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Stocks Rebounding This Morning; Bill Nelson is Interviewed about the DART Mission; Meta Shuts Down Covert Influence Campaigns. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired September 27, 2022 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:31:52]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, U.S. stocks opened higher after a rough start to the week for all three of the major indices just yesterday.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Yesterday, one of them, the Dow, fell more than 300 points into its first bear market since the pandemic began.

CNN chief business correspondent watching closely as always.

I was watching that 30,000 marker for the Dow, but you say that's not the real threshold to watch.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Yes, you know, that's a psychological mark, for sure, the 30,000, and falling below there, I mean, it just tells you kind of the gloom out there for investors. But I've been watching the S&P 500, the low from earlier this summer, the 3,666 number, and it fell below there and closed below there.

Goldman Sachs has a target for the end of the year of 3,600. So, Goldman is forecasting more pain for the S&P 500.

But, look, yesterday was a tough day. Those red arrows likely will be reversed today. But it's a reminder to stay the course and not get too buffeted by one day's moves.

The Dow -- the chart for the Dow over the past year, you can see just how deep the pain is. When you put all the three major averages together, guys, all three on one chart showing the stock slumped this year, you can see the Dow is late to the game.

The other two major averages, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, have already been in a bear market. Deep losses there. The S&P, typically during a recession, when an economy is in recession, and we don't know if we're there right now, the S&P falls about 30 percent. You're 23 percent, maybe, you're almost there. You're almost there. So it might be that the worst of this is behind us. The Nasdaq, of course, having a really tough go of it.

The Fed is jacking up interest rates. The dollar is surging. That hurts the corporate profits. The overseas sales of big companies. It's good for business travelers, not necessarily good for big business. And just a lot of things going on here at once.

So, I'm going to cut through all the gloom and give you this one piece of advice from a market technician at Oppenheimer. He says this, major market bottoms have occurred in October, more than any other month since 1932. We think the combination of extreme pessimism and less- intense selling could provide the set-up for another October turn.

So, maybe the calendar is in our favor here. Who knows?

HARLOW: There you go. Let's see.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: What about the economic impact as you look at Hurricane Ian barreling toward really the whole state of Florida, Christine.

ROMANS: Yes, I'm real concerned about that west coast hit. I'm real concerned about the Tampa area. Particularly, I'm worried about commercial and residential real estate. This is a part of the country that hasn't had a direct hit, what, in a hundred years, the Tampa area. And think of how much development has gone on there.

In terms of oil and gas prices, we have seen the big oil players in the Gulf already locking down some of their, you know, offshore platforms to prevent loss of life, to prevent any kind of - any kind of damage there. So, they're doing what they know how to do.

But this, I think, is a residential and a commercial property story. It is also, of course, an important story about, you know, you know, keeping humans safe. But this is what we'll be watching. It's a -- it's a rare - a rare combination here that I'm sure the insurance industry is taking very careful eye on, too.

HARLOW: They certainly are.

Christine, thank you very much for both those headlines.

All right, next, NASA and also details on the successful DART mission last night.

[09:35:07]

Wait until you see the video to slam a rocket into an asteroid.

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SCIUTTO: This was quite a moment to witness last night. NASA has just pulled off a first of its kind mission with the goal, potentially at least, of saving earth some day. The agency intentionally slammed a spacecraft into an asteroid in the world's first test of planetary defense.

[09:40:04] You heard it right. And here's the moment of impact. Watch for that flash. This was taken by a telescope down here on earth. Now, we should note that this asteroid posed no risk to earth, but the mission will determine if they could do this in the future. If an asteroid's coming this way, that they could divert it by hitting it.

Here's how the NASA team reacted to that successful strike.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, wow!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're getting visual confirmation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We got it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Waiting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Waiting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we have impact! (INAUDIBLE) for humanity in the name of planetary defense!

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SCIUTTO: Joining me now is NASA administrator Bill Nelson.

And I've got to tell you, I mean that last image where you see the detail of the rocks on that, I almost felt sorry, frankly, for the probe, that it took that image and then, bang, you know, destruction. But it felt to me like a man walking on moon moment to some degree as I watched it with my kids.

What was your reaction when it happened?

BILL NELSON, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Seven million miles away, an asteroid 500 feet in diameter, and a precision hit. That's pretty precise, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

NELSON: And, of course, you laid it out, this is to try to protect our own planet because we're out there searching all through the cosmos for these incoming asteroids that might really give us a problem.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

NELSON: You know, the one that did so much in Siberia a few decades ago, it was only like 50 feet across.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

NELSON: What happens if you got one that's a quarter of a mile across. It's going to really have a major impact on earth. Well, we're going to try to divert it. SCIUTTO: Just ask the dinosaurs, right?

So, the objective, as you say, is to divert. And I know it's going to take some time to figure out, but do you have any sense now as to whether the object, in addition to hitting it on target, was able to move its path, which is the goal here.

NELSON: We'll know in the next few weeks. This threw up a lot of dust and debris. We've got to let that settle down. And then we've got telescopes all over the world, our international partners are involved in this big-time, and we're going to look at its trajectory around the other asteroid and see if it slows down. And, if so, that changes its path around that asteroid. And as a result, we'll know then that we successfully moved it.

SCIUTTO: This is a remarkable technological feat. I mean sort of like hitting a bullet with a bullet, right, but at a few million miles away here. I mean are there other applications for this technology, this precision beyond diverting, you know, Armageddon-style like an asteroid that would -- might head towards earth?

NELSON: Well, this kind of precision is what has enabled us to say, for example, there's a mission that's on the way to near Jupiter. Lucy. And it's going to photograph a huge asteroid belt in the vicinity, both in front of and behind Jupiter. And we're going to see what those asteroids are made of.

Now, suppose we find one was made of diamonds and rubies.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

NELSON: Not even (INAUDIBLE) a precious metals, then that opens up a whole new era of exploration.

SCIUTTO: Yes. I was thinking that. I was thinking space mining as -- before you answered that way.

I mean can you put into context for viewers just how difficult it was to pull this off technologically?

NELSON: This spacecraft, which is about, oh, 20 yards wide from tip to tip on the solar panels, but the actual impact vehicle was about six feet wide. And so it goes millions of miles out in space in order to get the right trajectory when this asteroid comes closest to earth, and that was 7 million miles last night. That is the kind of precision and targeting and ability of NASA to figure out how to make things come together in space.

[09:45:02]

SCIUTTO: OK, a little closer to earth. We're still waiting for progress on the Artemis mission, which will be the next manned, and womaned, mission to the moon. You had to pull back. You've got a big storm coming.

I'm just wondering, I spoke to the astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell yesterday. He told us that the longer it sits, you've got some issues here, right, with the sort of shell life of some of the components, the batteries, et cetera.

Are you concerned that this pullback means a longer delay than just the weather for the next flight?

NELSON: I'm not concerned. We know that at the earliest it could go is late October, but more than likely we'll go in the window in the middle of November. And, of course, whenever they need to do to the rocket now that it is safely encased back in the vehicle assembly build, they'll do it to it.

SCIUTTO: Got it.

Final question, does this then push out the second and third missions, right, the manned mission that will orbit the moon and then the -- eventually the manned mission that will land on the moon? Does it push that timeline out, or could you - could you compress and still get there when you want to?

NELSON: We are still planning for late '24, as scheduled, the first human mission back to the moon. And a year later, late '25, the first landing since 50 years ago, and this will be the first woman and the next man to land on the moon.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Well, listen, as I always say when I have you on the air, if there's an extra seat, you know who's volunteering, although, probably after you.

Bill Nelson, thanks so much for joining us again.

NELSON: Thanks, Jim.

HARLOW: That would not be me, just to be clear. That would be Jim and his dream to go to space.

All right, I get -- a valiant effort, always, Jim.

SCIUTTO: I'm trying, man. I'll keep at it.

HARLOW: I know.

All right, ahead, Facebook's parent company Meta just this morning announcing it shut down two separate networks of what turned out to be fake accounts engaged in covert influence operations from China and Russia. We'll explain, next.

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[09:51:36]

SCIUTTO: This just into CNN, the parent company of Facebook, Meta, says it has just shut down two covert influence campaigns run from Russia and China. The social media giant claims the fake accounts posed as Americans and waited into controversial political issues across platforms. HARLOW: Our Donie O'Sullivan is with us with this new reporting.

So, how'd they find out about these groups out of China, out of Russia, and I guess what gave them the ability to say this crosses, you know, our line that we've set and you're done?

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so Facebook has a team in place since the aftermath of the 2016 election when we -- all those Russian trolls wreaked havoc on their platform unchecked. They now have a team that tries to root out manipulated covert influence campaigns. Important to point out that in both instances here, these are two separate campaigns, one from Russia, one from Chinese - one from China, Facebook is not saying that these are necessarily tied to the governments of either country. They are just saying that these campaigns came from those countries.

First, that Russia campaign, it was huge. Thousands of Facebook pages and accounts. More than a hundred thousand dollars spent on ads, Facebook targeted ads on the platform. Also went as far as creating replicas mimicking real western news outlets. So, for instance, they built a fake website designed to look like it was "The Guardian" of London's website and put pro-Kremlin talking points on that, all about the war in Ukraine.

When it comes to the China side of things, a much smaller set of accounts were found but they are posing as Americans. The accounts seem to have absolutely no - get no traction at all. But we spoke to Ben Nimmo, who's a leader on the team on this at Meta, and he explained to us why this Chinese campaign is important.

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BEN NIMMO, GLOBAL THREAT INTELLIGENCE LEAD, META: This was a small operation. And it didn't seem to build any meaningful audience. But it's the first time that we've seen an operation from China like this really focusing on targeting U.S. political debates.

And we're all on high alert ahead of the midterms. They were running fake accounts that pretended to be Americans and try to talk like Americans and try to talk like Americans and they were talking about really divisive domestic issues, like abortion and gun control. So, that's a real step change from what we've seen before.

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O'SULLIVAN: So, a lot to unpack there but in both instances, Jim and Poppy, it's just a reminder of, you know, how much effort goes into influencing the discourse online.

SCIUTTO: Yes, and sometimes they get the language wrong. It's interesting. And that's one way they could spot it.

So, I wonder what platforms, such as Facebook, are looking like before the midterms? Certainly, I mean they love to drive -- drop into these divisive issues. There are lots of divisive issues in this country leading up to the midterms. O'SULLIVAN: Yes, I mean, and what Facebook and other platforms are

looking for here is exactly the type of thing they rooted out today. You know, seeing accounts that are run from countries outside of the United States that seem to be posing as Americans. In fact, the Chinese accounts, one reason that they were able to catch that -- those accounts or one thing that stood out was they noticed that the accounts were posting on a timeframe from Monday to Friday and 9:00 to 5:00 workday in Beijing and China rather than posting in American hours.

[09:55:08]

SCIUTTO: Yes. That's the - that's a consistent thing. They keep - they keep local hours. Easy to spot.

HARLOW: Donie, thank you, as always.

O'SULLIVAN: Thanks.

HARLOW: All right, still ahead, Hurricane Ian is headed straight for Florida's west coast, threatening severe flooding for really a large part of the state.

Stay with us.

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BERMAN: Top of the hour this Tuesday morning. I'm Jim Sciutto.

HARLOW: And I'm Poppy Harlow. We're glad you're with us.

Well, right now, a category three hurricane, that is Hurricane Ian, is crossing Cuba and creeping closer to southern Florida where residents in some coastal areas are already evacuating. This hurricane is expected to bring life-threatening storm surge to much of the Florida's west coast this week, as well as hurricane-force winds.