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Quest Means Business
U.S. Banks Report Mixed Earnings; Twelve Russians Indicted Over U.S. Election E-mail Hack; Police Trace Novichok to Bottle in British Victim's Home; Former Pakistani PM Sharif Arrested; Wimbledon Sees its Longest Ever Single-Day Match; AT&T Not Perturbed About DOJ Appeal; Sears Closing Last Store in its Hometown; Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft Hit Record Highs; Nasdaq Closes at Record; Three U.S. Sports Teams Suspend Ties with Papa John's; Budweiser Toasts to a Successful Sponsorship; President Has Assured Theresa May, He Is Ready To Do A Trade Deal In The Hours After He Tore Into Her Brexit Plan; New York To London Has Become The First Ever Billion Dollar Route For A Single Airline, The Justice Department Announced Indictments In The Mueller Investigation Of Russian Interference In The Election, The Dow Jones Finished About 25,000 For The First Time In A Month. Aired: 4-5p ET
Aired July 13, 2018 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICHARD QUEST, HOST, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS: GE ringing the closing bell. They took over GE Industrial Solutions and that calls for a celebration for
the company. The Dow is up, off the top of the day, but still a good gain. And that's a solid gavel to bring trading to a close, unlucky for some,
some might say, it is Friday, it's the 13th of July.
Backtracking from the front page, the bombshell, Donald Trump says any Brexit is fine with him. More records fall on Wall Street, the earning
season is getting going and we've got a record on the NASDAQ, and the sponsors are celebrating what might be the best World Cup ever. We're
going to hear from the sports adviser on this program.
I'm Richard Quest, live in the world's financial capital, it's a glorious day in Central Park where of course, I mean business.
Good evening, we begin tonight with Donald Trump in the UK where the President has assured Theresa May, he is ready to do a trade deal in the
hours after he tore into her Brexit plan. He tore into pieces on the front page of a Rupert Murdoch newspaper, Britain's best-selling paper, "The
Sun." Now, the tabloid published this cover story. It featured Donald Trump's claim that Theresa May has wrecked Brexit and any hopes for a trade
deal with the US would be shattered if she went ahead with her soft Brexit plans. She only produced that plan yesterday.
By lunch time, they were holding hands as they walk through the Chequers Gardens and they seem to have shaken off the controversy, exchanging
flatteries in a joint press conference, and much of the friendly talk, Donald Trump was working hard to row back on some of his most explosive
comments to "The Sun."
(START VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't know what they're going to do, but whatever you do is okay with me, that's your decision.
Whatever you're going to do is okay with us, just make sure we can trade together, that's all that matters.
I read reports where that won't be possible, but I believe after speaking with the Prime Minister's people and representatives and trade experts, it
will absolutely be possible. I give our relationship in terms of grade, the highest level of special, so we start off with special. I would give
our relationship with the UK, and now especially after this two days with your Prime Minister, I would say the highest level of special.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: The highest level of special, and yet despite those assurances, there's little doubt Theresa May won't have much room to maneuver if she
wants both her soft Brexit and a trade deal with the United States. In the meantime, of course, the UK is planning to stay closely aligned with EU
rules, and that would likely close off some US food and agriculture. Most of the UK economy is services, and any attempt to open that up will be met
with strong opposition in Westminster.
And some would argue that the British negotiators are somewhat inexperienced having defaulted or handed over negotiations on trade over
the last 40 years to the European Commission. Peter Goodman is the European economics correspondent at the "New York Times" he joins me now
from London. Peter, how would you characterize the last 24 hours?
PETER GOODMAN, EUROPEAN ECONOMICS CORRESPONDENT, NEW YORK TIMES: They have been tumultuous, confusing, surprising if you're not accustomed to Donald
Trump in your country and they fairly well confirmed that the one consistent thread when Donald Trump comes to Europe is he seems to want to
help divide Europe. He does oppose Britain remaining in the European Union and whatever he said to Theresa May after "The Sun" article, it's pretty
clear that he's a Brexiteer at heart and he is a unilateralist. He thinks that the United States does better when it's dealing individually in a
trade negotiation, in a security negotiation with another country because the US is the largest economy on earth and in any bilateral dealing, it's
got the upper hand.
QUEST: So, tonight, if you were a British foreign office civil servant or a minister, and you'd heard the President says a deal would not be possible
and then you heard him with the Prime Minister saying, "Absolutely, it's possible." Which do you believe now, do you think?
GOODMAN: Well, first of all, we don't know because we don't know ultimately how the Brexit negotiation is going to work out with the
European Union. I mean, the European Union has a say in how this is going to go and there are is still an awful lot of variables.
[16:05:01]
GOODMAN: I mean, it does seem now like we're headed towards some form of soft Brexit where Britain remains in the single market, at least for goods,
but as you pointed out in the intro, not for services. So, we don't know what the rules are yet. There is certainly, if they're going to do a soft
Brexit, but they're going to be out of the Customs Union, there is some ambiguity. They're getting out of the Customs Union so that they are able
to gain the right to negotiate trade deals on their own, but depending upon what the terms are, that may constrain them.
QUEST: I realized you're not the White House correspondent, but you do follow these things extremely closely. What do you make of that "Sun"
interview yesterday? Was it just off the cuff? Was it thoughtless? Was there something more? I mean, if you bear in mind the comments about
Theresa May and the comments about Angela Merkel, it almost seems like the President is trying to effect regime change in these countries?
GOODMAN: Well, I don't know about regime change, although, I mean of course, President Trump arrives in Britain fully aware that a couple of
senior ministers have resigned in recent days to protest what they view as a softening of the Brexit position. He did appear to give her a shove. I
mean, he did endorse effectively Boris Johnson, her nemesis for Prime Minister.
But, I mean, at minimum, you can see again that Trump is interested in keeping Europe divided and weak which in the minds of many European
diplomats, makes him not unlike Vladimir Putin or the Chinese President, Xi Jinping who both in their own way are using sort of divide and conquer
strategies in their dealings with Europe. You can now add Trump to that list.
QUEST: Good to see you, sir, thank you very much. Appreciate you joining us this evening.
GOODMAN: Thank you.
QUEST: So, since the news conference between Donald Trump and Theresa May, things didn't slow down in the slightest. President Trump and the First
Lady then helicoptered to Windsor where of course, it was tea with the Queen.
As the Royals were roaming out the red carpet and these were the pictures that the British hoped the President would see and would appreciate, the
other pictures from the other side of London were most certainly not the pictures - London has been rolling out a giant Trump shaped Baby Blue that
flew over Westminster as thousands of protesters gathered in the streets below.
And arguably, one of the reasons why the meeting was held at Windsor and not at Buckingham Palace was because the ability to control it better and
to avoid the protesters. CNN's Royal correspondent is Max Foster. He is in Windsor where the President has now finished and is headed off to
Scotland where he is going to a golf club. What do you make of today? I mean, the Queen obviously well, and this is meat and veg to the Queen. She
does this in her sleep, but even this was a bit weird.
MAX FOSTER, ROYAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: It was and it is really where she showed her role and her use because after that morning of politics, and it
really was a bombshell that article in "The Sun," and whatever happened to the press conference is still leaving reverberations down white hall today
because everyone is wondering whether or not America will standby the United Kingdom if we end up with this hard Brexit now. It's not very clear
at all, and also whose side is he on?
You mentioned how he brought up Boris Johnson during the press conference today saying, he would make a great Prime Minister in front of Theresa May
who is fighting this week or not fighting, but she - as some people suggest that she wants to fight him. He actually resigned at the end, but clearly
there's no tension, but a lot of tension between the two of them.
It's really an awkward moment, but then, as he flies out here to Windsor and the Queen here has to stay above politics, did so impeccably and she
managed to reassure Brits, I think that the special relationship is still intact, but she represents the UK. He represents the United States and
they come together after a day of chaos and created a moment of calm.
QUEST: And Max, nothing fazes the Queen. A late President, a President who seemingly is not quite sure which way to go when it comes to review the
Honor Guard, and she's been there for so long, nothing fazes her.
FOSTER: No, and actually - apparently, he was on time, but she came out early, because she wants to make sure she was there, to make sure
everything went well enough, but she suggests that the government has been putting a lot of pressure on the palace to say that this has to go well.
Also, he left 18 minutes after he was expected to leave, so the conservation must have gone well. We obviously have no idea what happened
over that tea with the three of them having tea and if President Trump does sort of leak some of the elements of that conversation, it's the one thing
that might potentially upset the Queen, because those conservations are meant ...
[16:10:16]
FOSTER: ... to be quiet, but apart from that, he let up to all the protocols and the etiquette expected of any visiting person, not really
expected of a head of state, but he did give a slight bow it seems as he went up to her. She instigated the handshake, she instigated the
conversation. He let her lead on all of that. It's interesting to see him be so reverential to her, but he was of course with his wife who we're told
is a big fan, his mother was a big fan, so he had to make it work all around, and it seems to work effectively on both sides with the elements of
today.
QUEST: Max, she's the Queen, of course he would. Max Foster, joining us there.
FOSTER: Both heads of state, equal status.
QUEST: Max Foster at Windsor Castle. Proof that the special relationship that we've just been talking about there is alive and well, and one of the
biggest proofs came out today. OAG and "Forbes" pointed out - the OAG pointed out that New York to London has become the first ever billion
dollar route for a single airline.
Now, these are the other ones - Sydney, Singapore for Singapore Airlines; Vancouver, Toronto for Canada Air; London to Doha - London, Singapore for
Singapore Airlines; Emirates and the like, but British Airways are talking just over a billion dollars flying passengers between New York and London
over the course of the last year, and the reason is fairly obvious. Between these two destinations, you've got the financial industry both in
the City of London and on Wall Street. You've got the fashion industry from Soho and in New York in Midtown.
You've got the advertising industry which is Madison Avenue there at Central London. You've got vast industries, but the fact that one route is
considerably bigger than anything else, nonetheless, New York to London shows why the special relationship, why the trading relationship between
these two are so important and a reminder of the other ones just in case they are of interest to you.
Melbourne and Sydney obviously, Qantas; Emirates, Singapore Airlines, Delta, American, United, Cathay, Qatar Airways, Air Canada and that one
that goes to Singapore Airlines again. The contrast could not have been greater, just as the President arrived to meet the Queen at Windsor Castle,
the Justice Department announced indictments in the Mueller investigation of Russian interference in the election. The details next on these
gentlemen.
There was a simple goal to impact the 2016 election. Robert Mueller's team has indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers to alleged election hacking.
It follows Trump's summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin. Jessica Schneider joins me. You couldn't write this, Jessica, the timing ...
[16:15:14]
QUEST: ... you absolutely - if you put it in a book and said that the US was going to indict 10 agents, Russian intelligence agents a week before
the President was to meet Putin, you wouldn't believe it, but it's happened.
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: It has happened, Richard and what's interesting about the timing here is you have to wonder if some of those
senior officials at the Justice Department may be timed to the release of this indictment, maybe to put some pressure on the President when he is
supposed to meet face to face with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
Now, in the past few hours, ever since this indictment came out, there have been many calls from Democrats telling the President, "Do not sit down with
Russian President Vladimir Putin," well, in the past few minutes, we have heard from the White House, they say that this summit is still on. The
question will be, will the President and Vladimir Putin meet one on one or will there be other people, other Americans in the room, that remains to be
seen.
But really, this indictment is extensive. It documents a month-long scheme where they did hack and steal a lot of information, a lot of e-mails and
what's interesting is these Russian officers, they tried to conceal their identities, but in this indictment, of course, the Justice Department is
spelling out who they are and what they allegedly did.
(START VIDEO TAPE)
SCHNEIDER: Tonight, 12 Russian intelligence officers are charged with hacking into the e-mail servers of the Democratic Party and the Hillary
Clinton campaign, plus stealing US voter data during the 2016 election.
ROD ROSENSTEIN, UNITED STATES DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: We know that according to the allegations in the indictment, the goal of the
conspirators was to have an impact on the elections.
SCHNEIDER: The 29-page indictment details how the Russians targeted more than 300 people associated with Democratic campaign committees and the
Hillary Clinton campaign. This was the e-mail Hillary Clinton campaign Chairman, John Podesta received telling him to click a link to change his
password, a technique known as spear phishing. Podesta did, allowing the Russian officers to steal his username, password and e-mails.
Prosecutors allege these Russian officers hacked into several accounts, stealing thousands of e-mails.
ROSENSTEIN: The defendants hacked into computer networks and installed malicious software that allowed them to spy on users and capture key
strokes, take screenshots and exfiltrate or remove data from those computers.
SCHNEIDER: And then distribute the stolen e-mails. The indictment says the Russians registered the domains DCLeaks and then Guccifer 2.0 and used
the network of computers around the world including here in the US, funding their scheme through cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
ROSENSTEIN: The defendants falsely claimed that DCLeaks was a group of American hackers and that Guciffer 2.0 was a lone Romanian hacker.
SCHNEIDER: Rosenstein stressed that none of the Americans targeted knew they were communicating with the Russians.
ROSENSTEIN: The conspirators corresponded with several Americans during the course of the conspiracy through the internet. There was no allegation
in this indictment that the Americans knew they were corresponding with Russian intelligence officers.
SCHNEIDER: But the indictment does detail the Russians contact with several Americans, including a request for stolen documents from a
candidate for the US Congress whose identity has not been disclosed. It also documents discussions between the Russian intelligence officers posing
as Guciffer 2.0 and a person who was close to the Trump campaign in August and September, 2016.
The language of the messages revealed in the indictment matches the Twitter messages previously released by Roger Stone. But Stone, in a puzzling
statement to CNN says he doesn't believe he is the one referenced in the indictment. Stone has admitted he communicated with Guciffer 2.0, but
denies he had any knowledge about the hacking.
ROGER STONE, AMERICAN POLITICAL CONSULTANT: I'm not involved in any collusion, coordination or conspiracy with the Russians or anyone else, and
there's no evidence to the contrary.
SCHNEIDER: The indictment also alleges that the Russians first attempted to spear phish and hack e-mail accounts used by Hillary Clinton's personal
office; on the same day Trump said this ...
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Russia, if you're listening, I hope you are able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. I think
you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.
SCHNEIDER: The Deputy Attorney General briefed President Trump on the charges before he left for his overseas trip, and today, stressed politics
should stay out of what is a serious legal and national security matter.
ROSENSTEIN: We need to work together, to hold the perpetrators accountable and we need to keep moving forward to preserve our values, protect against
future interference and defend America.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
SCHNEIDER: Now, of course, the chances are slim that these Russian intelligence officers will actually ever face these charges here in the US,
of course, Richard, that's because we do not have an extradition treaty with Russia and they likely wouldn't be sent here for prosecution.
Richard.
QUEST: Jessica, thank you. Jessica Schneider in Washington with that story. The revelations add a new ...
[16:20:15]
QUEST: ... dimension to Donald Trump's summit with Vladimir Putin on Monday. Finland's former Prime Minister Alex Stubb joins me now from
Luxembourg. Your country is playing its traditional role in sort of mediator and - how do you view the prospects for this meeting bearing in
mind the way in which the well has been poisoned by these allegations?
ALEXANDER STUBB, FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF FINLAND: Well, I think it's been a rather rough week in foreign policy and foreign affairs in general, first
in the NATO Summit, and now with Donald Trump's visit to the United Kingdom. I mean, Finland's traditional role is to try to mediate and
basically, you should see Helsinki pretty much as you saw Singapore hosting the leader of North Korea and President Donald Trump, and Helsinki and
Finland is doing the same thing now for Donald Trump and for Vladimir Putin.
The outcome, I think is up in the air. We really don't know what's going to happen. We have pretty much one unpredictable President and one that is
observing.
QUEST: What is the upside and the downside here? I mean, obviously, there is a fear that Donald Trump goes rogue and does some sort of deal. But
Vladimir Putin is too wily to get himself into a mess like that or to get himself into a deal that's going to fall apart the first time, so what for
you is the up and the downside?
STUBB: Well, the upside is that the two of them are talking and discussing and that's the mediation part and obviously, if there's something on
disarmament, something on international relations, I think that would be a bonus. The downside is the unpredictability of the situation. I think if
there is any talk about recognizing the Crimean Peninsula or if there is any talk about a new security agreement, then I think this will be a big
loss to the West, especially in light of the earlier visits to Brussels with the NATO Summit, and now the UK and the discussions on Brexit.
So, to be quite honest, I think we'll just have to be patient and wait what comes out, but the pattern seems to be at least, this week, that first,
there is a sort of an insult, then there is a little bit of injury and then there is a makeup, so we'll see what the weekend brings in terms of
statements about the Russian President before Donald Trump goes to Helsinki.
QUEST: So, you have been in politics at the highest level. Give me an insight as to what it must have been like for Theresa May when she woke up
this morning or went to bed last night and realized that effectively, Donald Trump had knifed her. We can - and he didn't do it in the back, he
went straight for the chest.
Now, today, of course, we had the rowing back. You saw the comments. You've got the promise that there is the possibility of a Brexit deal. But
as a politician or former politician, what's it like when that happens?
STUBB: Well, it's not very easy to be honest, but I think the face of diplomacy and foreign policy has changed in the past few years and the
language that is used is much tougher because at the end of the day, diplomacy is really about human relations, about getting along, about
trying to find compromise and avoid conflict, and now we seem to be in - I would say, a negative spiral of conflict where the wording used from
various world leaders is very rough and quite unusual and I must admit, as a former diplomat and a former foreign minister as well, I feel rather
uncomfortable about it.
I would like to see more dignified foreign policy and more dignified language used between world leaders. I think that's what we would expect.
QUEST: It's not going to be easy when the leader of the free world turns around and says that your country is captive to - your country is captive
to Russia, oh, and by the way says to another leader, an important leader, you've wrecked Brexit, which is your signature your policy and by the way,
you ain't getting a deal.
STUBB: I think both the general public and a lot of people in foreign policy and diplomacy understand that the language used by Donald Trump is
rather different from what we are used to, and I do not think that many people want to equate what he says to what we would call the general
American foreign policy line because you used to know exactly what a Republican President would say and pretty much what a Democratic President
would say.
Now, it's very difficult to (inaudible) what Donald Trump is going to say, so I think people sometimes have to take Donald Trump rather differently
from - than you would a normal leader of the free world.
QUEST: But, Alex, you have private - you still have private conversations with world leaders. Are they tearing their hair out knowing how to respond
when this - does Theresa May wring Angela Merkel? Does Macron wring the Prime Minister - what the heck ...
[16:25:16]
QUEST: ... do we do about this? He's just launched another broad side, how do we react?
STUBB: Well, probably yes, there are a lot of behind the scenes phone conversations and others. I think you could probably look at reactions to
Donald Trump in three phases. The first phase was denial, sort of, "This did not happen." Again, the only leader at the time who said that, "Yes,
we will deal with it in principal ways," was Angela Merkel. The second one was a charm offensive, and I don't know actually what the third one is
going to be because at this stage, it seems that nothing is working and it's - usually, diplomacy is fairly predictable, but I must admit that
where Donald Trump is very difficult to predict what comes next?
And I'm afraid that this is sort of becoming the new normal and I do think that's rather uncomfortable for American western allies.
QUEST: Alex, good to see you. Thank you. Have a good weekend. Thank you, sir. The Dow Jones finished about 25,000 for the first time in a
month. The Dow has been up four days out of five over the course of the week. Investors have been looking towards the earnings season and has
begun and it's getting underway. We've got the banks, so we need the earnings share case.
Now, you're well familiar with the share case. This is where we track the share prices of a company that has just reported results in the hours after
the earnings have been announced. It shows what investors are thinking about, the past that's just gone, the quarter gone, and the quarter ahead.
So, these are the ones that we've already had in this show as the 24 hours up and above. Let's start with JP Morgan. Now JP Morgan actually had no
movement in share price, or at least, as we headed towards the close, no movement in share price even though the profits jumped and it says that the
US economy remains healthy. But Morgan - JP Morgan is concerned about the yield curve.
A different story where Citi clearly has problems of its own where the share price down 2% and it says that trading revenue and deposits fell
short of their expectations, so this fall is very much on the back of Citi's own issues. However, on the positive note, it says the trade war
hasn't affected business yet. If you're going to talk about banks and banks in trouble, Wells Fargo where the share price is down 1%, that's
arguably a surprise, it's not even further off the share prices down, as the profits and revenues shrank. Wells Fargo is still recovering from fake
accounts scandal, which seems to just get worse by the way. There's another example of it in the last couple of days.
Now, as we move to next week, we've got more banks - Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley. You're going to have airlines which will be
very important. We had Delta this week, but you'll have United and we're going to have GE and Netflix is already falling as a result ahead of
earnings. You'll see that.
We'll take the boards in just a moment in terms of how the trading post is going, but in terms of the earnings, Paul La Monica, Guru, good to see you,
sir.
PAUL LA MONICA, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Thank you, sir.
QUEST: So, interesting bank results, what do you take if you look at the underlying trend of the banks.
LA MONICA: Yes, I think JP Morgan Chase and CitiGroup prove that the US economy is still in pretty solid shape and that any worries about a trade
war are still more theoretical and hypothetical. It's not causing consumers and companies to pull back just yet. They still want loans.
They are still making healthy deposits. Wells Fargo of course is in a unique situation right now because of the fake account scandal and all of
the other problems plaguing that bank that they have to get through.
QUEST: Okay, but in terms of the banks, where are they making the money? Is it with M&A? Is it on consumer banking? Is it on investment banking?
Where are they making the money?
LA MONICA: When you look at JP Morgan Chase, I think it's a great proxy for the rest of the group. It really is across the board, it's the
consumer sides - credit card, lending - they had good results there. Deposits were up, but then the investment banking side also very strongly
are getting a lot of advisory fees. This is the merger boom we've seen. IPO activities picked up. So that is good for them as well, and trading
revenue, because of the volatility is usually much better for the banks, too, and that's happened with JP Morgan Chase.
QUEST: But is this as good as it gets? That's the big question.
LA MONICA: That is the big question.
QUEST: Because you know, interest rates are going up. Arguably, the economy is going to slow down somewhat and there is this trade worry, so is
this it?
[16:30:00]
LA MONICA: It's possible that this is as good as it gets, which is what the Caterpillar and the different industry and executives there say about
the first quarter earnings that they might be peak earnings, and you look at JP Morgan Chase, they had a profit of about 8.3 billion which is
whopping, but they had 8.7 billion a quarter ago.
So maybe they did have peak earnings in the first quarter, but I don't think, Richard, that if we have peak earnings, that means that the bull
market necessarily has to end. If earnings are still growing at a decent clip, that could be good for stocks.
But they're not going to be growing 20 percent for the next few quarters, particularly with the backdrop of a trade war, possibly counteracting any
of the benefits that we're getting from tax reform.
QUEST: Good to see you, sir.
LA MONICA: Thank you, have a great weekend.
QUEST: And to you, have a good weekend Paul La Monica. As we continue tonight, whipping up a storm, I'll be breaking up some eggs to show why the
government's gone sour on the AT&T-Time Warner merger.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest, there's more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in just a moment. Well, I'll be talking to Nasdaq's senior VP as the index hits
yet another all-time high, and shares of Cnn parent company AT&T dropped as the U.S. government tries to stop them being after parent company. I'll
show you that in a moment.
This is Cnn and on this network, always the facts I promise you will come first. Russian intelligence officials have been indicted over claims they
hacked e-mails and computer networks belonging to the Democrat party.
The indictment which were announced by the U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein are part of the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation
into Russian interference in the last U.S. election.
They come as Donald Trump is preparing to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin next week, that meeting takes place in Helsinki. The Novichok nerve
agent which poisoned a British couple has been traced back to a bottle in one of the victim's homes.
The London police found the bottle in the home of Charlie Rowley, his partner Dawn Sturgess died last week after being exposed to Novichok. A
former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter are in custody, having been arrested in Islamabad on Friday.
Their return from the U.K. comes a week after the court found them guilty of corruption-related charges. Now Sharif has been sentenced to 10 years
in prison, his daughter's sentence is seven years.
[16:35:00] The South African Kevin Anderson has defeated the American John Isner in Wimbledon's longest-ever single day match. It was a five-set
match that lasted six hours and 35 minutes. Anderson will now face either Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal in Sunday's championship.
Right, so the question of AT&T and Time Warner and the U.S. Justice Department's decision to appeal against the judge's ruling that the merger
could go ahead, there were no antitrust regulations.
Well, within days of that ruling, the two companies did close the deal. But now the Justice Department is appealing, which raises the question what
would happen if the D.C. Court of Appeals rules. Well, the best way to describe it, we've talked about this on this program many times, can you
unscramble the eggs?
So let me show you what I think the current situation looks like. Think about this, think about this as being AT&T or Time Warner, it's leaking out
a bit, a merger is starting to take place. But you've got one company in here and you've got the other company in there.
Now, you see how they are, sort of together. Where both AT&T and the Time Warner companies are in the same pot, and you're starting to see them
merging somewhat. But what they cannot do is merge too much.
What they cannot do is effectively what they need to do, which is this, because over the course of the next few months, AT&T and Time Warner should
be doing this to create Warner Media and create the most beautiful of scrambled eggs.
The ultimate goal of course would be a company that has perfection personified. Hadas Gold is with me, we talked many times about scrambling
the eggs, and now as you can see, the two companies are together, but they're not fully scrambled, so what happens?
HADAS GOLD, CNN POLITICS, MEDIA & GLOBAL BUSINESS REPORTER: You're making me hungry is what happens. But what happens is now this goes to the court
of appeals that will likely be fast-tracked, which means that it will be heard faster than other cases because of exactly the point that you're
making.
And that the longer that this appeals process would take, the more scrambled the two companies become and the harder they will be to
unscramble. Now, this is not something that hasn't happened before. Court of appeal have reversed mergers in the past and they have had to unscramble
or divest certain companies in the past.
But clearly, this would be a unique situation. AT&T in a statement yesterday said that they were surprised by the ruling, but actually AT&T
CEO Randall Stephenson said they're willing to take this all the way to the Supreme Court --
QUEST: Right --
GOLD: If necessary.
QUEST: So back to my eggs. Obviously, this is the goal to have them fully scrambled, but this is the situation where we are at the moment, and I
think you can see on the monitor. We've got the two companies in the same plate --
GOLD: Right --
QUEST: But they can't get too close --
GOLD: Yes --
QUEST: And it's your understanding, I believe that the instruction is do not get any closer --
GOLD: Yes --
QUEST: Until we know more about this. Tell me what's that all about.
GOLD: So this was an agreement that the company made with the Justice Department before the Justice Department decided not to issue that stay
where they would have frozen the merger, asked the judge to freeze the merger and they let the merger go through with the condition that AT&T
would place the Time Warner properties in sort of a slightly separate companies.
Sort of that tangential egg you have right there called Warner Media, and that was down on purpose and has a deadline through 2019, February, 2019
because of exactly what we're dealing with now, because of this appeals process.
Because if ultimately the court rules that the Judge Leon's initial ruling, approving the merger --
QUEST: Right --
GOLD: Was incorrect and that they do need to separate the companies, it would be easier to do so. But we've already done quite a bit of work in
integrating these companies. We've had executives that have left, they've gotten --
QUEST: Right --
GOLD: Payouts as well --
QUEST: Yes!
GOLD: We're seeing already --
QUEST: Yes!
GOLD: In the family here all these different changes coming through. So clearly, unscrambling even just two tangential eggs as if you were to try
to take apart those eggs right now. Some of those are wipes with starting -- are starting together, and it would be difficult to do so even just a
few weeks after this merger has closed.
QUEST: How do you like your eggs, scrambled hard, scrambled soft, scrambled light.
GOLD: I like them scrambled medium --
QUEST: Of course, not scrambled, I just go -- as we continue tonight, there's no better sign that our shopping tastes are changing. Amazon is
hitting records and there's decline of Sears which is the original American super store.
After the break, now, where do I go?
[16:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: QUEST MEANS BUSINESS records and milestones all around Wall Street in the QUEST MEANS BUSINESS trading post. So the Dow is now back up 25,000
barely, it is just over a smidgen or so. The S&P 500 is over 2,800 for the first time since March.
So it's milestone to be noted, and they do show underpinning if you like of the economy. And the Nasdaq closed at a record, but look at the
difference, you have to -- a third of a percent, you have less than a 10th of a percent, but you have a third of a percent.
Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft and all hit record highs. So I need to just change obviously this, we have a record -- and the Nasdaq going to 23
records on that, the Dow and the S&P stays up 14. Market volatility hasn't struck companies looking to go public.
Joining me now is Jeff Thomas, the Nasdaq senior vice president in charge of listings on the West Coast. This battle for IPOs, if we look at
Nasdaq's pay plan that you've had, you had a good time so far this year. What's been the trend? What are companies looking for?
JEFF THOMAS, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENTT IN CHARGE OF LISTINGS, NASDAQ: You know, we've had a fantastic start to the year. We had 93 IPOs in the first
half of 2018, they raised nearly $15 billion on the Nasdaq. We had 21 technology IPOs and 39 of those were healthcare.
So as the industrials look at IPOs, they like to see great performance and as you mentioned, doesn't help in volatility, slows down a little bit.
QUEST: Right, and yet at the same time, you've obviously -- if we look at the major markets, you do see the Nasdaq to some extent getting ahead of
the other markets at the moment. You saw today, you have a record whereas the other ones do not.
Where is that, do you think? What is driving the Nasdaq? Is it just this -- is this race to technology?
THOMAS: That's right, you mentioned some of the great companies we have on Nasdaq, we have in fact five of the biggest -- the five biggest companies
in the world are now listed on Nasdaq. A software continues to dominate, and that's where we see a lot of activity for the backup of the year in the
IPO market as we continue to see a lot of enterprise software deals coming up.
QUEST: What do you want Nasdaq to be? I mean, as a market place, obviously, tech knows it goes there. The pharmaceutical set to the
healthcare sector, obviously you're making great place for, for as well.
But you don't just want it to be tech, you need industrials, you need -- you need companies that make things besides just software, don't you think?
THOMAS: Yes, and we've had a fantastic run as well, in addition to the IPO's transfers in the New York Stock Exchange are at an all time high.
Since the SEC changed the rules to let companies bring their ticker with them, we've had over $1.2 trillion in market caps which in the New York
Stock Exchange to Nasdaq including great companies like Xcel Energy, so we have a big push around the industrial's area as well.
QUEST: Good to see you, sir, Jeff Thomas, thank you for that. Now, Sears was the innovator of the early 20th century when it went public in 1906.
[16:45:00] This weekend as Amazon prepares for prime day, Sears is closing its final store in its home town of Chicago worth more as real estate that
-- and a store. Now, Sears was Amazon before there was Amazon.
It was pioneered shopping by catalogue, it then was empire which included tools, appliances, insurance, credit cards, even radio stations and TV
stations. This was the peak the largest retailer in the world built the tallest tower in the world.
And right before the rise of Wal-Mart and later Amazon, the chain has since lost $11.2 billion since 2010. Coming up, after a month of dramatic twists
and shocking upsets, the World Cup reaches its climax this weekend. Whatever the outcome, Sunday's sponsors like Budweiser say there're already
guaranteed winners.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Three U.S. sports teams have suspended ties to Papa John's Pizza who recall with grueling single week. The founder stepped down for using
the N word during a conference call. Now the sports teams of the Atlanta Falcons Football team, the Atlanta United Soccer team and the New York
Yankees baseball.
The Yankees described John Schnatter's remarks as reprehensible. No such sponsor complains at the World Cup as approached the final weekend. We've
had some major upsets, some classic games and almost no sign of controversy.
It is sponsorship Nevada(ph), Don Riddell has been talking to Budweiser. They must be absolutely delighted because the potential for conflict or for
controversy was always there, and yes, there have been a few rogue cases bulking players making an appropriate comments.
But it's gone pretty well overall.
DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORTS: Yes, I think so. Look, Budweiser have had the World Cup since 1986 and I can't remember a better World Cup
tournament. In fact, the FIFA President Gianni Infantino came out today and said he thinks just the best of it, perhaps he would say that because
it's his first one.
But honestly, it was absolutely brilliant. We had the host nation doing well, that's always good for a tournament, there were upsets, among big of
them Russia beating Spain which was the biggest ever at the World Cup in terms of upsets when you consider the rankings.
We only had one goal a stroll, we had all those late goals going in the 90th minute or afterwards, more penalty shoot-outs than ever before or at
least were tied for the record, that was a great if your team is not involved in them.
So it really has been absolutely fantastic, and we hope that the games over the weekend, Richard, the third, fourth place play-off game and of course
the final between France and Croatia can live up to that.
I had been speaking as you said to Brian Perkins, he's the vice president of global marketing for Budweiser and he was absolutely delighted with the
outcome.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[16:50:00] BRIAN PERKINS, VICE PRESIDENT OF GLOBAL MARKETING, BUDWEISER: I've got nothing but good things to say about the tournament and about how
everything has gone here. The football has been electric, the fans have been electric and our campaign for Budweiser has been the most ambitious
campaign we've ever done, and it's going so well.
So I just think it's been a wonderful World Cup so far.
RIDDELL: What has surprised you the most about this tournament?
PERKINS: Well, there's been lots of upsets on the field, there's underdog in the final. The big surprise for me honestly has been just how much
everybody has enjoyed themselves here. The energy of the fans and that's great for us because our job is kind of to be there for the fans in the
hands of the fans enjoying the tournament.
So when the fan energy is the highest, you know, that's the best for us.
RIDDELL: In this era of social media, it is so much easier now to reach your clients and your customers. So why is it so important that you're
involved in big sports events like this?
PERKINS: I see it's become doubly important to be involved in these events because not only do we do a lot of activities on the ground here in Russia
for the fans, but there are so many people who can't come to Russia and come watch the games live.
And actually digital media has enabled us to participate in the energy of the tournament all the world. So it actually makes our job much bigger and
our ambition much bigger. So we've been really focused on, you know, how do we try and take traditional things and make them more exciting, more
talk worthy in the digital age.
So give you a couple of examples, so, something as -- something as ordinary as a field board around the perimeter of the pitch, we challenged ourselves
to see how we could get people talking about that and in one of the games, in the first -- in the group stage, we actually had messages in Chinese for
all of our beer drinkers in China.
Cheering for team China in 2022 and saying that we believe in team China, and this has generated enormous conversation online in China and massive
total value for the brands. So there's all sorts of things we're doing, we're taking something as ordinary as a beer cup, you know, that's not
special in a stadium and we made it special by putting a light in the base of a cup that reacts to sound, that reacts to cheering, that reacts to
celebration.
The more the fans cheer, the more the beer-like stuff in the cup. So again, just another way to amplify, you know, fan energy. And then
something that's been around for a while also is the man of the match, right?
Where the sponsor of the man of the match, Budweiser, man of the match. But this time, we wanted to invite fans into that experience and now the
fans vote on who is man of the match on Twitter, and they get to determine who is the man of the match.
And then we publish the man of the match on all of our social channels. So you know, we're doing a lot on the ground, but actually the bigger game to
be won is in the digital space.
RIDDELL: Global sports sponsorship have been cooling off of late. How do you think this tournament and the way this tournament has gone might change
things in the near future?
PERKINS: We look at tournaments like this and we look at the sport of football and we say, you know, that's really something that brings people
together all over the world, possibly more than anything else.
And we really like to think that our job as a beer company and as a beer brand is also to bring people together. People have been getting together
for beer for 3,000 years. So we think beer and football go completely hand-in-hand and we think it's the best opportunity to do our job.
In moments like this when the whole world gets together. So for us, you know, these sponsorships are, you know, just a fantastic way to reach lots
of people, to do our job and to bring, you know, fun and celebration to the fans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIDDELL: That was Budweiser's Brian Perkins there, Richard. I now would imagine quite honestly that, all beer producer would have been happy with
the way this World Cup has gone. You saw those fans celebrating, every time a goal went in, they just threw it all away.
So I mean, presumably, that's a good one, they go and buy another one.
QUEST: That's wise decision. On the -- you know, the expectations for Russia -- we always knew that they could create a -- or would do a, you
know, a very efficient competent job of logistically putting on the World Cup.
There was a question of whether it would feel oppressive, whether it would feel happy, has it been a happy World Cup?
RIDDELL: Well, I've not been there on the ground, but I've obviously been in communication with people who have. And I mean, you can see from these
images, everybody that has gone by all accounts has had an absolutely fantastic time.
So the stories that we were hearing in the build-up to this and there was a lot of negative coverage in the run-up to this tournament having played
out. Of course, there are Russians who live there, who say well, this has all been rather different and it's been a different feel for us during this
tournament for us as all these foreign tourists have come in and maybe we had a great time.
But the question they're asking is what kind of Russia are we going to get when they leave, is everything going to go back to the way it was before?
We will see.
QUEST: Don Riddell, good to have you, sir, thank you. Now, of course, you need to stay on top of the day's business headlines in 90 seconds and it's
our daily briefing podcast updated twice a day before and after the bell rings on Wall Street.
[16:55:00] Alexa and Google, just say CnnMoney/briefing. That is what you might end up with. A profitable moment after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Tonight's profitable moment, whatever Donald Trump may have said in his interview with "The Sun" tabloid newspaper, and then recounted just
hours later in front of Theresa May in the Chequers garden, it doesn't really matter.
The truth is that Theresa May has gone for a softer Brexit which parliament may or may not agree with, and that will make it more difficult for her to
do independent trade deals with the rest of the world.
Think about it, who -- which country is going to negotiate with Theresa May on a good free trade area, knowing that she's already within the EU's
ambit. So Donald Trump has a valid point when he said it makes it more difficult, now not impossible and the president has given us something in
terms of giving it back.
But there were no illusions, trade deals are nasty, messy, brutal and they are hard to reach. And if anybody thinks that holding hands in a garden or
playing nice once is going to make a difference, well, you're mad.
Now, when the two sit down to negotiate with the U.S. to play trade deal, it will be brutal. And this weekend, let me just remind you, "QUEST WORLD
OF WONDER" comes your way. First of the new series, it is on Cnn and we're in Washington D.C.
Put it all together, that's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for tonight, I am Richard Quest in New York, whatever you're up to in the hours ahead, I hope it's
profitable. I am on assignment next week in Berlin.
END
