Dow Has Biggest Point Gain in Five Years; McCain Campaign Financial Woes
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you, and thanks for joining us. It is Friday, the 13th of July. I'm John Roberts, along with Kiran Chetry. '</s>KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good to see you.</s>CHETRY: Well, Friday, the 13th starts out lucky for some investors. The Dow with its biggest point gain in nearly five years. And our Ali Velshi is following the numbers for us this morning. Hi, Ali.</s>ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. An hour and a half before markets open, the biggest point gain in nearly four years, biggest percentage gain in nearly -- biggest point gain in nearly five years, biggest percentage gain in nearly four years. The 50th record close on the Dow since October. We are now less than 200 points away from 14,000 on the Dow. It wasn't even at 11,000 this time this year. What you need to do is you need to look at your portfolio. More than half of all Americans own stocks, but they don't necessarily own them as individual stocks. Those are the returns that the market has provided from the beginning of 2007 until now. The Dow and the Nasdaq have given more than 11 percent back to you. The Nasdaq -- the S&P; almost 10 percent. Well, you'll want to look at your portfolio. And while it may not match these exactly, you want to make sure that you are getting some of these gains. And if you have been getting some of them, you might want to rebalance and buy some things that aren't doing so well. You want to take this opportunity to rebalance your portfolio. Look at it and make some decisions, because there's a healthy market out there. And while you're probably paying more for gas and your mortgage, you might as well make it where you can -- Kiran.</s>CHETRY: Ali, we'll check in with you a little later. Thank you.</s>VELSHI: OK.</s>CHETRY: The crackdown in China this morning. The government urging food and drug companies to put safety first. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is doing a series of special reports from inside of China starting Monday. And today, of course, we started off with the undercover video of cardboard being used in dumplings. It's unbelievable.</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is unbelievable. I'm going to go out to China. I'm really excited about this trip. We're going to be looking at some of those stories, some other stories as well. Pollution is a huge issue in China. A lot of people know that. There's some concrete examples of what pollution can do to our bodies. There are these actual cancer villages in China that we're going to be looking at where cancer rates are extraordinarily high. How does it happen, why is it happening? What are environmental groups trying to do to prevent that from happening? Also, sort of the mix of traditional Western medicine and traditional Eastern medicine. We're going to look at what Eastern medicine -- some of the specific science, the history and some of the cultural beliefs are, and what we can learn from those for our own bodies and own welfare. I think it's going to be a very fascinating series of reports -- Kiran.</s>CHETRY: You better check in with John Vause about where to eat, though, in Beijing.</s>GUPTA: He told me not to eat in Beijing at all. So maybe I'll come back a little skinnier. We'll see.</s>CHETRY: All right. Sanjay, thanks.</s>GUPTA: Thank you.</s>ROBERTS: And for the latest on the race for the White House, we go now to our Candy Crowley. She is live in Concord, New Hampshire, for us this morning. Good morning, Candy.</s>CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.</s>ROBERTS: And I guess the news of the day is that John McCain looks like he is just about out of cash. He had $2 million remaining in the bank, but he's got liabilities of $1,750,000, which leaves him with about $250,000. How is that for a guy who's trying to win the nomination?</s>CROWLEY: Very, very tough to win the nomination with that sort of money, John. I imagine he will keep that $2 million cash on hand rather than pay down those debts at this point. But, you know, the problem is, that if donors out there are looking at this campaign and seeing this sort of chaos that has been going on with the top two people leaving, other loyalists sort of following him out the door, this is a campaign that's clearly struggling to get back up on its feet. If you're a donor, you're looking at that thinking, do I really want to give $2,300 to that campaign? John.</s>ROBERTS: And then there is also this news that his Florida campaign co-chairman, Bob Allen, was arrested for soliciting sex from an undercover police officer. Now, Giuliani's campaign has had a couple of -- I don't want to say exactly the same, but certainly similar episodes. I mean, that's the sort of thing that you can perhaps come back from if you're strong, but all of these little things just kind of chip away at confidence, do they not?</s>CROWLEY: They absolutely do. And as far as we can tell, not the confidence of the candidate, who has already spoken to at least the disruptions in his campaign and said, look, you know, we're moving forward. Nonetheless, this is one more thing that takes John McCain off his topic, which is to get back on message and to talk about reform and that sort of thing. The kind of things that he talked about in 2000.</s>ROBERTS: Hey, you're up there in New Hampshire. And the latest polls show that on the Republican side, Mitt Romney continues to lead 26 percent to Rudy Giuliani's 17 and Fred Thompson, 17 percent. The latest Rasmussen Reports poll. But, of course, people -- you know, it's very close to Massachusetts, and people remember him back in 2002 running for the governorship there, and there's this whole idea that Romney will say anything to get elected. There's a new video out on YouTube that the Massachusetts Democratic Party put out. Take a quick listen to some of this and let me get your reaction.</s>GOV. MITT ROMNEY (R), MASSACHUSETTS: It's always a burden for someone to run with "R" for "Republican" after their name. Surely I have many friends who are Republicans and Republican voters.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So take it from this liberal Democrat, if you want an amazing leader, vote for Mitt Romney.</s>ROBERTS: So, this video is out there suggesting that Romney will say anything to get elected. And that is one of the hits on him, isn't it?</s>CROWLEY: Well, that's the problem, that every time you add on to an already perception that's there, it just deepens that. We've had changes obviously with Romney on abortion and other things related to the pro-life movement. So this is something that kind of adds to that. Nonetheless, it was Massachusetts. I also wonder if this is not continuous, how much six months out this kind of thing actually hurts other than if they keep building upon this idea that he's a flip-flopper. Then clearly it hurts him. Having said that, you just read the polls. A lot of those things have already come out, and conservatives still tend to support Mitt Romney.</s>ROBERTS: Yes. I mean, I guess for the most part people in New Hampshire know exactly who he is. Candy Crowley for us in Concord this morning.</s>CROWLEY: Yes.</s>ROBERTS: Candy, thanks.