Dow Futures Down Almost 300 Points
LEMON: All right, some breaking news in to CNN. It's already Monday morning in Asia. I want to give you a map of where and when the markets will open up there. We're less than an hour away from the start of Tokyo trading. And for the first time since Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S. credit rating, we're watching the reaction in Asia very closely right now because it can foretell so much about what we can expect when the U.S. markets open in the morning. You've already seen some of the response in the U.S. market and the downgrade. The Middle Eastern markets, financial markets, were open today. They closed sharply. And I want to bring in Richard Quest, because Richard here's something I think is very troubling here. The Dow futures down almost 300 points. Has that ever happened before? Has it been down this much before?</s>RICHARD QUEST, HOST, CNN INTERNATIONAL: Oh, yes. I mean, this is -- this is a futures market which tell us where the S&P; would be in a month's time. And what it basically means to you and me and everybody else watching is that if nothing -- if the U.S. market was to open now, right at this minute, the Dow would be off several hundred points. That's what this means. But the U.S. market isn't going to open now. And in fact, on that chart, the one you didn't have which is the first market really to trade, the first significant market, in about 45 minutes is Sydney in Australia. And that's where we're starting to get this S&P; number, this futures number from, from the Asia Pacific markets -- the South Asia Pacific markets. New Zealand, Australia. Long and short of it, we knew, and we've known for hours that the U.S. markets would be volatile and probably down. Now we're starting to get a number on that but please, let's have a bit of calm on this. We are, at least, 13, 14 hours from the U.S. markets.</s>LEMON: Hey Richard, this is a good point for me to jump in. Maybe my question maybe was our fault but what I wanted to ask, at this point, we're about 14 hours away from the open of the markets, has Dow futures been down 300 points before? Or is it usually down somewhere maybe 50, maybe 100, but 300 -- is that a troubling point sign at this point?</s>QUEST: I -- not really, that's a when did you stop beating your wife question. Because, you know, yes. We have been -- normally the Dow futures will be down five points, ten points, 20 points, 50 points. To see it down 300 points tells me that when the morning market opens, if it was to happen now, they would be clobbered out of bed and hit over the head with a big, heavy stick. I mean that's what that's telling you. And that's not surprising. Look at what's happened today. We've had the G-20 speaking. We've got a G-7 conference call. We've got Tim Geithner saying he's going to stay on the job and the President saying, "Thank you very much, I'd like you to." We've got Geithner saying that S&P; has made a error of judgment. We've got Greenspan saying that the market's going to be down but he doesn't see signs of double dips. You've got Larry summers saying, calling that the S&P; decision outrageous. There is so much noise of which I'm contributing, as well, there's so much noise out there at the moment that it's not surprising tonight, the U.S. futures are down sharply.</s>LEMON: Ok. You answered it anyway. So, and you did a great job. It wasn't a when do you stop beating your wife question, but I knew you were going to sort of hem and haw about that. Richard Quest, thank you so much. Richard we're going to see you back here at 9:00 p.m. Eastern too --</s>QUEST: Yes.</s>LEMON: -- for a special that we're doing on this particular top.</s>QUEST: We are.</s>LEMON: So thank you. And we'll see you at 10:00 p.m. Eastern as well. In the meantime, questions swirl around the U.S. economy. When will the job market bounce back and how long will it take? Millions of Americans want to know. We're going to get some answers. And it's a daring attempt by a 61-year-old woman. She's going to swim all the way from Cuba to Florida. Wait until you hear how divers plan to scare away any sharks that might come near.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: See you at 2:15. Ok?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're right here.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:  2: 15.