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First Move with Julia Chatterley
Records On Wall Street On The First Day Of Trading For The New Look, Dow; China's New Laws Complicate The Sale Of The Video Sharing App, TikTok; The Oracle Of Omaha Takes A $6 Billion Stake In Japan's Trading Houses. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired August 31, 2020 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:35]
ZAIN ASHER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Coming to you live from New York, I'm Zain Asher. This is FIRST MOVE and here is your need-to-know.
Market moves. Records on Wall Street on the first day of trading for the new look, Dow.
Tiktok trouble. China's new laws complicate the sale of the video sharing app.
And Buffett's bet. The Oracle takes a $6 billion stake in Japan's trading houses.
It's Monday. Let's make a move.
All right, welcome to FIRST MOVE. I'm Zain Asher in for my colleague, Julia Chatterley. Let's begin with a look at the markets with less than a half an
hour to go before the opening bell. U.S. stocks on track to a modestly higher open.
The S&P and the NASDAQ start the week at all-time highs. It is the last trading day of the month and the first trading day of the newly revamped
Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Three companies have been added to the Dow 30. They are Salesforce, Amgen and Honeywell. They replace ExxonMobil, Pfizer and Raytheon as well. The
changes are being made because of Apple's stock split, which actually takes effect today as well.
Apple is modestly up in premarket trading. Tesla, whose stock split also takes effect today, it is to rise at the open as well.
Meantime, Europe has turned flat, U.K. markets are closed for a holiday. Japanese shares rose over one percent, boosted by Warren Buffett's big bet
on the country's leading trading firms. We will have more on that with our Paul La Monica in just a moment.
Chinese stocks ticked lower and new reports show that factory activity weakening a bit this month missing expectations. South Korean industrial
output weakened in July, too, but it remains in positive territory.
Let's get more on our market drivers now with Cristina Alesci who joins us live now.
So Cristina, when you look at the Dow, we are seeing, obviously in fact the Dow is in positive territory for the year, the S&P 500 is in record
territory. Just walk us through why such divergent path at this point between Wall Street and Main Street.
CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN BUSINESS POLITICS AND BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there are main reasons for the changes in the Dow and it does tie back to
your question about the divergence between Wall Street and Main Street.
First and foremost, the changes in the Dow were driven large by because of this Apple four-for-one stock split and to make up for that stock split,
the Dow felt like it needed to add another technology component, which is Salesforce, still does not fully make up for the representation that it
lost in that stock split on the technology side, but certainly makes it better.
Then the two other bigger picture reasons, Zain, to your point about the divergence between Wall Street and Main Street, the people who make these
decisions, the committees that make the decisions about what components end up in the Dow really felt like there was a greater divergence between the
Dow, which is commonly known and understood by the average person; and the S&P 500, which is used by professional investors.
So by adding in higher growth stocks, stocks that better perhaps reflect what is happening in the economy right now, the people on this Dow
committee really felt like they were bridging the gap between what the professionals were seeing and what Main Street was seeing.
Look, another big reason for this is that the Dow is supposed to capture the top end of the market, the best performers and how they're doing. And
you know, by taking out Exxon, Raytheon and Pfizer, those were deemed as slower growth perhaps, a bit less innovative than Honeywell, Salesforce and
Amgen.
So for all of those reasons, the committee decided to move in this direction, Zain, but certainly hopefully will help bridge the gap somewhat,
although not perfectly, of course, because they are two very different indices with obviously not just a difference in the terms and the number of
stocks included and represented in these indices, but also the way they're calculated -- Zain.
ASHER: Right, and also, you see the fact that, you know, tech is playing a much bigger role now in the U.S. economy than oil did, say, 40 to 50 years
ago.
But in terms of the three companies specifically that are replacing the old three, the three companies specifically that have been chosen, why these
three?
ALESCI: Well, these were -- again, they needed another technology company and the way that the Dow looks at technology, it's not, for example --
because I've gotten a lot of these questions, you know, why not Facebook and Google?
Well, Facebook and Google from a Dow standpoint are looked at as communication companies. So what the Dow really wanted was a pure
technology player, Salesforce of course is dominant in software, and so that explains that part of it.
[09:05:28]
ALESCI: And then Amgen replaced -- arguably, you could say it replaced Pfizer. It is a biotech company. It really thrives on innovation, whereas
Pfizer is an older name and more stable name, perhaps, but maybe with less growth potential than Amgen that's really looking out to the future and
developing very innovative technologies to address some disease states -- Zain.
ASHER: Cristina Alesci live for us there. Thank you so much.
A potential sale of TikTok's U.S. business being further complicated, China has revised its export rules that could force TikTok owner, ByteDance to
seek approval from Beijing before selling the popular app.
David Culver is joining us live now from Beijing. So just walk us through this. TikTok and ByteDance could essentially be subject to export controls.
Just walk us through what these new rules actually are.
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Zain, it is rooted in what we've been hearing as a pretty common phrase used by both sides, "protection of
national security." That's what's been used to justify actions on both sides, the U.S. for going after TikTok and suggesting that it might pose a
national security threat, saying that they would ban TikTok if it did not sell its U.S. operations.
China now coming out with an updated list to their export rules. What's interesting is they have not updated this list in more than a decade.
So over the weekend, we learned that they did just that, and essentially they changed a few things so that it would encompass companies like TikTok.
They incorporate data processing. They incorporate speech and text recognition and so TikTok could potentially now be subject to going through
the Chinese government approval before they were to move forward with a sale.
Now, all of this has been discontinued heavily politicized back and forth and now the Chinese Foreign Ministry is weighing in and saying essentially
that the U.S. is treating this like a smash and grab robbery. That's how they likened it at their press conference just a few hours ago.
They said that the U.S. is using political manipulation and that they're going forward with economic bullying, and they say that this really is
something towards several foreign companies that they should be mindful of when dealing with the U.S.
Of course, that's the Chinese perspective in all of this. The U.S. maintaining that there could be concerns given the ties that TikTok has to
where we are here, Beijing and the Beijing-based company, ByteDance, its owner.
It's been a lot of pressure on this company, TikTok, going back for a few weeks now and just last week we saw that its CEO, Kevin Mayer, he stepped
aside. He was only in the position for less than four months, but he likewise cited, Zain, this sharply political environment that they're
dealing with and it seems the politics could delay any movement back and forth now as China could have the final word if this company were to sell.
ASHER: So then what does it mean now just in concrete terms? Because you have several companies that are interested in buying TikTok, you've got
Microsoft, you've got Oracle, and you've got Walmart as well. What are these new export rules out of China actually mean for the sales talks, do
you think?
CULVER: I think China's perspective would suggest, wait just a minute. It could mean that it's not going to happen immediately. It's not going to
happen on the U.S.'s timeline.
I think more than anything else, this is a political flexing of muscle to suggest that China still will have a say in all of this, and that's
something that they are determined to put out there.
But we really don't know if it's going to change the timeline, if China will allow it to move forward or even if they'll impose this new regulation
for export rules.
I mean, they could decide not to do that. However, it seems the timing of them updating this list and a list that incorporates now changes that would
impact TikTok seems to be correlated directly to what's happening here with the sale.
But we don't know how they're going to use it, if at all.
ASHER: David Culver, live for us there. Thank you so much.
Warren Buffett making a huge bet on Japan. His company, Berkshire Hathaway investing more than $6 billion in country's five leading trading companies.
Buffet says in a statement, quote: "I am delighted to have Berkshire Hathaway participate in the future of Japan."
Paul La Monica has the details for us. So Paul, just walk us through A, why now? And why is Buffett making these large-scale investments in Japan?
PAUL LA MONICA, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Yes, this is very interesting, Zain. I think that this is analogous in some respects to what Buffett and
Berkshire Hathaway did way back in 2009 when they bought a stake in the giant railroad, actually bought the whole thing, Northern Santa Fe. At that
time, Buffett called it an all-in wager on the American economy.
I think this might be an all-in wager on the Asian economy and perhaps even the global economy. These five companies that Berkshire now has stakes in
are industrial and financial conglomerates. These are two areas that Buffett has loved to invest in with many of his own holdings that Berkshire
Hathaway has, individual stocks in financial big banks and other industrial conglomerates, and these have all the hallmarks of a classic Buffett
Berkshire investment.
They are cheap. They generate a lot of cash and that's what Buffett loves.
[09:10:45]
ASHER: And these investments don't necessarily preclude Buffett from that long sought after, you know, elephant-sized acquisition that everyone has
been talking about?
LA MONICA: Yes, not at all, Zain. I mean, this is about, I think what? A $6 billion investment in these companies. This is a company that still has
more than $140 billion in cash or so on hand.
So Berkshire Hathaway still wants to do that elephant-sized acquisition. Those are Buffett's own words. He just turned 90 over the weekend, so maybe
as a birthday present, we can finally have one of those big elephant-sized deals announced sometime in the near future.
But obviously, he is not going to do anything just for the sake of doing it because he is getting older and he has got a lot of cash burning a hole in
his pocket.
He's not going to make a purchase until he sees the right deal at the right time.
ASHER: Yes, we'll see when that happens. Paul La Monica live for us there. Thank you so much.
Now, to a historic moment in the Middle East. The first commercial flight ever between Israel and the United Arab Emirates landed in Abu Dhabi a
short while ago.
The plane carried Israeli officials and a U.S. delegation led by senior White House adviser, Jared Kushner.
John Defterios joins us live now. So John, all of this is moving very quickly. Would you say that it sort of seems as though the U.S., Israel and
the UAE are desperate to sort of make this happen and finalize this before the U.S. election?
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN BUSINESS EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Yes, I would say so, Zain. There's two motivations here on that front.
Number one, to support President Trump and his son-in-law in the Middle East to push this along. Number two, I think it's even a hedge against a
potential President Biden in the White House in 2021 and to see if Israel and the UAE can forge tight bonds if there's a change of policy with Iran
here.
So this is moving on a very fast track, less than three weeks since the initial indication by the UAE to normalize relations with Israel. So that
says a great deal.
First things first here, having this flight landing today in Abu Dhabi, the first commercial flight actually just carrying two delegations from the
U.S. and Israel, does this lead us on to a much broader and deeper structure going forward to open up embassies, to formalize the flight links
where it's going to be open to passengers going back and forth, and number three on the trade front.
A lot of symbolism though using flight number 971 for El Al. That is the country code here for the UAE, and phone links were unlocked as soon as
they had the discussions to normalize relations.
Formally, the economic embargo has now been lifted. That was done Saturday by the President of the UAE, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, so there is
a lot of scope here to start visiting the potential for commerce.
ASHER: So can these two countries, Israel and the UAE, really work together in business, John? Is there a real potential here, do you think?
DEFTERIOS Yes, not only with the UAE, by the way. Prime Minister Netanyahu had a press conference with Jared Kushner and was suggesting it was going
to be Arab states sign on. But this is the test example, and Zain, having been here for so long in the region, I would say they are natural partners.
Let me quickly explain why. The UAE is one of the biggest sovereign investors in the world sitting on a number of funds of about $1.2 trillion.
Prolific investors in the U.S., Europe and Asia, they would like to add Israel. Israel has what the UAE wants, and that is a specialty in
technology, defense, electronics and security. The UAE has oil. Right now, the Israelis buy their oil from the north of Iraq. They could get it at a
better price coming from the UAE.
And at the same time here, I think Israel wants to show they can set an example and they both have a reputation as very shrewd business
communities, particularly the trade port in Dubai, the sovereign wealth here and Israel and its version of Silicon Valley being Silicon Wadi.
I think they could come together very quickly and, by the way, they signed two quick deals. One in the defense electronics before they had this
thawing of relations, and as soon as that happened, we had a collaboration on the pharmaceutical front to combat COVID-19. So they're moving swiftly.
ASHER: John Defterios live for us there. Thank you so much.
Okay, so these are the headlines making stories around the world. Oregon's Governor says it's time to stop the cycle of violence and she has announced
a coordinated law enforcement plan following the deadly weekend shooting in Portland.
[09:15:11]
ASHER: On Saturday night, one person identified as belonging to a far- right group was killed as Trump supporters clashed with Black Lives Matter protesters.
And instead of condemning the violence, the President praised his convoy of supporters as great patriots. He attacked Portland's Mayor in real time as
he was holding a press conference about the shooting. CNN's Lucy Kavanof has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAYOR TED WHEELER (D), PORTLAND, OREGON: President Trump, you bring no peace. You bring no respect to our democracy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LUCY KAVANOF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Portland's Mayer Ted Wheeler slamming President Trump after a weekend of unrest in his city that left
one man dead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WHEELER: Your campaign of fear is as anti-Democratic as anything you've done to create hate and vitriol in our beautiful country.
And now you want me to stop the violence that you helped create. What America needs is for you to be stopped.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAFANOV (voice over): After the death of George Floyd in May, Portland has seen three months of intense protests, with demonstrators demanding the
Mayor, who also serves as the Police Commissioner, put an end to police brutality and racial injustice.
But on Saturday, protesters against police brutality clashed with a caravan of Trump supporters. According to "The New York Times," one video shows
counter-protesters shooting a paintball gun into a crowd of protesters from the back of a truck. Then later in the night, gunshots were heard, and a
man was shot and killed.
"The New York Times" reports the victim was wearing a hat with the insignia of the far-right group, Patriot Prayer. Police have not yet released the
name of the victim or any information about the suspect in the shooting, who remains at large.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF CHUCK LOVELL, PORTLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT: And it's critical that everyone refrain from conjecture. Our Constitution permits freedom of
speech and assembly, and individuals are free to disagree. But criminal activity, especially violence, is out of bounds.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAFANOV (voice over): The President responding to the Mayor's attack in a string of tweets, calling Wheeler, quote, "weak and pathetic" and even,
quote, "wacky" and "a dummy."
Earlier Sunday, the Trump administration threatened to step in if Portland doesn't gain control of its city.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHAD WOLF, ACTING HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We've been asking Portland to do their job, really, for over three months now. We need them to step
up, and if they can't, or they don't have the ability or the resources, ask the Federal government. We'll provide those resources.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAFANOV (voice over): President Trump has tried to vilify Black Lives Matter protesters in Democratic cities as violent agitators, a theme that
is becoming a focal point of his re-election campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know what I say? Protesters, your ass. I don't talk about my ass.
They're not protestors. Those aren't protest -- those are anarchists. They're agitators. They're rioters. They're looters.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: That was CNN's Lucy Kavanof reporting for us there. The White House says President Trump will go ahead with his planned Tuesday visit to
Kenosha, Wisconsin. The state's governor has asked the President to stay away fearing his presence could spark further unrest.
Protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake have at times turned violent during more than a week of demonstrations.
And a major spike in daily COVID-19 infections in India makes its caseload the fastest growing in the world with total confirmed cases lagging behind
only the U.S. and Brazil. But its death toll, currently 63,000, is significantly lower than the number in those two countries.
As new cases soar, India's government is still pushing forward with its phased reopening plans. On Tuesday, the country is set to resume Metro Rail
service.
Germany's President met with three policemen who alone guarded the German Parliament Saturday as hundreds of demonstrators tried to force their way
in. Thousands of people protested the German government's COVID-19 response and showed support for the U.S. based QAnon conspiracy movement.
All right, coming up here on FIRST MOVE, we're talking vaccines and whether a rush to approve new drugs will cause a crisis of confidence.
And later in the show, explosive growth in telemedicine brought about by the pandemic. We'll hear from the CEO of one company offering a doctor on
demand.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:22:18]
ASHER: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE coming to you live from New York where the major U.S. averages are now on track for a flat open on the last
trading day of August.
It has already been the best August for global investors since the mid-'80s with the S&P actually up more than seven percent.
But lots of challenges are in store this week. Fresh U.S. manufacturing data is out tomorrow. The new U.S. Jobs Report is out on Friday. A number
of speeches from fed officials, too.
And the Dow begins the week in positive territory for the year once again and just three percent away from new records. It's a milestone day for the
blue chip average with three new members joining the ranks -- Salesforce, Honeywell and Amgen are trading mixed premarket.
Investors are wondering what effect the new firms will have on the Dow. We know that Apple will have less weighting on the index after its stock
split.
Dryden Pence joins us live now. He is the Chief Investment Officer at Pence Wealth Management. Dryden, thanks so much for being us. So before we get to
Apple and the Dow components, I do want to start with what's going on with the markets. We're in record territory, obviously.
Do you think the markets can sustain this level of optimism given what's happening with the rest of the U.S. economy?
DRYDEN PENCE, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, PENCE WEALTH MANAGEMENT: Well, I think we're in the middle of this period of time where people are learning
how to adapt and live with the coronavirus, and so we're beginning to see people kind of continue to get back to normal regardless of whether there's
an immediate vaccine or anything like that.
So I think that we're optimistic with how things are going to move forward. The market has shot up. The economy needs to catch up with the market, but
we are optimistic as we go forward.
We do see some volatility coming up in the markets, but the economy is beginning to chug back as it does. People are adapting and I think that's a
very positive thing for us.
ASHER: And let's talk about the four-to-one Apple stock split. So the idea is, of course, it will make it much more accessible to buy Apple stock for
smaller investors. What do you think the effect will be on demand and then, therefore, share price?
PENCE: Well, it is a supply and demand equation, like all prices are. And when you allow -- this is a Wall Street to Main Street move, and when you
allow people on Main Street to have access to buying this stock, I think the demand is going to increase.
When you just think about people trying to put a stock like Apple into their Roth or into their IRA, being able to -- being able to get -- there's
still a psychology wrapped around having round watch or larger amounts of shares.
So I think Main Street is going to pick up its demand for this stock, which will be part of that supply and demand equation. So I think that is a
positive thing over time.
ASHER: Shares of Apple, though, are up about 60 percent or so year-to- date. How much room do you think Apple has to run, especially when you think about the Apple 12 -- the iPhone 12 coming out? Where do you think
it's going to go from here?
[09:25:18]
PENCE: Well, we continue to own the stock. We're positive on Apple long- term, because the fundamentals -- Apple is at that key nexus of the movement to this digital economy we have. This enthusiasm this brought to
this due to COVID, due to changes in behavior, due to the migration of the workplace into a digitally distributed world, Apple is front and center in
that.
And so, the fundamentals are continuing to be good for the demand for the company and people forget how large Apple really is. I mean, if you just
think about the App Store alone would be the 24th largest economy in the world.
So when you think of how big Apple is, its cash alone would make it the 30th largest company in the S&P, so this is something that the wider
distribution of this long-term fundamentals of Apple as the economy is adapting and changing in this COVID world, we tend to be positive about the
entire sector, but we also are going to be positive about a company that's so absolutely dominant in this space.
ASHER: That's incredible, the App Store makes it -- it would make it essentially the 24th largest company in the world. Obviously, they've
gained a lot because of the pandemic, I mean, partly in fact -- partly due to the fact that people who are working from home realize the importance of
having a nice iPhone or a good working iPhone and a nice camera and that sort of thing, but what do you think are the factors that have really
allowed Apple to basically double its valuation essentially in two years?
PENCE: Well, I think it's the recognition that Apple has moved from being an expensive item to being almost a staple in someone's life. So you move
from it being a luxury good to a necessary item.
And when you do that, whether it is using the services that Apple is beginning to tie people into or moving into their products and then of
course the demand is going up for the PCs and things like that, the Macs, all of these things are combining to create an environment where Apple is
dominant in people's daily lives.
And so people have liquidity, they spend money in that space, and Apple is a great benefactor of that.
Again, the whole sector is doing well and everybody has got to look at their own adjustments here, but I think that Apple continues to be a
company that's going to dominate in its space, and the price is showing that. The price is showing that. People buy what they use.
ASHER: Yes, but as you mentioned, the sector itself is doing just more broadly extremely well. Why has the tech sector become the new flight to
safety, do you think, during the pandemic?
PENCE: Well, I think that it is now necessary -- I mean, there's two big things. We're going to see a migration. People have learned that you can
work from almost anywhere.
Many industries are now learning you can work from anywhere, and companies that are part of facilitating this migration from the office to the home
are essential into that activity.
And I think all the tech sector enables this, and so that is a huge demand factor and we're probably not going to go back to business the way it was
before COVID. Companies have learned the value of this and companies that allow their people to work from anywhere allows them to actually have
greater economies of scale and you may see some increase in margin in companies that allow people to do that because they can cut their office
costs and a whole bunch of other things.
So, this is essential to a transformational activity in the American company that's a result of COVID, and so, it's a positive move and the tech
companies are kind of in the key moment. They're at the choke point of all of this. And that becomes important, so you're going to see -- and Apple is
a key company and so are many others.
ASHER: Dryden Pence live for us there, thank you so much.
All right, you're watching FIRST MOVE. The market open is coming up after this short break. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:32:22]
ASHER: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. U.S. stocks are up and running this Monday and we've got a mixed start to the session. The bulls are hoping to
push the S&P and the NASDAQ to record highs again today. Both indices rose more than three percent last week. The newly revamped Dow 30 is up and
running, too. Amgen, Salesforce and Honeywell officially becomes Dow members today.
Apple has opened higher after its stocks split today and Tesla has opened lower. Oil is beginning the week higher. Brent is poised to close out its
fifth straight month of gains. Concern about Abu Dhabi supply cuts is driving sentiment today.
The Treasury yields on the decline after ticking higher last week. Yields rose and prices fell after Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled that the Fed
will accept higher inflation if it brings stronger economic growth.
As the United States nears another milestone in the coronavirus pandemic, the White House Taskforce is urging Americans not to just wait around for a
vaccine, but do the right thing right now to save lives.
The U.S. will soon top six million cases, more than a fifth of the 25 million cases around the world after Dr. Deborah Birx says wearing masks
and social distancing are critical to stopping community spread.
Americans could have a vaccine sooner than expected if the government decides to cut short critical Phase 3 trials and that has some doctors very
concerned.
The head of the Food and Drug Administration told "The Financial Times" his agency could use emergency authorization to fast track a vaccine before the
end of clinical trials. We are joined live now by our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen. Elizabeth, thank you so much for joining
us.
So, is this really about health and safety for the American people or is this about politics?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So, Zain, let's talk a little bit about this particular statement that was made by Stephen Hahn --
Dr. Stephen Hahn is the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration here in the United States. So he told the "Financial Times" over the
weekend, the F.D.A. could consider approving or authorizing a COVID vaccine before the 30,000 Phase 3 trial is over. So those are the critical trials
that tell you whether the vaccine is safe and whether it's effective.
Now, speaking with experts about this, they said, look, technically it is possible that, you know, they do these interim analyses where they look
before the trial is done to see how it's going. They want to make sure everyone is safe. They want to see if it's working or not.
It is possible that the vaccine will be working so well that it would be legitimate for the F.D.A. to say, you know what, let's go ahead and put
this on the market.
But the chances of that, I am told, are so incredibly small that one doctor called it ludicrous, and so the doctors are worried that Dr. Hahn seems to
be making a point of saying, hey, we might put this out there early and he is not the only one, others have said it as well.
So there's this concern, why are they making this point? What are they preparing us for? Nobody thinks it's actually going to be shown to work
that early, why are they preparing us? There is concern about a so-called October surprise where the F.D.A. will prematurely authorize the vaccine in
October before Election Day in the U.S. on November 3rd just to get the President votes -- Zain.
ASHER: And that is why experts, Elizabeth, are calling for an independent commission separate from the F.D.A. to actually review the COVID-19
vaccines. How likely is that to really happen?
COHEN: Right, Zain, so it's interesting. A group of experts -- and these are not sort of fringy folks. These are folks at Harvard, New York
University, University of North Carolina, who are saying there's so much distrust of the Food and Drug Administration and the government as a whole
that we need an Independent Commission to look at all the data, separate from the F.D.A. and say whether or not this can go on the market.
And so they're saying, look, we ought to do this. It's very unlikely that that would happen, but the fact that these highly respected doctors even
think that it should happen is notable, and it's not just because of what Dr. Hahn said over the weekend. That's kind of statement number 110.
I mean, I'm exaggerating here, but so many things have happened that have made Americans distrustful. Everything from the very beginning where the
C.D.C. was very slow to get testing out. That made people sort of wonder about the competency of government agencies to President Trump, to the
administration, saying you know what, let's not bother testing people. We don't really need to test people necessarily if they don't have symptoms.
That also makes people nervous.
So there's so many different things that are making Americans skeptical about the government and about any vaccine they might approve.
ASHER: And, actually, I think it was about a month ago or maybe a month and a half ago, there was a poll, a CNN poll that came out that showed that
around 50 percent of Americans would not take a vaccine if one was made available to them. That is frightening.
I mean, surely if a vaccine is approved early or if it is expedited or rushed in any way, especially before an election, surely the mistrust would
just get that much worse.
COHEN: That is true. So this poll that was done around August 12th to August 15th showed that 40 percent of Americans said they would not get the
vaccine when it comes out. And that's an increase when we did the same poll back in May. It was only 30 percent.
So the fact that it grew that much from May to August is not great. If too few people take this vaccine, we won't be able to achieve levels of
immunity in the United States that we need to keep the virus from spreading. And certainly, when all of these statements, one after another
after another, build up, just to throw another one out there, Dr. Hahn said the convalescent plasma, the treatment that is called convalescent plasma,
he greatly exaggerated how effective it was.
He said that it was a mistake, but of course some people wonder, was he really trying to confuse Americans? The more that those things happen, the
more Americans are going to say, I don't really know about this vaccine.
ASHER: Right. CNN medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen live for us there. Thank you so much.
The World Health Organization is warning that 90 percent of countries have seen disruption to essential health services since the pandemic started. As
more patients turn to virtual consultations by camera, one U.S. provider called Doctor on Demand says its visits are up triple digits compared to a
year ago.
Hill Ferguson is the CEO of Doctor on Demand and joins us live now. So just walk us through, Hill, what the pandemic has actually meant for virtual
care, especially for your business.
HILL FERGUSON, CEO, DOCTOR ON DEMAND: Well, the pandemic has really ushered in a new era of adoption for telemedicine since the start back in
March, we've seen a rise in adoption among pretty much every age demographic in the country, people demanding healthcare services remotely
because of orders like shelter in place, and also, a lot of new policy changes have spurred adoption as well.
So more likely never are you going to have more incentives to use telemedicine, your insurance companies are going to pay for it. We've added
Medicare in the last couple of months, so if you're one of 35 million Medicare Part B recipients, you can now use Doctor on Demand for a small
copay.
And so there's just a lot more focus and attention on making healthcare convenient to access and that's what we specialize in.
ASHER: But once there is a vaccine and presumably people are ready to go back to the office again, people are ready to go out and go back to their
brick and mortar activities, do you fear that the demand for virtual care just will simply fall slowly, if not quite suddenly?
FERGUSON: I think virtual care is here to stay. There's a few reasons for that. The first is, before the pandemic, the average wait time to see a
provider, a primary care physician is almost a month. To see a mental health professional, it can be three months. And so consumers were having
to wait weeks, sometimes months, just to get the care they need.
[09:40:21]
FERGUSON: What the pandemic has shown is that virtual care is easy, it is cost effective and it's high quality. And so I think once you expose
consumers to that level, combination of benefit, they're not going to go back to the way things used to be.
Sure, there's always a need for in-person care. There are going to be things that you just can't do virtually, but I think for most of the
conditions that can be treated virtually, they will be treated virtually going forward.
ASHER: So what are some of the limits then, since you touched on this point, of virtual care? Because we are in an environment where people are
extra sensitive about their health and may not necessarily trust that a virtual doctor will be able to give them the right medical advice as
opposed to going to see a doctor in person.
FERGUSON: Right, so the obvious cases are things where you've got real physical damage, cuts, wounds, things of that nature. We still see patients
who will call in just to get a medical opinion, like should I go to the ER or not.
But for most things, a consultation with a physician is highly valuable. Our doctors can order lab tests, they can order prescriptions, they can do
follow-up consultations and so, there's just a lot of things that don't need to be done in the four walls of a doctor's office that actually should
be done in the four walls in the safety and convenience of your own home.
ASHER: So if you're able to, as you say, reduce wait times, the fact that virtual care is much more cost effective, you're able to sort of eliminate
geography as a factor when it comes to seeing a doctor, if even after there is a vaccine in the U.S., demand continues to rise for virtual care, how do
you think healthcare in America will be revolutionized 30, 40, 50 years from now?
FERGUSON: Well, I think more and more people are beginning to see the benefits of virtual care and so I think you'll have adoption from
healthcare providers up and down the spectrum of specialties and all different types of care.
So you have hospital systems adopting this. You've got health insurance companies, employers, and many more parts of the healthcare ecosystem that
are really leaning into the technology to add the convenience and remove the cost from the equation.
So I do think people will go back to in-person care more than they are right now once the vaccine comes out, but I think by and large the massive
adoption and exposure of first-time visitors to services like Doctor on Demand are showing people that for most of your care needs, you don't have
to be in a doctor's office.
And so I think the benefit to the provider, the benefit to the patient, and the benefit to the cost, which is everyone who pays for healthcare in this
country, is far too great to overcome.
ASHER: Hill Ferguson, live for us there. Thank you so much.
Up next, chip and pretzel giants, Utz, goes public after stockpiling shoppers sent sales surging during lockdown. I'll speak to the CEO.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:46:23]
ASHER: Family-owned snack business, Utz, has just gone public after nearly a century as a privately-owned company. The chip and pretzel giant saw
sales surge in the last quarter as shoppers stocked up on lockdown snacks.
Joining me now is Dylan Lissette, CEO of Utz. Dylan, thank you so much for being with us. So just walk us through this route -- congratulations, first
of all, by the way for going public today.
DYLAN LISSETTE, CEO, UTZ: Thank you.
ASHER: But just walk us through this route of not going public via a traditional IPO. Just tell us about that.
LISSETTE: Yes, there's been loot talk about SPACs most recently in the last couple of months with the resurgence of a whole bunch of new SPAC
listings and quite honestly, we started talking to the folks from Collier Creek well over a year ago, last July 2019, just as a potential path for us
to go public as opposed to the traditional route.
And ultimately, what we really liked were the team members to Collier, Roger Deromedi, Jason Giordano, Craig Steeneck, Chinh Chu -- just the folks
there that were part of Collier and they had a great playbook and they lined up well with our operating strategies and so we just thought about it
as a great way to hit the ground running from a governance perspective, just do it through the Collier Creek SPAC and become public today.
So really excited about it. A little bit different path, but it's been a great run so far, and as you can see from today, we're here now and really
ready for our next hundred years.
ASHER: Yes, and before we get to the next hundred years, let's just talk about the last sort of four or five months with the pandemic. What has the
pandemic meant in terms of people being locked down and, you know, sales flying in terms of, you know, buying snacks and pretzels from Utz? Just
walk us through what that has meant for sales.
LISSETTE: Sure, it's been really positive to our -- the amount of snacks that we're producing, the amount of snacks that we're selling really around
mid-March into late March when the pandemic kind of ultimately hit its hardest in terms of lockdown and people working from home and eating from
home, schooling at home. All of those trends led people to go into grocery stores and to the mass retailers, into the club stores, and ultimately
ended up buying snacks, and snacks are such a great category because it tends to do well really in good times and bad. It's kind of recession-
proof.
People were loading up on snacks to take home for everybody working and eating and schooling from home. So, it's been a great surge in volumes and
sales and right now, our number one goal is making sure we hold onto those new households we've gained and growing it and increasing our repeat rates
with all these new customers that we found, which has been fantastic for us.
ASHER: And how have you actually had to sort of rethink the types of snacks and the types of foods you offer people and diversifying from that
front during this pandemic?
LISSETTE: Yes, it's actually -- you know, what's happened is a lot of the buying trends kind of changed a little bit. People were going back to
brands that they knew, brands with heritage, brands with legacy, and they really were resurging back to buying those brands.
So things like our foundational platform, Utz brand, which has been around, as you know, for almost a hundred years, you know, that has surged to over
$625 plus million of retail sales and so people were really zeroing in on heritage brands that they knew and they trusted, and because of our
platform and how flexible it is, we were able to get products produced very fast, brought it to stores and got it onto shelves, got it on display.
And it's a kudos to our team because everybody just really kicked into gear as soon as some of the disruptions were beginning to occur. We really were
able to ramp up nicely because of that.
[09:50:16]
ASHER: All right, Dylan Lissette, congratulations on Utz going public today. Thank you so much for joining us.
LISSETTE: Great, thanks for having me.
ASHER: Of course. Coming up, the champagne maker is trying to keep prices popping. We'll have more on that after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHER: All right, let's take one more look at the U.S. markets. Stocks are mixed in early trading, but tech stocks are pushing into record territory
again. Salesforce, Amgen and Honeywell are trading lower after their debut in the Dow 30 today.
Apple and Tesla have opened higher. It's the first day of trading for both companies after their recent stock splits.
Champagne makers are trying to keep prices popping despite a big drop in demand because of the pandemic. They're limiting how many grapes can be
harvested. CNN's Melissa bell spoke to those protecting the wine's integrity until a time for celebration returns.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It's harvest time in Champagne. The work in the vines, much as it ever was. Only the masks are
new.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NADECHE BOUCHEBESSE, GRAPE PICKER: We are used to wearing the masks now. It is for security for everybody, so it's okay.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BELL (voice over): But this year, the Champagne Wines Committee has announced that only 8,000 kilos of grapes per hectare can be harvested, as
opposed to the more than 10,000 that were harvested last year.
The industry body limits each year the amount that can be picked. Never before had it been limited this much.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATHIEU ROLAND-BILLECART, CEO, CHAMPAGNE BILLECART-SALMON: There is no point having a lot of champagne that -- with clients around the world that
are not able to consume it. Clearly, with COVID-19, the social life has been interrupted, stopped, disrupted in many ways, which hasn't led to as
much shipment towards the beginning of the year.
Whereas things are starting to get a little better, we are in uncharted territories.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BELL (voice over): The Champagne Committee says that 50 million fewer bottles were sold in the first six months of this year, compared to last,
and an excess of champagne bringing down prices would affect the entire region.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLES LIEBERT, WINE MERCHANT, LA CAVE 17 (through translator): I would say people feel like they have to pay a lot for champagne. It's a premium
product, so there's this idea that, if the champagne you're buying isn't expensive, then you're not really getting a good champagne.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BELL (on camera): From New York to Tokyo, to Beijing, by way of Milan and London, the world's ultimate luxury drink can only be produced in this
region, which is why, for producers like Billecart-Salmon, protecting the value of the treasure that lies directly beneath my feet was crucial.
BELL (voice over): Down here in the cellars, it is 10 million bottles of champagne that are kept over two miles of dimly-lit corridor. It is down
here, as well, that that crucial ingredient will emerge, the bubbles. The question is whether their allure is simply in their price.
[09:55:07]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROLAND-BILLECART: You know, we do two fermentations. We do several blends, and we keep the wines in our cellar here between three and 15 years.
So it's not a need to have a higher price, because there is a cost to all of these things in making an exceptional champagne. And ultimately, that
has to be reflected in the price.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BELL (on camera): It is a cut in production then that is all about allowing this particular region and this product to weather the storm,
giving us all, when the time comes, the ability to toast the end of the pandemic.
Melissa Bell, CNN, Mareuil-sur-Ay, France.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: All right, that is it for the show. I am Zain Asher. I'll be back tomorrow, same time, same place. Stay safe.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:00:00]
END
