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American Morning
Wall Street Worries
Aired July 22, 2002 - 09:17 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: Fasten your seat belts, it could be another Maalox moment as the stock markets get opened or prepare to open in just a few minutes. Investors are bracing for the worst, hoping for the best following Friday's heart-stopping plunge and WorldCom's bankruptcy bombshell that happened overnight.
CNN's Michael Okwu is standing outside the Nasdaq market site. He's spoken with investors, some of whom are cynical, some of whom aren't.
What are they saying, Michael?
MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All of them, no matter whether they're critical or whether they think that this is actually a good time to make sure that you're in the market, if not buying in the -- into the market, all of them are very watchful about what is going to go on with the stock market this morning.
I'm joined now by Helen who is one such person. She told me earlier that she is definitely going to be watching the market today.
Helen, why?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because my 401(k) is in the market. And I had it in -- now I just moved it last week into a -- the staple fund to see -- and I'm going to wait and see to see what happens with the other -- our other funds and then move it over to something more aggressive.
OKWU: Quickly, you moved it because of the volatility of the market, is that why?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Yes, because I don't -- I didn't want to lose any of my own money, whatever I was investing, so I just moved it into a staple fund, which is not earning very much.
OKWU: Let me ask you this, what do you think you need to see before your confidence is fully restored in the market again?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need to see this whole fiasco over with.
OKWU: And you're talking about the whole issue regarding corporate... UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Enron, WorldCom, see what the government's going to do about it, see if they're going to prosecute and then we'll -- I'll see, I'll wait a while and be patient.
OKWU: Helen, thank you very much for joining us. I appreciate that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
OKWU: This is Bob Landrith (ph) -- is your name?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, hi.
OKWU: I'm interested in whether you have the same sentiment as Helen. She says that she needs to see something happen regarding all of this sort of corporate misbehavior before her confidence is fully restored. Is that your sense as well?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well I think people are pretty nervous and very jittery now. And you know people are just afraid to put money in because if it goes down another 30 percent, you have nothing left for retirement or for your baby's college fund. We have a college fund, put money in a year ago for our 15-month-year-old, and it's already down 25 percent. So you know it just makes you very worried.
OKWU: Bob, before the cameras were rolling, you said to me, after I peeled you off the floor, you said, essentially I don't even want to look at the statements anymore.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, you get those statements and every month they're down another 10 percent you know, then you think about things you're not going to be able to do like the repairs in your house you're not going to be able to do. So just kind of don't look at them or look at them when you're in a really good mood because they're going to take you down a notch.
OKWU: Are you going to call your broker this morning? Are you planning to make any moves regarding the stock market? Time to pull out or perhaps time to buy in with stock prices being lower than they've been in quite some time?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, no, I'm not -- no moves at all. I'm not putting anything in, not -- I've already taken some out. I'm not taking any more out, so just sitting tight and waiting, like a lot of people are, I think, on the sidelines.
OKWU: You're going to ride it out and pray?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly.
OKWU: That is the sentiment that I've been hearing all morning. Everybody is watching what's going to happen with the stock market today. They say even if today seems like a good day, they may very likely still be watching to make some kind of a move, even later on into the week. They do not feel completely confident in this economy right now -- Paula. ZAHN: Thank you so much, Michael, and that has certainly borne out in some statistics.
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