`re being

recognized for their training, for their dedication, for their skills for playing on the field.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coach Garza (ph) and Brad Kazan (ph) like come to our practices and they train with us, help us with the drills and they just

help us, like, become better at soccer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the end of the day I`m probably the one learning from - - from them than they are from me. You know, they actually are so

joyful with - -with the ball at their feet and that`s - - and that`s what matter in life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, I see our Unified team here and (inaudible) train quite a bit. You know, whenever they`re on the other field. So it`s

- - it`s something really cool to see. Just the smile that they have when they meet us and they`re around us. It`s - - it`s, yeah, it`s special.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There he is right in the middle. Can he get it there? Knocked out. Still alive and we`ve got the "Equalizer".

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARL AZUZ: Before we sail off into the sunset this week, we`re climbing aboard a type of boat that may float but doesn`t exactly glide through the

water. These are pumpkin boats, part of a pumpkin festival in the state of Maine. There`s said to be a lot of fun to sail or at least sit in and try

to paddle from A to B before you sink. They weigh a lot. They don`t float well. They`re hard to navigate and they`re described by one sailor as the

worst boats there are.

Still some folks just "regatta" try it. It takes a "yadda" skill to grow one and probably less to row one. Many folks fall in the wake but even if

the event is more "flamboyant" than just plain buoyant. Winning in a pumpkin "stems" from the "seeds" of competition planted all in "gourd" fun.

I`m Carl Azuz. Hope you guys have a great weekend.

END