U.S. Stocks Climb After Sanders Drops Of Presidential Race; W.H.O. On Trump Threat, "Don't Politicize This Virus."
QUEST: Welcome back. The markets and stocks have rallied and there's many reasons, but the main ones seem to be firstly, Bernie Sanders has pulled out of the U.S. presidential race for the Democrats. That means Medicare- for-All, which was an expensive policy, not liked by the markets that is highly, highly, highly unlikely. Also, the numbers are horrible in the U.S. for coronavirus, but latest modeling suggests that the country might escape the worst in terms of projections of deaths, and that the peak might come sooner. Now, that's not to say it won't still be grim. But it may not be as grim as first thought. Julia Chatterley is with me. I have to say Julia, having had the initial bounce back from the markets off the lows of mid to late March, after having seen that, it does seem bizarre that it's continuing to rise.</s>JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR, FIRST MOVE: And actually, I'm seeing more and more people suggesting that it makes sense to your exact point, as horrifying as these numbers are, they are less bad than perhaps initially feared. We're starting to see countries like Norway, like Denmark start to reopen their economies and I think that's giving people hope. And I hope I'm wrong to about my nervousness. I just see multiple crises here, particularly in the United States, and we've talked about the many times the economic black hole that we're in, the lack of ability to time when this ends and for all the stimulus that we've had. You know, I had Alicia Levine of BNY Mellon tell me today that's going to last us six weeks. So if this shutdown of some form extends longer, who knows? We're in a black hole as far as earnings season is concerned, I just remain cautious that it's so difficult to tell what the economic cost, even if we're seeing a lessening of the lives and those on the health crisis perhaps look more optimistic than they were. They remain devastating and the challenges remain.</s>QUEST: Right. I guess we need to understand what is an EPS share price, what it looks like, once -- I mean obviously, what we saw two or three weeks ago was the sort of trough of your life or the exogenous event trough. But we don't know what the market price looks like because we don't know the trading positions of the companies.</s>CHATTERLEY: And that's exactly the point and you often point to this, the extreme fear. We went to the depths of despair and the unknown and we're coming back from that to some degree. But my point and I will keep arguing is that we still don't know. We've thrown so much cash at the system. We've tried to address it with liquidity, as we call it. We don't know what the solvency issues are going to be. The viability of huge chunks of the economy in the United States and that beyond anything else is also a challenge going forward, and I'm not sure earnings season gives us more clarity.</s>QUEST: Julia, quickly, the Small Business Administration, the loans program, the Payroll Protection Plan, I can't decide whether it was I mean, a complete fiasco, or it was an inevitability because of the sheer size and scale rolling it out so quickly, but it is getting going now.</s>CHATTERLEY: An inevitability, I think, overwhelmed and underprepared. It's trying. There are still huge issues. The three largest banks in the United States -- Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo -- have together lent just under a third, around $100 billion in the space of five days. They're being criticized. There are a backlog of applications there. Come back in two to three weeks when we've tried to process some of these loans and got the cash out and I think it will be a different story. But for now, Richard, I'll be honest, it is still deeply challenged.</s>QUEST: All right. Julia Chatterley, "First Move." Thank you, Julia, as always. Now, the W.H.O. is defending herself after an attack by Donald Trump who sees the organization as being an arm and a tool of the Chinese government in the way it's handled the coronavirus. Donald Trump says he will delay or withdraw funding for the W.H.O. Now, organization has retaliated.</s>DR. TEDROS ADHANOM, DIRECTOR GENERAL, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: The focus of all political parties should be to save their people. Please don't politicize this virus. It exploits the differences you have at the national level. If you want to be exploited, and if you want to have many more body bags, then you do it.</s>QUEST: I beg your pardon, I took a moment for a quick glass of water. Stephen Collinson is with me, from Washington. Stephen, all right, let's split this into two things. Donald Trump is not alone in criticizing the W.H.O. There are many people who have said that the W.H.O. was far too favorable to China in its early assessment of this crisis. Why is Donald Trump's criticism different if it is?</s>STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, I think Richard, what's going on here is Donald Trump is looking for a scapegoat. He's coming under increasing political pressure in the United States. There are mounting indications that his statement that nobody thought this virus could ever come to the United States, which he maintained right up to February and early March was completely wrong. He was informed by an economic adviser, Peter Navarro in his administration that this could be a threat. We are learning now that U.S. Intelligence warned as far back as December about the potential threat of the coronavirus in the United States. This is what Donald Trump does when he's in a pinch. He seeks an enemy and he is trying to deflect. Of course, the W.H.O. can be criticized, but it was far more prescient in fact, on the threat to the rest of the world from the coronavirus pandemic than Donald Trump ever was. He is projecting here. He said yesterday that the W.H.O. blew the call on the coronavirus. If you look at the W.H.O. statements and you look at Donald Trump's statements against each other, I don't think it's very difficult to see who blew the call in actual fact.</s>QUEST: But all right, Stephen, is there anybody listening to the -- when people like you and others point out the discrepancies in what the President has said, and the way he has handled this, is anybody listening?</s>COLLINSON: I think people who are not disposed well to Donald Trump or not really listening to a lot of what the President says in his campaign style briefings every evening. What the President is trying to do is what he did during the Russia investigation, during impeachment. He's trying to fog the details, throw enough misinformation out there so nobody really knows who to blame to try and absolve himself of some of the criticism.</s>COLLINSON: The attack on the W.H.O. has been taken up with gusto by the President's friends in conservative media. You know, it's one of the reasons why, even though there is rising public concern about his handling of the pandemic, a CNN poll today said that 45 percent of Americans still believe that Donald Trump is doing a good job here and doing a good job in his presidency. This is the story of the Trump administration. He throws enough chum out there in the water that allows his supporters to choose their own reality. Now, the question is when we're going into an election year, is that going to be enough? Can he win with just that 45 percent and that political base, or is he alienating more moderate voters that are possibly a lot more concerned about his handling of this?</s>QUEST: Bernie Sanders decision to get out of the race. It was inevitable that he couldn't get -- I mean, besides slim pathways and all of that nonsense, but it allows the Democrats to coalesce around Joe Biden, and answering the second half of this question, is there any chance, do you think that Biden would ever step aside for the Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo?</s>COLLINSON: All right, to start with Bernie Sanders, even in the best possible worlds in a normal election year, he wouldn't have anywhere to go. So you're right, this isn't a surprise. I think the two questions as far as Sanders is concerned right now, what happens to his movement? And how many of them can he get to unite around Joe Biden so there's a strong united Democratic Party going into the fall? Donald Trump has already tried to play the trade card, the populist card on Twitter today to try and win over some of the anti-free traders in the Bernie Sanders coalition. As far as Biden stepping down in favor of Andrew Cuomo, Joe Biden has been running for President effectively, since the middle of the 1980s. I don't think anything is going to get him to step aside, especially when he finally has that big prize within reach.</s>QUEST: Stephen, thank you. This is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS from New York. Glorious day. Not as hot as it was yesterday, but still a beautiful spring day. We'll have more. We'll talk to the CEO of AstraZeneca to understand the differences between vaccines and antibody tests, and all the work that's being done to help ensure -- well, maybe an the immediate future, but in the not too distant future. There's some hope and things are getting better, in a moment.