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First Move with Julia Chatterley

U.S. Firms Add Workers as Democrats Push Forward on Financial Aid; China's Kuaishou Tech IPO Sees Triple-Digit Gains; Robinhood Removes Limits on GameStop Trading. Aired 9-10a ET

Aired February 05, 2021 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:17]

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR, FIRST MOVE: Live from New York, I'm Julia Chatterley. This is FIRST MOVE and here is your need to know.

Jobs jump. U.S. firms add workers as Democrats push forward on financial aid.

Kuaishou quids in. China's tech IPO sees triple-digit gains.

Restrictions reversed. Robinhood removes limits on GameStop trading.

And --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIGITAL VOICE: Please stay casted back and look into look in camera. Your current body temperature is 100.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Do you have a fever?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHATTERLEY: Android assistance. The robots helping fight the COVID pandemic. It's Friday. Let's make a move.

Welcome once again to FIRST MOVE as we move towards a special Super Bowl weekend here in the States, but meantime the Wall Street buzz is all about

the three Bs: Biden, Bezos and Brady.

Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady and whether he manage his seventh Super Bowl win. We're in the business of Super Sunday later on in the show, but

first, a super important Friday for economic data here too.

Our very first look at the U.S. jobs market picture for 2021 and the United States added 49,000 jobs net last month. It's actually a weaker number than

expected, but at least, it's a positive number. We added jobs.

The bad news is if you look at December and November numbers, they were revised lower by a combined 159,000 jobs. The picture over the winter was

weak. We'll discuss all the details shortly.

In the meantime, U.S. futures have remained higher even with this news. Four tenths of a percent as you can see, the NASDAQ and the S&P beginning

the session at record highs. Remember, weak jobs growth makes the case for fresh U.S. economic aid stronger.

Reddit stocks a bit higher premarket, too, but they were very red yesterday. GameStop now down some 80 percent this week. Trading at

Robinhood as I mentioned, removing restrictions on trading of some of its most popular names. So with a speculative sizzle, subdued at least for now,

we focus once again on vaccine rollouts and reopenings.

Johnson & Johnson has requested Emergency Use Authorization for its one dose vaccine in the United States. Germany has said the E.U. is in final

negotiations with its Novavax offering.

Here is the global picture. Lots of optimism in Italy that Mario Draghi will manage to form a government. Bond yields seeing their biggest weakly

fall there, in fact, since October of last year.

And in Asia, Japanese car makers racing ahead tied to rumors of a potential tie up there with Apple to make electric cars. That will be a driver for

another day.

For now, let's motor ahead and get the details on those U.S. jobs numbers. John Harwood is live in Washington for us. John, good news, the net we

added jobs even though it was a weaker number than expected. The bad news as I mentioned, those revisions lower for November and December. The

picture weaker at least coming into 2021 than we thought.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're still down 10 million jobs from our peak in 2020, which is part of the argument that

President Biden is making for this COVID relief plan to try to bridge people who have been dislocated from the labor market.

Remember, we had more than 770,000 people filing first time unemployment claims this week, 46th consecutive week of rate of claims higher than in

any previous week before the pandemic.

So it's a weak labor market. We've got a lot of people suffering and with the vote on the Senate last night to approve a budget resolution, President

Biden and fellow Democrats are racing ahead to try to pass that COVID Relief Plan that both bridges people to try to get to the other side, but

also accelerates funding for vaccinations and other means of getting this pandemic under control, which is the most important single thing that

anybody can do to get this economy roaring again.

CHATTERLEY: Hours and hours of debate last night. Can you give us any sense of perhaps timing and again, perhaps what President Biden will say

today because to your point, vaccinations, speeding up this process, reopenings, all critical to bringing those vital jobs back.

And for the ones -- those people that have been out of work for a long time now, more than 27 weeks, four million of them, it is critical to get them

back in the jobs market as soon as possible.

[09:05:02]

HARWOOD: I would expect Joe Biden to make the case today for prompt action by Congress to try to get this COVID Relief Plan in place before mid-March

when those extended unemployment benefits expire under the deal that was passed by Congress signed by President Trump before he left office in

December.

So both Chambers of Congress have now passed a budget resolution. That allows this process in which they don't have to extend negotiations with

Republicans, they can do it with Democratic votes only and it appears as if he they've gotten themselves in a posture where even this impeachment trial

next week is not likely to be much more than a speed bump before getting passage for this bill.

The House is going to move ahead to prepare legislation under that reconciliation procedure to implement this package. Senate Committees will

be doing work, certainly at the staff level while senators are in that impeachment trial, but this thing is moving pretty rapidly.

CHATTERLEY: Yes. Mid-March. That's your deadline. John Harwood, thank you so much for that.

HARWOOD: You bet.

CHATTERLEY: All right, to Hong Kong now where a whopping public debut took place for TikTok competitor, Kuaishou. The short video app stock jumping

over 160 percent -- wowsers -- on its first day of trade.

Selina Wang joins us now with more. Selina, thanks to a very talented producer of mine, fast hands, I believe is the direct translation, but just

talk us through the debut and what this actually is?

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Julia, eye-popping numbers indeed. One early investor called this an incredible outcome. This is the biggest

IPO since the pandemic began raising more than $5 billion, shares jumping more than 160 percent.

This company is backed by Tencent. It runs a live streaming and short video app. Its platforms have more than 300 million daily active users. Like

similar apps in China, a key revenue drivers is users buy virtual gifts for their favorite live streamers. It also makes money from online advertising,

as well as more recently, e-commerce and online games.

Now, the company does face stiff competition from ByteDance's Douyin, which is the Chinese version of TikTok, and it actually has around twice as many

daily active users as Kuaishou.

But the engagement numbers for Kuaishou are pretty impressive. On average, users spend more than 80 minutes on the app a day, opening it ten times a

day.

I spoke one of the earliest investors in this company, Hurst Lin. He is a general partner at DCM Ventures. The firm said that it is going to generate

a return of around 600 times its original investment. So take a listen here to what he had to say about what originally attracted him to this company.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HURST LIN, GENERAL PARTNER, DCM VENTURES: The community element of Kuaishou is very, very strong relative to all of the other short video

programs or apps at the time that the users actually were very sticky to one another.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WANG: Julia, speaking about that community element. What's really interesting in the IPO prospect is that about a quarter of its nearly 770

million monthly active users are creators themselves -- Julia.

CHATTERLEY: Wow. That is a fascinating statistic. I was just pouring over all the numbers here, so just in terms of valuation, I think this gives

them around $160 billion. If I were ByteDance looking at the asset that I have in TikTok, and admittedly, it has been a ropey year quite frankly with

their potential ban in the United States.

They last raised money giving them a valuation of $180 billion. If I was sitting on an asset like TikTok, I would be like, time perhaps to take that

to market? What do we think, Selina?

WANG: Well, Julia, I think you are exactly right. This is certainly a very encouraging sign for ByteDance. Experts say it should encourage them to go

public as investors gain more insights in to what the Chinese short video app industry is going to be like and not just for ByteDance, but for other

assets, it shows that this is actually a good time.

There was massive demand for this IPO. It was heavily oversubscribed, a lot of retail and institutional investor interest. In fact, more than 1.4

million individual investors had placed orders for this offering.

So really, great timing overall despite being in middle of a pandemic. But, of course, there are also risks to investing in these red hot Chinese tech

stocks. This IPO does come at a time when regulators in China are putting increasing scrutiny on tech giants and Chinese regulators have also placed

further restrictions on virtual gifting in China -- Julia.

CHATTERLEY: I was just looking at things about the population of Hong Kong. That is effectively one in five people in Hong Kong were looking to

invest in this stock. That is the definition of red hot.

Selina Wang, also a great addition, red hot addition in green to our show today. Thank you. Have a great weekend. Selina Wang there.

All right, shares of GameStop -- speaking of red and red hot -- higher premarket as trading app, Robinhood, lifts restrictions on purchases. This

after GameStop shares fell again yesterday losing more than 40 percent.

Paul La Monica joins us now with the latest. Paul, I have to say my eyes are watering when I look at that stock chart and I recall our conversations

over the last week and a half. Wowsers.

[09:10:25]

PAUL LA MONICA, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Yes. I think that's pretty much the way to sum it up, Julia. Wowsers, indeed both with GameStop and AMC, these

shares having meteoric rises and dramatic, almost, Icarus-like falls from the sun in the past few days.

But now you have Robinhood finally letting investors come back in and buy these stocks, which had been a big problem. Yes, Robinhood had some issues

with regards to liquidity and clearing, you know, trades because of all the pressure from people wanting to buy this stock.

But Robinhood got into a lot of hot water from a reputational standpoint because they still allowed people to close out their position. So whether

or not this was true or not, the perception is that Robinhood was helping some of the hedge funds trying to get out of money losing short positions

while the average investor that wanted to still buy GameStop and AMC was prohibited from doing so.

And then once they were allowed to do so, they were only able to buy a couple of shares here and there. Finally, those restrictions are off. It

would be interesting to see just how much they rebound today. They are up a little bit premarket, but they are not surging.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, and Robinhood, obviously, and the hedge funds involved all denying any involvement, any communication about this, of course, too

and I do believe, my understanding is the margins were already being lifted in, I think, January 21st as far as Robinhood was concerned.

So that the warning signs, perhaps of the heating up of the interest in this stock was perhaps alluded to even before a lot of these traders got

involved, and that's the problem. That's why where you start to lost some real money as this comes down quickly.

Paul, do you think these Reddit investors tried to gain with other stocks or do you think this was this for many of them, painful enough that they

perhaps don't try this again?

LA MONICA: I'm not so sure. I mean, you have Mark Cuban urging the Reddit community to come back in and try and you know, buy some of these shares to

show, again, the hedge funds who is boss, so to speak, and there are several other companies: BlackBerry and Nokia that have been benefiting

from the Reddit surge.

You know, conflicting reports about how much silver and silver miners, is that really the WSP community or is that hedge funds themselves trying to

push silver prices up.

I think there are a lot of momentum trades that are out there beyond GameStop and AMC, and if anything, this has proven that is market is one

where investors -- there are some investors out there that don't want to just boringly buy index ETFs that have the same six stocks that everyone

else owns.

There are a lot of other stocks out there and some interesting short term and long term trading opportunities.

CHATTERLEY: I have to say, there was nothing boring quite frankly about the last ten days. The exact opposite quite frankly and I love that you

brought Mark Cuban up because he said he wasn't invested, but hold if you can afford to. It works.

LA MONICA: He can afford to because he is a billionaire and that he owns the Dallas Mavericks. Not everybody is as wealthy as Mark Cuban.

CHATTERLEY: No words. Yes. Paul La Monica, thank you so much for that.

All right, these are the stories making headlines around the world. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was back in Moscow in a courtroom today.

This time, pleading not guilty to charges that he defamed a World War II veteran.

Navalny accused prosecutors of pursuing fabricated quote, "cases" against him saying truth is on his side.

Frederik Pleitgen is live in Moscow. Frederik, you know, when I read this headline, I thought maybe I was reading some form of fake news and I

wasn't. I am incredulous. Talk to me about what happened today, please?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, you're absolutely right, you didn't and that's exactly what this trial is about.

Alexei Navalny still is inside that courtroom, and he is the one who said once again, he believes that it is a sham trial.

He believes that this trial is politicized. His lawyers also said exactly the same thing. They say the charges are vague, the charges are arbitrary.

They believe this entire case is illegal. Never the less, this trial has been going on.

And essentially, what the prosecutor is saying is that Alexei Navalny allegedly defamed a 94 -- now 94-year-old World War II veteran when Alexei

Navalny commented on a video that this veteran was in, praising changes in the Constitution that were pushed through by Vladimir Putin last year.

Of course, those changes allowed Vladimir Putin to stay in power in this country a lot longer. Essentially, Alexei Navalny called the people who

were in that video political hacks or political lackeys and that's why he is now being charged with defamation -- for allegedly defaming this 94-

year-old World War II veteran.

[09:15:11]

PLEITGEN: Alexei Navalny went completely on the offensive in this trial. I was reading some of the transcripts of what he said, and it really is

remarkable.

He said that he believed that this 94-year-old did not realize that he was actually charging or putting in this card against Alexei Navalny. He

believed that someone else was speaking for the World War II veteran. The World War II veteran was actually on a video link and was supposed to read

a 20-page dossier which obviously, he couldn't do. They had to call in an ambulance in to give this man medical attention.

Alexei Navalny said that he believed that this man should never have been made to go through this trial in the first place. So, some of the things

that are going on this trial, absolutely seem to be very remarkable. There are still witnesses being heard right now.

And if Alexei Navalny is convicted in this, he could face another major fine for this defamation and, of course, Julia, it is the second time that

he has been on trial just this week here in Moscow.

On Tuesday, he was sentenced to jail for at least two and a half years with a suspended sentence that he had for a fraud case from 2014, which he also

said was politicized and that was turned into a real jail sentence.

And all of this, of course, we always have to point out, comes just less than a day after President Biden came out and called on Russia to treat

Alexei Navalny fairly, saying that the way he was being treated was politicized here in this country.

The Kremlin, of course, as we have been talking about saying that they are going to have none of that -- Julia.

CHATTERLEY: Fred, you know, supporters of Navalny will look at this and say they are making an example of him for coming back. He should have

stayed in exile.

This is the message that the Russian government wants to send, a message to anyone else, perhaps, who wants to try this. This is what supporters of

Navalny will be saying.

Fred, what are ordinary Russians quietly saying about what's going on here?

PLEITGEN: Yes. I think it's really a divisive issue in Russian society, and I think that you do see some of the fissures also in Russian society,

as well.

I do think that there are folks in the older generation who don't approve of what Alexei Navalny is doing, who don't approve of him coming back. But

there are certainly many, many people in the younger generation who do believe that Alexei Navalny, while they may not agree with him politically.

They do believe that he is someone that they now want to rally around and we have seen that at some of the demonstrations that have been going on

over the past couple of weeks where you had young people come out and say they believe that it is their time to speak out, this is their time to call

for political change here in this country.

That doesn't mean that he is necessarily very popular among many people, but it certainly means that a lot of people do respect very much the fact

that after he was poisoned by Novichok that he did come back to this country and that he continues to take a stand despite the fact that he is

in prison, and just the fact that many people here believe that he is being treated very unfairly by the authorities.

So this is certainly something that, you know, can be a bit of a divisive issue, but certainly one that has galvanized at least, the younger or large

parts of the younger generation here in this country -- Julia.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, incredible events. Fred, great to have you with us. Fred Pleitgen there in Moscow.

All right, still to come on FIRST MOVE, robo rescue? I speak to the CEO of a company putting robots on the front lines of medical care.

And a mix of old and new for Super Bowl Sunday, all-time Tom Brady on the field for the 10th time with a lineup of rookies on the advertising roster.

We've got all of the details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:21:29]

CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE live from New York where U.S. stocks remain higher premarket. Investors shrugging off a weaker than

expected read on U.S. payrolls last month.

A mere 49,000 jobs added with fresh job losses in retail, as well as leisure and in hospitality. Today's numbers making a case perhaps for

robust stimulus -- stronger stimulus hopes have powered the S&P and the NASDAQ to record highs this week. All the majors now solidly in green for

the year.

U.S. bond yields are pushing higher, too, with ten-year yields nearing their highest levels in 11 months. The yield curve which plots the

difference between short and longer term interest rates is at its steepest in more than five years on hopes that new stimulus will fuel economic

growth, it also means a lot more borrowing.

Joining us now is Jason Furman, Professor at Harvard University. He served as Chairman at the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama

administration. Jason, great to have you on the show with us. What do you make of today's numbers, very quickly?

JASON FURMAN, PROFESSOR, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Basically, the economy has stalled out in a very deep hole, 12 million jobs short of where we want to

be. Barely any added. Yes, the unemployment rate fell, but you also saw people exiting the labor force.

CHATTERLEY: A lot of people are talking about your concern about the ossification of the jobs market, too. Just talk us through this because I

looked at the numbers here now, more than four million people who have been out of work for 27 weeks or longer. Really tough to get them back into the

workforce at any point.

FURMAN: Yes. The labor market progress we made over the last year from our low in April was the low-hanging fruit. It was people returning from

temporary layoff.

But now, you have a lot of people that have permanently lost their jobs. You have these millions of long-term unemployed. Even in January, all the

job gains represented people coming off of temporary layoff. The harder thing is when you permanently lost your job to find a new one. I think we

will need a lot of demand plus controlling the virus to make that happen.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, which is why getting vaccines out there, people wearing masks, we know the story, we've talked about it many times here is so

critical to getting us back to some sense of normality here.

You've said we could see a 3.5 percent unemployment rate in two years' time. It is also possible in six to nine months. Wow. And in what

circumstances?

FURMAN: Yes. I mean, the Biden administration is proposing an extraordinary amount of stimulus. They have clearly made the calculus that

they rather err on the side of too large than too small.

It is enough that could get our unemployment rate back to 3.5 percent by the end of the year just in term of the amount of demand. I'm just not sure

-- and this is an open question -- as to whether labor markets can move that quickly. Can people find jobs that quickly?

There will be the demand there for it, but can markets just move that quickly? I don't know. No one knows.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, you mean, as in getting an individual one's job into a job quite frankly, it is that matching process and the frictions of that

quite frankly that will create a delay.

Massive. It is massive stimulus. It is crazy amounts of money. I often say, so is COVID, and just have to sort of get over that sizable amount of money

that we're talking about.

Interesting to see former Treasury Secretary to Bill Clinton and obviously, advisers to the Obama administration, Mr. Summers suggesting that there are

huge risks attached to this size stimulus. One, inflation. The concerns for stability, financial stability and what it means for the U.S. dollar, but

he also said, look, we have huge inequalities in this economy that need tackling, longer term issues and how can you go about spending 15 percent

of GDP on short term issues and not prepare and invest for the future?

Jason, your thoughts on his criticism.

[09:25:30]

FURMAN: Right. Well, first of all, financial markets have predictions of inflation. You can read it in the Treasury inflation protected securities.

They are predicted inflation that's below the Fed's average inflation target.

So, you know, anything can happen on inflation. That's not by biggest worry. I certainly think we need in some sense a more ambitious effort than

this $1.9 trillion, so a sustained multi-year effort that's structural that makes a long term difference.

I expect you're going to see follow up in the Build Back Better plan with that and if the first part of this shrunk a bit to make room for more long

term investment, I think that would be fine for the economy.

CHATTERLEY: So what's Larry's problem? Because he points out that we didn't do enough, that America didn't do enough after the financial crisis,

but he then looks at this amount of money in addition to the amount of money that was agreed just before Christmas and says, this is so far and

away multiple times bigger than what we didn't do after the financial crisis.

Make sure you are spending the right amount of money and you're doing it wisely. Jason, why do you think he is being so cautious now relatively?

FURMAN: You should get him on. He can speak for himself. You can say -- I'm not speaking for him. You can think that this bill should be $1.5

trillion instead of $1.9 and it would still be enormous.

Even at one, plus the $900 billion we did in December, it would still be enormous. So I think everyone thinks something large needs to happen,

something needs to happen soon. You can debate the exact magnitude and timing of that large.

CHATTERLEY: Debate it afterward when the economy has recovered perhaps is your --

FURMAN: You know, I focus on a sustained effort and that's what I would like to see out of them, and that's what I think we'll see next after this

first bill.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, I like to play devil's advocate. We don't have long, but I do want to get your take because you tweeted something really interesting

which was a whole bunch of economists giving their take and you criticized the question, but on whether a $15.00 minimum wage around the country would

lose low wage jobs. It would costs low wage jobs. What do you think is the answer here?

FURMAN: I think the minimum wage should be much higher than $7.25 an hour. It's been there for a long time. That is way below what it is in most

countries. Way below what the evidence justifies.

I don't think I want to go to $15.00 an hour for every state in the country four or five years from now. You need some more regional differentiation on

the face and path to reflect local labor market conditions better.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, we should make the point that a lot of people already are earning more than $7.25. So split the difference? Do you think $12.00?

FURMAN: I think you can do something -- I don't know if you split the difference or if you do a longer phase in or do something that varies from

state to state.

I think there's a lot of different ways to do this and I suspect those will come out of the debate and discussion over the coming months.

CHATTERLEY: Having the discussion is important. Jason, great to have you with us. Jason Furman, Professor at Harvard University and former Chairman

of the Council of Economic Advisers, great to have you with us.

The market opens next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:31:54]

CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. U.S. stocks are up and running on Wall Street on the last trading day of what felt like a really long week

and it has been a profitable one so far for the bulls, at least.

The S&P and NASDAQ rising to fresh records in early trading despite that weaker than unexpected read on U.S. jobs last month and big downward

revisions for November and December.

Banks are having a particularly strong week in fact on hopes of eventual economic reopenings and fresh stimulus will help boost their bottom lines.

Car makers should benefit from stimulus, too. Ford rallying after posting market friendly earnings but also announcing that it will invest almost $30

billion in its electric and self-driving units over the next four years.

Both Ford and General Motors having strong trading year so far better in fact that even Tesla. Remember, Tesla was up over 700 percent though in

2020. Context is key.

Now, on Thursday, we promised you the CEO of Volvo Cars, but the wheels fell off, so to speak. We had a few technical gremlins, but I am pleased to

say we now have him and the company smashed sales records. It was Volvo's best ever second half for profits and sales and China sales sold over 90

percent in January year-on-year.

That more than compensated for losses from earlier shutdowns.

Hakan Samuelsson is the CEO of Volvo Cars. And he joins us now. Sir, fantastic, and I am very glad that we managed to do this interview. Your

performance around the world, pretty spectacular in December and in January, but talk to me specifically please about China, more than

recovered.

HAKAN SAMUELSSON, CEO, VOLVO CARS: Yes. They were -- I mean they got the virus first and, you know, in China they did their very firm lockdown. So

they came back to sort of more normal operations quicker than we did here in Europe.

So they were the first one coming back, really. And then also that compensated rather quickly what they lost in the first months. So that

combined with a continued growth on the car market in China and we are growing faster than the market, but the market is very strong as it has

been for many years.

So China is taking a bigger and bigger share of our total volume.

CHATTERLEY: What share is it now?

SAMUELSSON: It is around 150,000 October -- close to 650 -- I'd say 20 percent, something like that, and growing. So it is now slightly bigger

than the U.S., and U.S. as always are our biggest market and our China, U.S. number two and then Germany is three.

CHATTERLEY: I mean, you made a bold call at Volvo. You aimed half the cars that you sell to be fully electric by 2025. I was just looking at Recharge

cars and what proportion they are of your sales around the world. I believe, they are now 41 percent of total European sales, 23 percent of all

cars sold globally. Do I have the numbers right?

[09:35:10]

SAMUELSSON: I think you're a bit optimistic on Europe on 41 --

CHATTERLEY: There goes my calculations.

SAMUELSSON: So, 30 percent last year that was chargeable cars, but I think, you more said forecast for this year. So we will continue growing.

Globally, we are close to 20. But it's a very high share, and I think in the business, we have the highest percentage of chargeable cars in the

premium sector for sure.

CHATTERLEY: My optimism notwithstanding.

SAMUELSSON: I really like that.

CHATTERLEY: We've heard from a number of your competitors -- I am sure, you do -- a number of your competitors have warned about potential

production delays as a result of chip shortages, the global semiconductor issues that we're seeing.

Hakan, what can you tell me about any potential impact on Volvo with these chip issues?

SAMUELSSON: The same problem for us.

CHATTERLEY: Yes.

SAMUELSSON: I mean it's rather difficult to have a clear visibility because there are chips in all the components, so it's not just in first

tier of suppliers, as we say. It could be in second and third tiers.

So it is very difficult to predict. We monitor maybe three or four weeks where we are quite good visibility, but there is a risk for surprises and

it's very difficult and problematic.

There could be some losses, but so far, we have for the next week a rather stable outlook at least.

CHATTERLEY: Wow. Just a week is a very short window.

SAMUELSSON: Yes.

CHATTERLEY: Lots of challenges.

SAMUELSSON: Yes. It is and there has -- this has disturbing elements from the pandemic and it is a very high demand of chips, of course, used in all

types of machines and devices. So we have to compete with a lot of buyers for chips. So it's problematic, but still, I think --

CHATTERLEY: Yes. And different products too, it is not just about the car industry. It's huge.

SAMUELSSON: I know, it is all over, but --

CHATTERLEY: I want to -- yes, I want to move on quickly and just talk to you very quickly about your Super Bowl advertising. Obviously, a big

weekend here in the United States.

I believe you've promised to give away lots of free cars if anyone scores a safety and I'm reading my notes because I have to admit my understanding of

American football is a work in progress.

But talk to me about this decision because some of these decisions perhaps not to advertise at the Super Bowl this weekend and do other things with

the money. Why are you doing this?

SAMUELSSON: We are also locked into conventional advertisement. But we have, of course, online possibilities for our customers to build their own,

say model of the Volvo, and everybody that does that can send that in and then they are part of a lottery.

So if there is a safety in game, don't ask me why, because I must say, like you, I don't know exactly what type of situation that is, but, of course, a

safety zone, like something that is relevant for Volvo.

So if that happens, there is a lottery and then a lot of cars that people who have done this configuration can gain or win. But I think it's about 40

or 50 cars. There is a lot of them. So it should be a very interesting part of the game to look for safety, but you have to of course, build the car on

volvo.com before to contribute.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, and just for our viewers, I am going to leave them to Google safety and try and work out for themselves, but you do score two

points, and I do believe there's been nine safeties scored in Super Bowls, so one every 5.89 Super Bowls. So just to give people a sense of the odds.

Hakan, great to have you with us. Come back soon, please and chat with us. Hakan Samuelsson there, the CEO of Volvo Cars. Thank you.

Now from Volvo to Ford which has a solution to a common problem these days, seeing someone's lips move when they talk. This is Ford's nuclear

respirator mask. The company expect it to work as well as the N95, and it will obviously help those who lip read, too.

An executive said one of the things that's missing during the pandemic is the power of a smile. I agree with that.

All right, after the break, another useful tool in the fight against the pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIGITAL VOICE: I see that you have a fever with a high temperature. Let me connect you to the doctor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you today?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHATTERLEY: The hospitals in India with robots well and truly on the front line. The CEO of Invento Robotics joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:43:12]

CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. Gliding around on wheels, guided by facial recognition technology and gaining trust with a friendly voice.

These robots are doing the work that humans sometimes can't during this pandemic, getting close up with COVID patients and even connecting them

with loved ones via a built-in tablet.

As the CEO says, these robots are bringing humanity to hospitals. Balaji Viswanathan, heads up India's Invento Robotics and he joins us now.

Balaji, fantastic to have you on the show. Just explain what these robots are capable of, because when I was watching them online and reading about

it, I was totally blown away.

BALAJI VISWANATHAN, CEO, INVENTO ROBOTICS: Thanks, Julia. Good morning to you. These robots are companion robots and they work as medical assistants

in a couple of environments. The goal is to be able to provide healthcare access in multiple locations and reduce the risk that many medical workers

face.

So these robots converse with the patients. We have a lot of conversation intelligence in the robot and it speaks with the entire including its eyes

and the body.

And then, it has multiple diagnostic equipment on it including stethoscope and pulse oximeter, thermometer to help the remote physician do a much

better diagnosis. We call it as an avatar for the physicians.

CHATTERLEY: Wow. So these robots can check actually check vital signs? I mean, we're just showing an example here of someone perhaps entering a

hospital. So if you have a patient that has got COVID, even just doing that initial screening with a patient protects the healthcare workers.

VISWANATHAN: Absolutely.

CHATTERLEY: It's fascinating. Okay. Talk to me about the robot, Mitra. Because I believe Mitra, in fact, roams free and recognizes doctors and

recognizes patients using facial recognition technology.

[09:45:10]

VISWANATHAN: Absolutely. So, it asks for permission to take a picture and then it recognizes a patient, collects that information including insurance

information and so on.

And it then asks them a series of questions. So let us say they are complaining of, let's say a headache and throat pain. Ask them a series of

questions to identify what could be the potential doctor we should connect to.

And then it also uses vitals collection and pushes them all into the electronic health record system for the physician to remotely see the

patient and then make a call whether they should bring the patient in or give a prescription right there. That is a key portion of these robots.

And Mitra means companion, so it is a great companion in that sense.

CHATTERLEY: What are the doctors in the hospitals where you're using these saying and what do the patients say? Because it takes some getting used to,

surely.

VISWANATHAN: Absolutely. Both of them, it takes some getting used to. For many patients, it is like, you know, what's going on? Like it is a very,

very different thing from what they are being used to visiting decades to a hospital.

So some patients, they have initial intimidation so that it takes some time to get used to. While others, they actually like forget they are in a

hospital, they actually cheer up and start getting into a deeper conversation with the hospital.

So the perception is quite wide and we are trying to make it more and more easier for those who feel intimidated because it is a new technology to get

more acclimatized to the robot.

And the physician side also, so again, they are all trying to figure out how do better use it. It's a brand-new technology for most physicians.

So, in both sense, it takes some getting used to and that is true for any technology.

CHATTERLEY: I am sure, it is not long before the selfies get start to be taken. Talk to me about data privacy because one of the things that struck

me there as you were talking is that data is being collected and fed through various systems. How do you protect people's data?

VISWANATHAN: Absolutely. Very, very important question and we are HIPAA compliant and we go through multiple rigorous standards that the U.S. and

various governments set.

So these data are securely collected and the robot also asks for permission before it does anything including facial recognition and tells them what it

is going to do.

This data is securely used only for the hospital purposes and nothing else, and these live in a server, encrypted. So that there is very little chance

of it getting misused anywhere. Because it -- the whole thing relies on trust, and get these things from the patient.

So of course, privacy has been another key thing that we have been working on.

CHATTERLEY: Talk to me about cost, too. What does a Mitra cost and how quickly does it take to build one?

VISWANATHAN: So the cost varies from -- depending on the volumes and so on. So it can be somewhere in range of several hundred dollars a month to

about a thousand dollars a month as a typical -- we call it as a robot as a service.

So these robot workers are hired by hospitals in that sense and so we are picking up production, at this point, it takes about three days to make a

Mitra.

We are trying to cut down the time even more and trying to get in the economies of scale this year.

CHATTERLEY: Wow. So robot as a service. You rent a robot. So you just pay the $700.00 to $1,000.00 a month. Do you have to pay a cost upfront as

well?

VISWANATHAN: Absolutely. It is about $3,000.00 upfront, of course for set up and so on. So it works like hiring a new worker to your team, so this

Mitra is a part of a team of medical assistants and nurses.

CHATTERLEY: And very quickly, how much interest are your getting? I'm sure it was tough to sell to the healthcare sector initially and now, I am sure,

you're being overwhelmed. What kind of interest are you seeing and obviously, you're doing it in India, but are you hearing from elsewhere in

the world, too?

VISWANATHAN: Absolutely. In fact we could not make it fast enough. Right now, we are selling in five countries including Australia, Singapore and in

the UAE.

And before the pandemic, while the physicians and hospitals recognized the problem, but they were not sure how much the patients would accept them. So

it was going a bit slower primarily because they were worried about patients' perception.

But after the pandemic hit, patients were actually more okay dealing with many of these because it cuts down their wait time and also gives them a

quick access.

So patients were getting more okay and that means that the hospitals were getting on board quite quickly.

[09:50:13]

CHATTERLEY: Fantastic. Balaji, great to have you on the show. Keep us up to date with progress. The CEO of Invento Robotics there. Thank you for

your work.

You're watching FIRST MOVE. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHATTERLEY: It is almost Super Bowl Sunday, which is traditionally a super spend Sunday for big brands, but this year it's rookie advertisers who are

stealing the limelight. Brian Stelter joins us on this.

Brian, great to have you with us. I am not sure how I would be feeling about this one. Robinhood is in, Coca-Cola is out. What a week for them.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: That is right. And this Robinhood was recorded before all of the recent drama, it was already in

the can, but it is making a pitch telling everybody you don't have to become an investor, you are born an investor, so Robinhood is making a big

play during this super bowl.

Now, as you mentioned, big names like Coca-Cola, the ones we associate with Super Bowl advertising, they are sitting this game out. Some major car

manufacturers, major Hollywood studios also sitting out the game.

In the case of Hollywood Studios, it makes a lot of sense. They don't have movies they can guarantee will be in theaters in a month and so they are

sitting on the sidelines for this Super Bowl.

It is going to be a weird Super Bowl in lots of ways, but hopefully, also a uniting one. Normally, in the United States, this gets about 100 million

viewers. By far the biggest TV event of the year. We will see if the ratings are a little higher or lower than usual because there shouldn't be

big parties and gatherings.

CHATTERLEY: What about a little bit of a deflation perhaps in the price. The eye-watering price, quite frankly of a 30-second ad.

STELTER: Right.

CHATTERLEY: $5.5 million.

STELTER: Right. $5.5 million. This goes up every year even though the ratings don't go up every year. This year, it is CBS's turn to raise the

price. There's all sorts of things they throw in there for that $5.5 million.

Though, first, they will have earlier sponsors earlier in the day, and there are also some other kind of pandemic related sponsors that I think

are really interesting.

Miracle-Gro for example, you know, running an ad because there's been so many people during this pandemic gardening at home for the first time. So

we're going to see those sorts of spots.

This is Scotts Miracle-Gro with an ad featuring Martha Stewart. So that is an example of an ad that probably wouldn't have made a lot of sense this

time last year, Julia, but now fits in perfectly.

CHATTERLEY: Now, it is wholesome. But a trivia here, do you know what the cost of a commercial in the first-ever Super Bowl ever was according to

superbowlads.com.

STELTER: I do not, but I would guess, $100,000.00?

CHATTERLEY: Good guess, my friend. It was $37,500.00, but you know, considering when we're talking about $5.5 million, I think that's a pretty

good guess.

STELTER: There you go.

CHATTERLEY: I know I am terrible, sometimes, I am such a geek. These are the things that get me excited.

STELTER: Look, I think it makes sense on a certain level. If you're Uber. If you're Chipotle. If you're DoorDash and we're talking about you before

the game, maybe we are talking about you after the game, there is a certain amount of logic.

Look, I could see myself getting talked into a $5.5 million ad someday.

[09:55:13]

CHATTERLEY: I hope I have the money to spend on an ad one day. Nice.

Brian Stelter, my money is with you, my friend.

Brian Stelter, thank you very much. Enjoy the Super Bowl.

All right, that's it for the show. I am Julia Chatterley. You've been watching FIRST MOVE. Stay safe and have a great weekend and we will see you

Monday.

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[10:00:00]

END