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CNN Live At Daybreak
America's New War: Economy Hit Hard by Attacks
Aired September 21, 2001 - 08:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Time now to check in with Andy Serwer who is the editor-at-large of "Fortune" magazine.
Your quick reaction to that round robin report from basically coast to coast.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE": Well, it's really hard to find a silver lining there, you know, that the lines are short at the rides. That you can probably name your own price in some hotel rooms.
Hotels in New York are actually being filled up by Wall Street firms moving into them that have been moved out of Wall Street.
ZAHN: And they're also discounting rates to bring them into there.
SERWER: Oh, absolutely.
ZAHN: So this is a loss-loss all the way around.
SERWER: Yes, it's devastating for that part of the economy.
ZAHN: Take a look at the futures for us now. Early on when we did our first hit with you this morning, it looked very, very bleak. The numbers rebounded a little.
Where are they right now?
SERWER: A little bit. I think they're still 300 down, if you can see there, which is a tremendous move to the downside; not as bad as 480, which is practically unprecedented, I think it's safe to say.
The Asian market is weak; the Nikkei was down 2.4 percent. And the markets in Europe: down about 5 or 6 percent. Shares pretty much weak across the board. So it doesn't look like a rosy Wall Street open, Paula.
ZAHN: All right. So what is your advice to individual investors out there this morning? Many of whom have their futures wrapped up in their 401Ks, and that is an investment in a mutual fund that's taking a droving (ph) too.
SERWER: I know it's hard for people to hear me say you've got to hang in there. But really what are you going to do? You have to believe that if you're selling now, you're going to be selling closer to a bottom than a top, which is the wrong time to sell.
The other thing is that if you own stocks in these companies, you have to ask yourself: Are these companies going to be stronger five years from now than they are today? If the answer is yes, and you have a long-time horizon, I think you really have to just hang in there. But this is a very, very tough period for investors.
ZAHN: We are going to call upon you to sit here all morning long to guide us through this volatility. Markets, of course, open in just about an hour and 10 minutes from now.
Thank you, Andy. I look forward to your repeated reports.
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