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Quest Means Business

IMF Chief Ringing The Alarm Bell On Global Recovery; CDC Issues New Mask Guidance As Delta Variant Spreads; Simone Biles Withdraws From Women's Team Gymnastic Finals; Markets In Mainland China, Hong Kong Down Amid Tech Crackdown. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired July 27, 2021 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:23]

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: U.S. stocks are off their record highs as the final hour of trading. Sixty minutes, before the end of

trading on the closing bell. It is a brutal session, especially for the tech sector. You can see, the markets are down sharply after good gains

though, so now is the profit-taking that is taking place.

Those the markets and these are the main events.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTALINA GEORGIEVA, MANAGING DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND: We are ringing the alarm bell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: The head of the I.M.F. tells me the recovery is stalling and the other shoe may be about to drop.

In the United States, the C.D.C. is bringing back the masks for millions of Americans. The announcement is due in this hour.

And stepping back from the world's biggest stage, Simone Biles is out at the Olympics and she said it is for the sake of her mental health.

We are live in New York. It is Tuesday, July 27th. I'm Richard quest and I mean business.

Good evening and a warm welcome. We are keeping a close eye on the American C.D.C., which is due to announce new mask mandates for the vaccinated,

because obviously, where the C.D.C. goes, many other countries follow. We'll bring you those details as and when they happen.

We start though with the I.M.F.'s Managing Director who is ringing the alarm on vaccine inequality. Tonight, Kristalina Georgieva tells me the

current situation is not sustainable and not good for anyone. The I.M.F.'s latest forecast lays out in stark terms how a two-speed recovery is

worsening the gap between the world's richest and poorest nations.

The W.E.O. - the World Economic Outlook says access to vaccines is the single biggest factor shaping economic recoveries in countries. Those with

better supplies have better prospects. The U.S., U.K., and the E.U. are now expected to enjoy more robust economic growth this year.

Turn the coin. Countries that have struggled to obtain vaccines are paying the steep price. Nations like Japan and India are being particularly hit as

you can see in cuts in their economic growth forecasts. I spoke to the I.M.F.'s Managing Director earlier and she told me, it is not only poorer

nations who suffer from this inequality. It is holding back the entire global recovery.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGIEVA: It is not sustainable and it is not good for anyone. What we have today is a projection of six percent as much as in April, but for

advanced economies, it is half a percentage point up. For most developing countries and emerging markets, half a percentage point down.

And the reason we are very concerned about it is because when the emerging economies and advanced economies are drifting apart, that inevitably means

that we are holding the global recovery overall back.

We have calculated that unless we work on addressing the two reasons why this is happening, vaccinate the rest of the world, and make sure there is

more fiscal space for countries that are very constrained, we will see potentially loss for both the emerging markets and advanced economies in

terms of output.

But can I say what I am most worried about in this divergence from the standpoint of the global economy? It is two risks that we have to be

mindful of. One, the risk of financial conditions tightening.

QUEST: Right.

GEORGIEVA: Because, say, the United States is moving fast rapidly. There are concerns about inflations while the emerging markets are not yet

growing --

QUEST: Okay.

GEORGIEVA: Being hit with an increase in the cost of borrowing for them.

QUEST: All right. Let's take -- let's take this, let's look first at that problem on the health side, which the I.M.F. makes clear it has to be where

the decisions are made.

[15:05:03]

QUEST: The problem is, Managing Director, people like you have been warning of this diverging path on economic growth for months, if not since the

pandemic started. People don't seem to be listening. There aren't the policy responses, there isn't the vaccine donations. There isn't the large

number of measures necessary to vaccinate the world.

GEORGIEVA: There is more today than there was a couple of months ago, more in advanced economies releasing surplus doses to go to the developing

world. More money to fund COVAX. COVAX increased the targeted vaccination from 20 to 30 percent and got the money for it. More of the World Bank's

stepping up from $12 billion which is what they committed to earlier, to $20 billion for this purpose.

But what we concentrate on is not only more; also, faster.

On donation of doses, please make your surplus available now so vaccinations can speed up when the delta variant is such a threat to so

many countries.

QUEST: All right, except as the delta variant grabs hold and makes a bad situation worse, don't you fear nationalism will once again come to the

fore as countries protect the gains that they have already made, however irresponsible for the wider picture that might be.

GEORGIEVA: But the good news is that, the vast economies have already vaccinated close to 40 percent of their people and they are continuing to

increase vaccinations quite rapidly, so we reach a point when you ask public opinion in the U.K., United States, and Germany, ordinary people

say, please vaccinate the rest of the world. Because unless you do, there will be more variants to come and hit us.

And I believe we have to dramatically scale up this sense of collaboration and avoid what you are warning, which is another wave of nationalism.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: If the vaccine situation wasn't critical enough, the I.M.F. also sees a second major issue looming close behind, that of inflation. The

W.E.O. echoes the chorus of economists warning that price rises could become more than just transitory.

On this program last night, you'll remember Mohamed El-Erian told me, he worries that the inflation that is here may be here to stay.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMED EL-ERIAN, PRESIDENT, QUEENS' COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY: I believe that inflation will prove less transitory than the Federal Reserve.

I believe that we are in the midst of an inflationary process. It is not the '70s and the '80s, but it is three to four percent inflation that will

last for much longer than most people expect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Now, here in the United States, the Federal Reserve has so far resisted calls to raise interest rates to help curb rising prices. The

Chair says -- Jay Powell says, he believes the recent spikes in inflation are transitory and appear eager to avoid the sort of temper tantrum that

rattles stock markets when the Fed started raising rates after the financial crisis.

My conversation with the I.M.F. Managing Director, she told me she worries the Fed could act too soon on rates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGIEVA: At this point, what we see is primarily transitory factors affecting inflation. In other words, we have pent up demand and we have big

disruptions in supply, and they put pressure on prices. Also, this rapid recovery in advanced economy means that pressure on commodity prices is

also going up.

We think this is going to ease out as the recovery advances, but if we don't overcome this dangerous divergence, then we may be in a situation

where supply disruptions continue and they hit back on prices in a way that is more in the view that you just expressed.

QUEST: Is it time for the U.S. to start, and note, I say start at the very beginning, but start the normalization by, for example, tapering. Is it

time -- I guess, what I'm asking you, I can put it as politely as I like but I'm asking, are you a dove or a hawk when it comes to raising rates and

tightening in the U.S.?

GEORGIEVA: I am very watchful. Get evidence to take us to the advice we give.

[15:10:10]

GEORGIEVA: And in that spirit, Richard, what we are seeing is already the Fed is contemplating that there may be an acceleration of withdrawal of

this massive support. In our own projections, we expect that it would happen earlier, maybe in 2022, not later as we initially projected because

of this very robust recovery in the United States and this is why we are ringing the alarm bell.

If emerging markets continue to drift backwards, fall behind; when this tightening of financial conditions happen, we might see a second shoe to

drop. We may see countries with high level of that especially dollar denominated that in a very difficult condition, we have to accelerate

through vaccinations and through more fiscal support of these countries, the ability to grow faster so we don't risk a problem down the road that if

we act today, is avoidable.

QUEST: Final question, you have seen many financial crises from the policy side. I've covered many financial crises from the journalism side. This is

the most difficult in a sense because all the economic levers and answers and prescriptions rely on the health scenario first.

Is this the most tricky that you've seen?

GEORGIEVA: It is by far the trickiest. But on the other hand, we also have answers that are staring us in the face. Vaccine policy, Richard, is

economic policy. Vaccinate.

We also see that collectively, we can support those that are in the most difficult conditions. The I.M.F. is going to issue $650 billion equivalent

of special drawing rights. This is a shot in the arm for finance authorities in developing countries that are desperate for more fiscal

space, but to help their own people to vaccinate them and to support their businesses. But also, to catch up in the world economy so the engine of

recovery goes faster and farther.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: The Managing Director of the I.M.F.

Now, breaking news. The U.S. Center for Disease Control, the C.D.C. has announced a new policy on masks, only two months after telling vaccinated

Americans they don't need to wear one. The new guidelines just issued are recommending vaccinated people in COVID hot spots resume wearing masks

indoors.

It brings the U.S. policy in line with other nations that have reinstated mask mandates following a recent surge in cases.

I'm joined from Baltimore by CNN analyst, Dr. Leana Wen. Doctor, the argument goes, they should never have removed the mask mandate as such. But

I guess that's unkind because the delta variant and the extremity of the delta variant wasn't known.

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, I was among one of the public health experts at the time back in May when the U.S. C.D.C. changed their

guidelines who said, this is premature. This really does not make sense because at that time, the C.D.C. was not saying you can remove your mask

and here is proof of vaccination because we didn't have the proof of vaccination.

We were relying on this honor system that a lot of us was never going to work, and in fact that's what happened. We have the surge that we do now

because of the high rates of unvaccinated people who were behaving as if they were vaccinated.

And as you mentioned, Richard, there is the matter of the delta variant, so the conditions have changed. Although I do think the C.D.C. should also be

saying, we made a mistake two months ago.

I'm glad that they are issuing this new guidance now. This is certainly the right thing for us to be doing, but I also worry that at this point, it is

pretty hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube. I think a lot of people -- it is going to be really hard for a lot of people to go back to wearing

masks after they are vaccinated.

QUEST: And they are also showing where you should wear masks, the circumstances, the various counties, for example, which in the United

States are amongst the most severely hit and where numbers are rising. There we go. This is the level of community transmission in these places.

[15:15:10]

QUEST: But I understand the reasons why they did back earlier in the year and why they are now changing their mind. But of course, for people doing

this and following it, it is very confusing.

WEN: I agree. I mean, I think that part of what the C.D.C. is expected to announce is new research that they have about whether vaccinated people are

able to carry coronavirus and are able to transmit to it others.

And so, we know that the vaccines protect you very well from getting ill, but there was this question with the delta variant, because people infected

with the delta variant get a thousand times the viral load compared to the previous variants.

And so, if you are vaccinated, are you still able to transmit it to others even if you don't get sick yourself?

The C.D.C. is expected to say that they have new research saying that vaccinated people can still be transmitting the virus. So, I want to

understand what this research is, but I think people are going to have a lot of questions including for example, parents living at home with

unvaccinated children. What is the guidance for us supposed to be?

And I hope that people would take away from this that the vaccine still protects you very well from getting severely ill, but that caution is still

going to be necessary because when there are many unvaccinated people around you, they are still going to be a spill-over effect towards the

unvaccinated.

QUEST: One of the reasons we are looking at this closely is because many other countries will take the C.D.C.'s guidance as being the gold standard,

and this question of mask mandates.

I mean, for instance, in the United Kingdom, there is much criticism at the Johnson administration for removing the mask mandate, basically, throwing

open the doors.

Now, in the U.K., people will be saying, hang on, if the C.D.C. thinks it is worth putting masks back on again in these places, other countries will

look at the same thing.

WEN: I agree, and I think that they should. I hope that other countries will look at either mask mandates or vaccine mandates. Ideally, I actually

think we should be doing what France is doing, which is to say, you can be unvaccinated if you want to be; but if you want to be in public, if you

want to be in restaurants, in bars, in concert venues, and museums, then you need to be vaccinated or you need to test negative. I actually think

that that is going to be the answer.

But, as long as we have in the U.S. and other countries, as long as we have many people who are unvaccinated, if they are mixing with the vaccinated,

the honor system does not work. And so, indoor mask mandates should still be applying in public spaces where vaccinated and unvaccinated people are

mixing.

QUEST: Glad to have your input. Thank you for talking to us. Thank you.

We'll obviously have more details on that as it proceeds.

The world's top gymnast has pulled out of her team's finals, saying she needs to protect her mind and body first. We'll be live in Tokyo, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:20:38]

QUEST: Two of the most famous athletes at this year's Tokyo Olympics have dramatically bowed out on Tuesday. Simone Biles had to withdraw from the

team's gymnastics final, citing stress and mental health concerns, saying she needs to protect her body and mind first.

And in the days after officially lighting the cauldron to officially open the games, tennis star, Naomi Osaka lost her third-round match in straight

sets. She made 32 unforced errors against Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic.

In her own blunt assessment of her loss, Osaka said, "This one sucks more than others."

Will Ripley is with me from Tokyo. Will, let's go through the reasons why and obviously, the focus here is going to be on the pressure and the mental

health concerns.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And I think, Richard, this is something that we are going to hear much more to the forefront of the

discussion moving forward because you have former team U.S.A. gymnasts saying that mental health was never a factor or consideration when they

were part of that powerhouse that just churns out gold medals and raises super stars, but maybe doesn't take into mind all the pressure.

The pressure of being that person with advertisers and agents and fans and social media, and all of that noise in your head. And what Simone Biles is

that that noise was so much in her head that when she was up there in the middle of a vault, she felt that she didn't know where she was. She was in

the air lost and thought she was going to injure herself if she continued, and I think a lot of mental health professionals would say that she made

the right decision.

Naomi Osaka who has had her highly publicized mental health struggles in recent months after she was booed viciously by a crowd when she was playing

against one of the iconic Williams sisters, I mean, these things are real. They don't always want to give a press conference after a humiliating

defeat and get peppered with questions from reporters who aren't always as nice as you are -- Richard.

QUEST: Well, that's kind of you to say it, Will. Let's see if you think the next question is nice.

What about those who say, if somebody like Osaka has got certain psychological or mental health issues, is it wise then that they subject

themselves to the additional pressure of, say, for example, lighting the Olympic cauldron?

RIPLEY: Well, who is going to say no to that? Whose agent or coach is going to advise them to say no to that opportunity in their home country of Japan

for these Olympics, which already have so much scrutiny? They were postponed by a year, you know, more than 70 million here in Japan alone

watched that moment on television.

So, this is the catch 22 for athletes. You have these opportunities. You have this super stardom. But with that, it is a double-edged sword when it

comes to the pressure and the mental health.

The ones who are winning medals, Tom Daley said, he got in his head back in 2016 in Rio, he won silver. He said he visualized and meditated every

single day, a perfect synchronized dive. He won the gold.

I interviewed Carissa Moore who won gold for Team U.S.A. in surfing, they meditate every single morning. The athletes who are mindful, the athletes

who are focused, who can clear their mind and focus on the competition are the ones who are winning, and I think perhaps this is now going to open up

the eyes of the sports community that there needs to be mental and spiritual fitness just as much as there needs to be physical fitness.

QUEST: Will Ripley, thank you. That mindfulness that Will was referring to was used by Simone Biles when she gave her statement because mental health

has been at the forefront of these Olympics Games facing the international press. Listen to what Simone Biles described.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIMONE BILES, TEAM U.S.A. GYMNAST: Today has been really stressful. We had a workout this morning. It went okay, and then just that five and a half

hour wait or something, I was just like shaking. I could barely nap.

I've never felt like this going into a competition before, and I tried to go out here and have fun and the warm-up in the back went a little better.

But then once I came out here, I was like, no, the mental is not there, so I just need to let the girls do it and focus on myself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: The former Olympic athlete, Lennie Waite is with me, also, a sports psychology and performance consultant. Good to speak to you.

Let's start from an understanding that these pressures have always been there and they may have got considerably worse with media and press. But if

-- but the handling of these pressures has become much more of an issue, much more direct, and I'm where have we gone wrong or need to do more?

[15:25:21]

LENNIE WAITE, SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY AND PERFORMANCE CONSULTANT: You know, I think the handling of this in Simone Biles's case has been good in her

response to it. I think, she has taken the route of, this is an opportunity to really destigmatize mental health issues among athletes, Olympic

athletes and then that trickles down to youth athletes, collegiate athletes, even the pressures of every day recreational athletes.

And this is really ground breaking opportunity to show that these Olympic athletes are human.

QUEST: What do you do? What do you do? The pressures on these people are phenomenal. The money involved is eye watering. The entourages around them

are sycophantic. So, what do you do?

WAITE: Well, you have to learn from experiences. You have to gain resources. You have to use techniques, like mindfulness, meditation, really

being able to narrow in your intentional focus and that -- I think, you know, both Naomi and Simone thought that they could deal with that.

Simone is the face of the Olympic Games for Team U.S.A. and Naomi lit that Olympic torch and I think both of them thought they could handle that

pressure until they realized they couldn't.

QUEST: Right, but Lennie, who is the person who should step in and say, don't do it. You think you can do it and you probably believe you can do

it, but the external evidence suggests don't do it.

WAITE: I don't think anybody can step in and say that because I don't think you can predict that they are going to fail or something bad is going to

happen. I think people have to step in earlier and say, hey, this is what the environment is like. We need to do dress rehearsals in this time of

situation.

And that has been super challenging in the build up to this Olympic Games because there haven't been many dress rehearsals just because of the

pandemic and other adversities the athletes have been facing.

QUEST: Okay, perhaps a difficult question for you here, but there will be athletes that will be looking at Simone and Naomi and they will be

empathetic at a level, but they'll also be saying, in some quarters, they couldn't hack it. They didn't have what it takes.

How do you square that even within the athletics community itself?

WAITE: The athletes are going to think that, people are going to say that stuff all the time when whenever you reach the top of a performance area,

you're going to be criticized. However, for the athletes, for Naomi and Simone, it is just recognizing nobody knows what it is like to perform with

their skill level on that stage, and they have to take that criticism and they have to walk with it and they have to grow from it, and they

absolutely with. They will respond to this.

QUEST: Lennie, it has been wonderful having you. Thank you. I appreciate a good forthright discussion on this. Thank you.

Shares in the Chinese tech firms listed overseas have collectively lost a trillion dollars in value since February. We will look at why the new rules

at home are leading to huge losses abroad.

In a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:30:37]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

QUEST: China's crackdown on its own tech companies is spreading. Two of China's largest tech companies, Tencent and Alibaba, are down sharply --

you see the numbers on the screen -- for a second straight day.

Tencent's WeChat service has suspended new registrations so it can comply with relevant regulations. The tumult is rattling markets in Hong Kong and

Mainland China. You will see very sharp losses in Hong Kong, specifically over 4 percent. The Hang Seng is down nearly 13 percent this month.

Silvercrest's Patrick Chovanec is with us now.

We've talked a lot about this, Patrick. But we don't understand what the Chinese government is up to when, seemingly, they're throttling their own

big companies.

PATRICK CHOVANEC, ECONOMIC ADVISER, SILVERCREST ASSET MANAGEMENT: This is a political crackdown. This is not a regulatory crackdown. Regulation might

be the vehicle, the device. But this is really about the Communist Party under Xi extending its grip over the economy.

And in many ways, this represents a 180-degree shift from when Xi came into power back in 2013. The promises made was that there would be market

reform; markets responded very positively to that. They've been moving inch by inch away from that. And now we really see a solidification of the

opposite of that.

QUEST: And yet I always think of the Chinese thinking, 50 years, 100 years ahead. While we're all concerned with the latest financial quarter. I know

you don't agree with that.

CHOVANEC: Yes. I think that the Chinese make things up as they go along, just like we do. And in the recent past, Xi's priority has been political

control. And in the past year, especially, given COVID, given the isolation, separation from the rest of the global economy, they've pushed

on a number of fronts: on Hong Kong, on companies like Jack Ma, on companies that are potentially seen as a rival or a threat to the dominance

of the Communist Party.

And part of this is also trying to insulate the Chinese economy from the United States an from U.S. pressure. I think there was a belief in China --

I don't think it was right -- but I think there was a belief that the Biden administration would be more accommodating. And they're finding out that

that is not really the case.

And so they are now, their priority is to try to insulate the Chinese economy from U.S. pressure. And they are betting that this will have, that

the collateral damage from that will be acceptable. Whether that proves to be the case or not really remains to be seen.

QUEST: Now, see, that's the point. One assumes they don't want to bring the house down around their ears. But if they continue to attack the big names

in the market and the market starts to crack and tank, then they will be facing -- admittedly, they have the funds to prop it up.

[15:35:00]

QUEST: And they can do all sorts of things within the banking sector to massage it better. But they are -- they could be the authors of their own

financial misfortune.

CHOVANEC: Right. China operates under constraints just like we operate under constraints in terms of policymaking and this pushback from the

market could be one of those constraints.

They have assumed so far that that would not happen or that the effects would be minimal. But a lot of people in the market right now are facing

risks that they always knew existed. But they always assumed the Chinese would not do these things, would not cross these lines because it was not

in Chinese interests.

And what's turning out to be the case is that the China, or at least Xi, the decision maker, has a different perception of interests than perhaps

people in the market assume.

QUEST: So, Patrick, when will we know it is over?

When will we know that pieces, the internal piece between China's big companies and its own government has been reached?

CHOVANEC: I don't think it is ever over-- when we know the trade war is over. This is an ongoing process in which there are geopolitics involved,

perceptions of the challenges or threats that China presents.

You know, we have -- there are more issues on the table here. This, all of this, the crackdown domestically in China, casts a long shadow over Chinese

companies that are listed in the United States because, remember, Congress passed a law recently that requires China to come to the table and

negotiate a solution within three years.

And instead of doing that, it looks like China is digging in its heels and it is actually embracing decoupling. So that threat is out there, which a

lot of investors hope might be resolved in the next three years. But the recent signals are that China seems to be moving in a, well, in a direction

that may not lead to the resolution that they hope for.

QUEST: Good to see you, Patrick. We'll talk more as this develops. Thank you, sir.

Tesla is starting to making good money by actually selling cars. For the first time, the electric car company posted positive earnings that didn't

rely on selling regulatory credits to other carmakers. The shares, though, are down 2 percent; other issues.

Elon Musk said he won't be on the earnings calls as much. The SpaceX CEO said he has a lot of time constraints. In April, NASA chose SpaceX to land

the next Americans on the moon.

The space agency initially said would it use two companies. And Jeff Bezos said he still wants to help NASA get to the moon. The billionaire founder

of Amazon and Blue Origin offered to cover the $2 billion costs himself. Clare Sebastian has the story on the two billionaire moguls, who both want

to get to the moon.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's not everyone who can offer NASA $2 billion discount on a human landing system -- that is the name of

the project here. But look, Jeff Bezos back in April when NASA awarded this contract to SpaceX, he filed a protest, a complaint with the Government

Accountability Office. They are set to rule on that next week.

But he was not waiting around. This was an open letter to the NASA administrator, where he said that Blue Origin will not only waive the fees

on their own human landing system project for the next two years, up to $2 billion, they're going to fund what he calls a pathfinder mission to low

Earth orbit to sort of test out their equipment.

And he is going to agree to a fixed price contract where any cost overruns will be picked up by Blue Origin. This is clearly in response to the fact

that NASA said that it was budgetary constraints that led them to pick just one company, SpaceX, back in April.

He is trying to solve that. He is not taking no for an answer -- Richard.

QUEST: Is it a race, in that sense?

And by that I mean, will NASA choose one versus -- let's assume he gets back in the race.

Will NASA choose one or the other?

Or will they say, right, guys; off you go. Let's see who gets there first.

SEBASTIAN: The hope, certainly in Congress, there's a sort of a bipartisan push to get NASA to bring in more than one of these companies to try to

push them to greater competition in this area.

The belief is that, if there is just one company, then overall, there won't be as much impetus to improve and go faster. There is a Senate bill being

advanced on this. And actually, Jeff Bezos in his letter, he said, we have seen that there strong bipartisan congressional support for a second lander

and for the Artemis (ph) program in general.

So I think certainly he is trying to draw on that argument in this open letter, that there needs to be more competition and that this could be a

second human landing system, as they call it.

QUEST: Clare Sebastian in New York, Clare, thank you.

I will show you the markets and how they are trading. I'll be back at the top of the hour with, of course, the full dash to the bell. But I wanted to

show you that we are heavily down on the Nasdaq, down more than 1 percent of loss at 211 points. But also, the big board, the Dow is down as, indeed,

is the SNP 500.

[15:40:00]

QUEST: The Dow 30 shows you the mixture, make-up if you like. And the majority down. And there are some heavy losses. Boeing is down, despite its

hoping to get its 737 problem sorted. Apple is down. Microsoft, tech is obviously lower when you have Sales Force also down as well.

And the gain of McDonald's is really just a smidgeon compared to what else you're looking at. It is an unhappy market today. I will have the closing

numbers for you when we do our dash to the closing bell in 20 minutes or so from now. But that's after you've enjoyed "LIVING GOLF."

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(LIVING GOLF)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: I'm Richard Quest. Together we have a dash to the closing bell. And we are literally two minutes away. Wall Street is off its record highs as

investors are taking profits and awaiting major tech earnings. The Dow was off more than 260 points. We've pared that by quite nicely to Dow -82.

All major averages are down. The Nasdaq -- because it is tech and we're look at tech results, that's off the most. Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, all

reporting after the bell and all of them heavily lower.

The IMF's managing director is ringing the alarm on vaccine inequality. The fund's latest forces has slashed growth for prospects for nations with

limited access to vaccines whilst the grading economies appear advanced (ph) rollout.

Speaking to me earlier, the managing director told me the situation is holding back the global recovery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTALINA GEORGIEVA, MANAGING DIRECTOR, IMF: It is not sustainable and it is not good for anyone. What we have today is a projection of 6 percent, as

much as in April. But for advanced economies, it is half a percentage point up for most developing countries and emerging markets; half a percentage

point down.

And the reason we are very concerned about it is because, when the emerging economies and advanced economies are drifting apart, that inevitably means

that we are holding the global recovery overall back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Allow me to show you the Dow 30, a row of green on the screen. McDonald's and Merck is leading. Most of the Dow components, however, are

lower, which is why you see what you do.

And that's our dash to the bell. I'm Richard Quest. Whatever you're up to in the hours ahead, I hope it is profitable. There goes the closing bell.

And "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" starts next.

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