good morning. it is monday, august 8th. this is your a.m. wake-up call. i'm ali velshi joining you from new york. it's monday, the first monday after standard & poor's took the u.s. credit rating down a notch to the aa+ club from aaa. it's a historic punch in the gut. the shock wave from the downgrade is being felt on the other side of the globe. tokyo's nikkei, kospi, the hang seng in hong kong and shanghai's kospi slipped. european markets fickle this

morning. u.s. stock futures have been down all night. you could see this clg. cnn's don lemon asked don quest the question a lot of folks might be asking. >> is the sky falling? >> oh, don't be ridiculous, of course not. you may have a dow futures that are down slightly, you may have a market off 100200 points but how we start is never how we finish. this is a slow burning, deeply seated crisis. that is affecting the global financial markets. >> european markets have begun the day on a positive note. that's probably thanks to a big g 7 conference call last night. the group of seven industrialized nations promised to help countries in financial trouble, also the european central bank's plan to buy italian and spanish government bonds have helped calm the markets. treasury secretary tim geithner was on the g7 call, not going to resign even though some

republican says the credit downgrade should have cost him his job. geithner and the obama administration have been slamming standard & poor's all weekend they say the agency basically didn't know what it was doing. the s&p is planning a conference call before the u.s. markets open to explain its decision. the aa+ smack down has been shocking enough. imagine if the u.s. credit had been downgraded to aa-minus or just an a. list to what s&p's managing director said. >> if we have a negative outlook which is fixed to a longer time frame from six months to 24 months, and if the fiscal position of the united states deteriorates further or if the political gridlock becomes more entrenched, then that could lead to a downgrade. the outlook indicates at least a one in three chance of a downgrade over that period. >> a one in three chance of a further downgrade. i'm going to be talking to that man, john chambers, a little later this morning, 7:15 a.m.

eastern right after that i'm going to talk to economist mark zandsy with moody'seconomy.com, an interesting take. he says it's a blow to the u.s. ego, but not likely anything more than that. in afghanistan nato troops are looking into the crash site where a u.s. army helicopter was apparently shot down. 30 u.s. troops were killed, including 22 elite navy s.e.a.l.s. military sources say those forces were on their way to help army rangers in a fire fight with the taliban. their target was a taliban commander responsible for attacks on u.s. forces. the taliban claims militants shot the chinook helicopter down with a rocket propelled grenade. fiancee of a guardsman who was killed talked to cnn about her last koerds respondens with him. >> he sent me an e-mail the day before and he told me, he said, please don't worry about me. he said you and the girls are always in my heart.

don't worry. this place isn't going to change me. i'm going to change this place. that's just how i am. he said, i will uv you, ma. just take care of my girls. and know that i am here thinking about you all the time. i'll be home before you know it. love you, ma. >> wow. 22 elite navy s.e.a.l.s. were killed in that crash of the helicopter. the incident is the single largest loss of life for u.s. troops since the war began nearly ten years ago. we're hoping to get more answers about a shooting rampage near akron, ohio. seven people killed, one only 11 years old. police believe the gunman shot his girlfriend first then ran next door and shot five more people, then chased other victims into a third house before police shot and killed him. verizon workers from massachusetts to virginia have walked off the job. the contract expired saturday at midnight. the workers are upset that the company wants to cut health care

benefits and their pensions. a union official says the strike could affect your phone, internet and tv service. verizon says services will not be affected. in the wake of the s&p credit downgrade for the united states let's see how the world's money is doing. andrew stevens, my colleague in hong kong, has been following it very closely. good morning, let's start with how world markets have been reacting overnight now into the morning? >> not well, ali, and not surprising either. the asian markets particularly got off to a pretty weak start today. the markets down between 2% and 4% at one stage. did come back towards the end. europe started off on a positive note because european policy leaders were seen to be actually doing something, taking concrete action, buying spanish and italian bonds. that's all slipping at the moment as well. there's still a lot of nifty out there, ali. want to bring back to that point mark zandsy made, this is a blow

to the ego, not much more than that. and quest is right about the sky not falling. there is a crisis here and that crisis is the crisis of confidence that we talked about on friday. >> andrew, china happens to agree with you on this. they've said, quote, that this is a warning bell for the united states. >> absolutely. and they're absolutely right. now china has been huffing and puffing about u.s. economic policy for a long time now. they came out very strong and they said that basically the u.s. has a debt addiction, which is tough even for beijing. it is a warning bell, ali, but china is like many people, many of us, sort of bystanders here. they can't do that much about it. >> yeah. >> what sort of impact will it have on washington? they're going to be concerned, of course. i don't want to upset their biggest creditor too much, but they've got people close to home to worry about if you like. >> it's going to be a complicated few days of figuring out, feeling everybody out and

seeing where they stand. thanks for your analysis. andrew stevens in hong kong, watching it 24/7 like we are. imagine walking through the woods and finding a shark. i'm serious. how did it get there? we'll show you pictures of the unusual find just ahead. quote, they made a $2 trillion math error and they forget to check their work. find out which news maker said this about the debt crisis in 60 seconds. it is seven minutes after the hour. [ woman ] jogging stroller. you've been stuck in the garage while i took refuge from the pollen that made me sneeze. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. so lily and i are back on the road again. with zyrtec® i can love the air®.

zandi. it is eight minutes after the hour. back to our quote of the day from austin goolsbee the former white house's chief economist, i would call him the white house's former chief economist. what else he had to say about standard & poor's. >> they made a $2 trillion math error and forget to check their work. so the rating agencies that didn't make a $2 trillion math

error reaffirmed the aaa status. i should say standard & poor's takes issue with the characterization of what they did as an error. they say they work with different assumptions, ran it both ways, their way and the white house's way and they felt america should still get a downgrade. i will be talking to standard & poor's at 7:15 this morning. that friday by the way was goolsbee's last day on the job at the white house. he's returning to the university of chicago's booth school of business. to rob marciano live from atlanta. rob, any flight downgrades today? >> there may be flight downgrades today, that's for sure. in places that will see the thunderstorms pop up in the afternoon. take a look at the chart here that shows you if you are traveling, chicago's going to see some delays, minneapolis as well in the afternoon. some morning clouds in philly and new york city and continued on the muggy side until a little front comes through. san francisco, morning clouds and fog and thunderstorms scattered in the afternoon. atlanta and chicago.

in boston. hazy, hot and humid conditions will persist across the midsection of the country. couple of fronts trying to make their way south. we're getting now into the middle of august, trying to be optimistic about cooler air, trying to push its way south. but it's still going to have a hard time doing that. heat indices from places like dallas to oklahoma city. i think dallas is day 38 of 100 plus degree heat. so hot in places sharks are jumping out. check this out. milton, new hampshire, six to eight-foot blue shark found in the middle of the woods. this is about 50 miles from the atlantic ocean. a river there. but investigators have no idea how this thing got there. of course, somebody could have put it there. but nonetheless, the smell of the rotting fish turned them on to what was happening in the woods there. that investigation ongoing as you track the markets and we'll be giving you updates. >> we need a break from the markets sometimes.

we need them to hear about something other than markets. shark in the woods. >> those pictures -- >> that's a different one. i'm going to use that as an expression from now on. you southerners, that's like a shark in the woods. i'll use it. a reason to use it. thank you so much. rob marciano in our weather center. new words of secret tapes of jackie o with talk of affairs and a plot to kill jfk. we'll fill you in on that. today is happiness happen's day. it was started by the secret society of happy people. if you're feeling crabby or run across an individual tell them to suck it up and get happy. it's 11 minutes after the hour.

13 minutes after the hour. here are three things you should have on your radar today. a change of command ceremony at macdill air force base. we're expecting secretary of defense leon panetta to talk about the death of 22 u.s.

troops over the weekend in a helicopter crash that appears to be -- the helicopter appears to have been brought down by the taliban. we'll be watching the world markets for you throughout the day. plus at 8:45 eastern time a conference call is being held by s&p, the agency that downgraded the credit rating of the united states over the weekend. we'll let you know how that goes. aaa may be a credit rating, but the jokes have started. a little canada love my way. this person wrote -- canada beating the u.s. not a hockey update. a yo mama joke -- >> i don't get that one as much. time for your political ticker with tim farley host of "morning briefly" on xm live from washington. no jokes in washington about this. pretty serious barbs flying all over the place. and somehow, somewhere, some

way, there's going to be political fallout from this downgrade, tim. >> no question about it, ali velshi. what's interesting is the messages we're getting. you played the cut from austin goolsbee and secretary timothy geithner saying the same thing, there was a math error. on the other hand the president's surrogates and persons of axelrod and john kerry using the same phrase, this was a tea party downgrade. ed sweeney from s&p being quoted by bloomberg saying politics was one of five factors. so while people are pointing the finger and blame and there are republicans pointing the finger of blame at the president, still, there's an underlying ish sure here that is how well this next committee, if you will, will be able to solve the underlying problems surrounding what led to this downgrade which is the increasing size of the debt and inability of congress to seem to work with the president to get something done about it. >> yeah. so the sniping isn't going to help us out today because that actually did come into it. i'm going to be speaking to john

chambers at s&p again to get that from him again. listen to this, in the midst of this whole thing, talks that tim geithner, treasury secretary will leave after the debt ceiling debates happened, he has announced he's staying. >> yeah. isn't that nice to know, that one of them is staying. christina romer gone, austin goolsb goolsbee, friday his last day. secretary geithner as the president said when he first appointed him, was uniquely qualified to handle this. he does understand wall street, spent a lot of time at the new york fed and he is truly an important part of this administrationp. symbolically, if nothing else, it makes good sense for him to be able to stay. i'm not sure substantively what it does. i know michele bachmann on the campaign trail is calling for his immediate resignation after he says he's going to stick around, so i guess that this will also wind up playing somehow into the debate this week and also into the ames straw poll this week. >> have a great show. tim farley host of "morning

briefing" on sirius xm. london's "daily mail" reported lyndon johnson was behind the assassination of her husband. said to be in secret audiotapes sealed in a vault at the kennedy lie brashry. revelations of affairs. the paper reports it's in an upcoming special on abc. a sex tape supposedly staring a young marilyn monroe went on the auction block sunday and sold for -- it didn't. no bidders. a spanish collector owns the tape. the big problem a number of experts say it's probably actually not of marilyn monroe. spoiler alert f you don't want to know how charlie sheen's character in "two and a half men" dies, turn down the sound for about ten seconds. ready? according to tmz, sheen's character falls in front of a paris subway train and he may have been pushed. there you have it. okay.

all right. training kids as young as 8 to be hackers. could it be for a good reason? i'll tell you on the other side. 18 minutes after the hour.

any questions? no. you know... ♪ we're not magicians ♪ we can't read your mind ♪ ♪ read your mind ♪ we need your questions ♪ each and every kind ♪ every kind ♪ will this react with my other medicine? ♪ ♪ hey, what are all these tests even for? ♪ ♪ questions are the answer ♪ yeah ♪ oh people are very divided over the u.s. credit downgrade. perspective from the top money minds out there and what the downgrade to mean to you. >> current level of debt is quite high and under anyone's plausible scenarios, it's going

to continue to rise as a share of the economy. our figures we published more accurate and our analysis is sound. >> s&p's track record has been terrible and as we've seen this weekend its arithmetic is worse. >> the markets are going to be a little uncertain. the key thing is whether the two other rating agencies are going to follow s&p. i don't think they will, and if they don't, the reaction will be rather minimal. >> this isn't the end of the world. it's aa+. that's still a really high grade. but, it's disconcerting in the middle of the crisis, as it's deepening. >> we're going to be talking about the possible ripple effects throughout the morning but i want to turn to afghanistan and, perhaps, the darkest hour for the u.s. military in ten years of war. 30 american military personnel were killed, including 22 navy s.e.a.l.s., in the single deadliest loss of u.s. troops since the war began. we're now learning their ch 45 chinook helicopter crashed during a mission to reinforce

army rangers who were pinned down in a fire fight. let's go around the world with max foster, live from london right now. good morning, max. max, what do we know about this mission and the troops who died trying to carry it out? >> well, ali, this story was a shock to people around the world, wasn't it? it was a real shocker over the weekend to hear this had happened at all. imagine, if your partner was a s.e.a.l. and you were watching this unfold on television. this was exactly the situation kimberly vaughn found herself in and later on had a knock at the door, assuming it was a neighbor, but opened the door and two uniformed men there who delivered the awful, awful news that her husband aaron was involved in that helicopter crash and we've been hearing from her, actually, on cnn over the weekend. >> i want to tell the world that he was an amazing man, that he was a wonderful husband and a

fabulous father to two wonderful children and a warrior for our country, and he wouldn't want to leave this earth any other way than how he did. >> unbelievable, isn't it, that somehow she manages to find hope in this shortly after it happened. >> yeah. these guys, these were the most elite of the elite, that is navy s.e.a.l.s. who went down. another story we're following over the weekend, and it did get blurred by all of the debt ceiling, the debt downgrade talk, these riots in london, dozens hurt, dozens more arrested. what prompted it and what happened? >> all came out of the blue. scenes you don't expect to see in london these days. what happened was a young man was shot by police last week and that sparked some riots in north london. they really, really took off. you can see these scenes, buildings caught fire. the police caught off guard. it was a riot. in the end 61 were arrested.

what was interesting once that was resolved, on sunday, there were copycat incidents around london. 100 people were arrested and people wondering what's going on here in scenes you can't expect. lots of looting, shocking scenes in london over the weekend. >> wow. yeah. those are incredible scenes we're looking at. also incredible scenes of a different sort we've been getting, devastating images, max, over the last few days in east africa in somalia. this famine is really reached crisis proportions and people want to know how they can help. >> yeah. what's so bad in somalia, you've got auto conflict, a severe conflict, but a famine at the same time. very, very difficult for aid groups, many of whom have been barred by the militia, struggling to get in there. we want to take you to our website cnn.com/impact. if you want to help you need to choose your aid groups very, very carefully. so you can help. they need help. you need to go through the right aid groups. the details are on the website. >> good to see you.

thank you for being with us. max foster joining us from london. he'll keep an eye on what's going on around the world. boeing has finally rolled out the 787 dreamliner. the plane could spark a revolution in air travel. it's lighter than most planes because it's made out of carbon composites, uses 20% less fuel of planes its size and a self-serve bar. the first plane is going to japan's nippon airways. it's a bird, plane, it's a bird on a plane. that's right. or possibly a bat. sneaked on to a delta air lines flight from madison, wisconsin, to atlanta on sunday. check that out. the video shot by one of the passengers. the critter flew around the cabin before getting stuck in one of the bathrooms. i'm led to believe somebody opened the door and guided it into the bathroom. that's creepy. look at that. according to conventional wisdom young people are more tech savvy than older folks. most of us find it strange to come across an 8-year-old

hacker. kids are the new demographic. the annual hacking convention defcon launched a convention for kids from lock picking to tip graphfy. it's important for kids to learn ethical hacking. a lot of computer programming refer to themselves as hackers. world markets in a tizzy over the s&p downgrade. how does it change -- how does the change in the country's credit rating affect you? we'll talk to financial experts about what this means for your money straight ahead. .

good morning. it's monday, august 8th.

i'm ali velshi joining you live from new york. from bad to worse world markets taking a tumble over the s&p downgrade of the u.s. credit rating. the u.s. stripped of its aaa rating on friday. u.s. stock futures are down. former federal reserve chairman alan greenspan said this is sadly just the beginning. on "meet the press" greenspan predicted u.s. stocks will continue to fall and our economy may see a downward spiral. >> what i think the s&p thing did was to hit a nerve that there's something basically bad going on and it's hit the self-esteem of the united states, the psyche, and it's having a much profounder effect than i conceived could happen. >> let's cut to the chase. how does this effect you? the downgrade shouldn't have a big effect on your cash, don't expect to earn more interest if you're in a normal interest bearing account. feeling skittish experts say

consider keeping your money in fdic accounts. credit card rates could go up, same with car loorngs small business loans. the consensus is be cautious, don't freak out. >> you should put it in the stock market in a broad-based index. in a year, year and a half, this country is going to turn around, after it did after the abysmal decade of the 1970s, turned around in the '80s and '90s. this is the time to get in when everybody else is fleeing. >> you have to use your best judgment, but if you think that washington will come together on a balanced approach to growth on the deficit, then certainly the united states is the place to put your money. >> so who do you blame for the loss of the aa+ credit rating? everybody is pointing fingers at each other. president obama adviser david axelrod calling the s&p action a, quote, tea party downgrade. conservatives say if congressional lead wears have listened to the tea party in the first place the u.s. wouldn't be in this mess. >> the fact of the matter is,

that this is essentially a tea party downgrade. the tea party brought us to the brink of a default. >> if we listened to the tea party wed he have $4 trillion reductions in debt over time and not have been downgraded. now the tea party has come to washington talking about reducing spending. thank god they're here. >> the s&p says it's fighting like that forced them into action. s&p says last week's debt ceiling debate exposed the, quote, gulf between the political party and reduced the s&p's confidence in the government to reduce its responsibilities. i will he be talking to the managing director at 7:15. 20% of american households don't have internet service but comcast wants to close the died. rolling out an internet essentials program to provide vouchers for qualifying low income families and get discounted internet service. the rise of the planet of the apes finished number one at

the box office over the weekend raking in $54 million. the new film staring james franco is a prequel to the 1968 classic "planet of the apes." only other big film to open this week is called "the change-up" finished fourth behind "the smurfs" and "cow boys and ali aliens." today's business man special i'm going to tell you about two countries whose stock market actually went up after being downgradedp. coming up in 60 seconds. it's 33 minutes after the hour. classic "planet of the apes." coming up in 60 seconds. na with no artificial flavors or preservatives. naturals from purina cat chow. share a better life.

34 minutes after the hour. this is your "a.m. wake-up call." today's businessman special, don't fret about the s&p downgrade it could have been a good thing. when canada and japan lost their aaa rating the stocks in both countries went up in the year following the downgrade. i'm trying to find a silver

lining here. here's to get up -- here to get us up to date on the markets, christine and i have been working a lot this weekend. >> that's true. >> to christine romans who was here in this seat when markets opened in asia. >> that's right. >> overnight. what is going on in world markets and premarket trading around the world and here in the united states? >> you know, they're all down. there was some actually a bounce in europe but the asian markets opened lower. i'll tell you something, it was a run-of-the-mill lower open for those asian markets. it wasn't anything that will make it in the history books, wasn't anything particularly dangerous or bad or scary. it was a 1% or 2% decline. markets company popping around a little bit. what you're seeing here and what some market participants is telling me, more an extension of what happened in the u.s. last week and that the debt downgrade is something for the history books, but not necessarily for your pocketbook and not necessarily for the markets to really be too concerned about -- keep in mind, we're going to have probably a lower open.

stock futures down here. i'm not saying it's all angels and be unicorns and rainbows, it isn't, but it isn't as bad as some people feared on friday night. >> you and i were talking to everybody we could talk to from friday. really all week. because everything was going on. what is your sense from everything you've heard, seen and everyone you've talked to, did the s&p do the right thing? did they get it right? >> the white house says no. market participants say, well of course they did. we saw this coming for months and everyone knows that the u.s. has too much debt and that has too little political unity to be able to address that debt in a meaningful way. people in the markets are surprised by the surprise of the politicians that this has happened. >> right. >> and that i think is -- i think that's fair to say that's what your reporting is showing too, ali. >> were you surprised by the amount of bickering going on? you said something, i have to repeat it, you said it on saturday on tv, one way to have

markets go up this morning, was if yesterday the president and the administration and the republicans and the democratic congressional leaders all got together and say we got the message, we need to bring america back from this brink of economic turmoil. >> and instead you heard the opposite. you heard the white house say s&p is wrong, they made a mistake and it's the tea party's fault. at least two surrogates making that point. the republican candidates saying this is the president who now owns the first downgrade in american history. and you had no one owning up and saying, look, america is the most powerful country in the world, we are an economic super power, we will speak with one voice, we know we have too much debt and we will bridge our differences to find a way to get the debt as a size of our economy down in a more meaningful way. you haven't heard anybody say that. >> not heard anybody other than you say it. christine, see you in about 22 minutes an "american morning." christine romans. >> bye. >> covering this a lot.

before we go, the united states was downgraded from a aaa rating by the s&p. let's take a look at the countries that have aaa ratings from s&p. there are about 15 of them, australia, austria, canada, denmark, finland, france, germany, netherlands, norway, singapore, sweden, united kingdom and switzerland. we'll show you which countries have the aa+ rating along with the united states now. 38 minutes after the hour.

this is your "a.m. wake-up call." back to our get smart question. we showed you the country's with aaa ratings by s&p. let's take a look at s&p's aa+ countries. the united states a new member of this club. new zealand and belgium exist in that environment. curious about a double dip recession, we've been talking

about that possibility with the bad economic news we've been getting lately. it's not a done deal. i'm going to let jay leno do the explapg on this one. >> a lot of talk about the possibility of a double-dip recession. some people -- do you know what that is? maybe this will help. >> and now a video met fa for for a double dup recession. this overturned car carriers represents the struggling u.s. economy. the cars inside are the american workers trying to get back on their feet. this tow truck is the federal reserve giving the economy a boost. there we go, it's all better. but then the stock market plu e plunges and we have a double dip. >> that was very effective. look who's here. it's my friend pete. he's comedian, host of stand up with pete on sirius. good to see you, my friend. >> i'm mad at you because you keep saying that we're now aa+.

my question for you is, just because standard & poor's want one of the credit agencies says we're aa+ does that mean we should be calling ourselves double a and should i put my money in luxen boring or wait until the end of the year. >> you are what you are, don't let other people define you, except other people will try to define us because they're running for elections. what do you think the impact of this downgrade is going to have on the 2012 presidential election and congressional elections? >> we're already seeing it play out yesterday in the sunday talk shows. you see john kerry and david axelrod calling this the "tea party downgrade." we saw lindsay gam and others say thank god for the tea party for bringing this to our attention kind of thing. i don't think americans are going to care that much about it because they're not going to see it effect them. i think voters care about what effects them, what affects their wallet, pocketbook, investment.

they're going to care about jobs, whether or not they have them. i'm not sure how much this aa rating is going to affect the election. we'll. >> rick perry has a solution to the economic ills of the country is facing. he -- he had some kind of a come and pray away the bad economy get-together. >> yeah. yeah. it's called the response, i guess 30,000 people showed up at reliance stadium in the capital where rick perry, of course, is the governor of texas. and it was billed as nondenominational, but tell that to the jewish folks, muslim, the buddhist, the nonreligious and even the catholics who wouldn't, i don't think, have felt that welcomed. rick perry wants people to fast and get back to jesus. well, i don't know how much this is going to matter, but it's certainly going to help him if he runs for election. he's looking good for that nomination for the religious right, those who care about these religious things, ali velshi. >> if fasting helped the economy, if you could convince

me of that, i may consider it. as you know, as you can see from me right here i'm not so big on the fasting. if you think -- >> i thought about that too. fasting so we can save money for other things. i'm not sure what that meant. but this is a big deal for rick perry this weekend and if you think that fasting is going to help your family pay its bills you should maybe be listening to the governor of texas. ironically ramadan started a week ago. >> muslims are already set up for this whole thing. >> right. >> my area of expertise. good to see you my friend. >> good to see you. >> have a great day. in this day in history, back in 1974, richard nixon announced his resignation after the watergate scandal. a clip of the former president resigning. >> therefore, i shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. ♪ it's not like we're dead

♪ was it something i did was it something you said ♪ but mine's lean cuisine, so no preservatives. [ female announcer ] lean cuisine has 90 dishes with no preservatives and quality ingredients like farm-picked broccoli and tender white meat chicken. lean cuisine. while i took refuge from the pollen that made me sneeze. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. so lily and i are back on the road again. with zyrtec® i can love the air®. excuse me? my grandfather was born in this village. [ automated voice speaks foreign language ] [ male announcer ] in here, everyone speaks the same language. ♪ in here, forklifts drive themselves. no, he doesn't have it. yeah, we'll look on that. [ male announcer ] in here, friends leave you messages written in the air. that's it right there. [ male announcer ] it's the at&t network. and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say.

unlike fish oil, megared softgels are small and easy to swallow with no fishy smell or aftertaste. try megared today.

good morning. it is monday, august 8th. this is your "a.m. wake-up call." 47 minutes after the hour. let's go around the world. nina dos santos is standing by live in london. we had a good -- i don't mean good, we had a clear start to the trading day in asia. everything was down.

moved into europe and things are a little choppier. we're not entirely sure. everything hasn't been down all night in europe. >> it's called a dead cat bounce, ali. we saw it where you were on friday after -- just before standard & poor's actually downgraded the united states' aaa rating and what we're seeing at the moment is a similar situation. this is effectively when we have the markets rising, having a bit of a relief rally and within about 45 minutes sthey shed all of those gains because investors realize the underlying concerns haven't been tackled. what is concerning everybody is the ongoing euro zone debt crisis. the cb announcing it will be buying back italian and spanish bonds to try to bring down the cost of borrowing. the europe's third and fourth largest economies. there's a lot of concern that while that seems to be working in the short term, nobody really knows how much money it will take from the ecb to try to calm those bond markets and that is one of the reasons why even though yields so the cost of

borrowing for italian and spanish debt on the ten-year has been falling, the stock markets are falling as well. >> so what's the reaction that we're seeing today, a lot of people we've been talking to are saying that the reaction we've got in european markets today and probably we'll have in u.s. markets at least a lower open, has less to do with the s&p downgrade of the united states and that centrally the problem remains europe, italy and spain and whether or not the european central bank has the money to backstop those two countries. >> that's right. economists are also doing the math on this morning and they're saying that if the ecb buys about $2.5 billion our ross worth of bonds every day that could amount to massive bill over the course of the year of over $1 trillion. it would effectively exhaust all money the euro zone has put aside to help any struggling countries that may need a bailout.

we've had two bailouts for greece, bailout for pore it tu gal, for ireland. it could be too expensive to bailout italy and spain. >> we'll stay in touch with you through the course of the morning as u.s. markets get ready to open. nina dos santos, joining us live in london. treasure secretary tim geithner doesn't have plans to leave his post. he says he is staying on. there were rumors galore in washington he would leave after the debt ceiling was raised. some republicans say the credit downgrade should cost geithner his job. >> geithner and the administration slamming standard & poor's all weekend saying the agency didn't know what it was doing when it demoted the u.s. to aa+. they are planning a conference call to explain its decision. listen to what s&p's managing director said about what could be coming down the pike. >> if we have a negative outlook which is fixed to a longer time frame from six months to 12 months, and if the fiscal position of the united states deteriorates further, or if the

political gridlock becomes more entrenched that could lead to a downgrade. the outlook indicates at least a one in three chance of a downgrade over that period. >> i'll be talking to that man, john chambers, this morning at 7:15 eastern. if you have questions for him, tweet me @alivelshi. i'll ask him for you. other news in afghanistan, nato troops are still looking into the crash site where a u.s. army helicopter was apparently shot down. 30 u.s. troops were killed, including 22 navy s.e.a.l.s. military sources say those forces were on their way to help army rangers in a fire fight with the taliban. their target was a taliban commander responsible for attacks on u.s. forces. the taliban claims militants shot the chinook helicopter down with a rocket-propelled grenade. the fiancee of a guardsman killed talked with cnn about her last correspondence with him. >> he sent me an e-mail the day before, and he told me he said

please don't worry about me. he said that you and the girls are always in my heart, don't worry. this place isn't going to change me. i'm going to change this place. that's just how i am. how said, i love you ma. just take care of my girls. and know that i am here thinking about you all the time. i'll be home before you know it. love you, ma. >> the incident is the single largest loss of life for u.s. troops since the war began nearly ten years ago. to rob marciano, live in atlanta. rob, any flight delays we're looking at this morning? >> i think we'll see some this afternoon at least when the thunderstorms begin to pop up, especially across the center part of the country where we have a couple fronts converging. severe thunderstorms possible there so be aware of that. hazy, hot and humid conditions will persist across the south. >> kansas city, chicago, minneapolis, the spots we expect to see delays this afternoon. morning delays to a lesser

extent, new york, philly, san francisco as well, because of some fog and drizzle. the heat's on again or still, i should say. little rock, arkansas, 108, dodge city seeing 106 and today continued heat and heat indices over 100, dallas to continue its streak of 100 degree plus days with 38 and counting. 106. the actual high temperature expected 90 expected in new york city. want to show you this map. this map highlights something that a person's doing. diana nyad, she just left havana last night, ali, trying to swim from havana to key west. about 100 mile swim or so. 105 miles. and got to navigate the gulf stream which in that area can be cranking from two to four miles per hour. she tried it back in the '70s. she's 61 years old. wasn't able to do it then. is in the water right now and cnn crews are reporting back with her progress. >> we got a boat near her.

>> yeah. >> we're following this whole thing. that gulf stream your animation showing the gulf stream what she has to struggle against. looks like a straight line, but it's going to push her east. >> 61 years old. . she is determined to make this happen. >> more fit than i'll ever be in my life. rob marciano, check you out on "american morning." see you later. rob marciano on the extreme weather center. let's take a look at the word of the day. it is you guessed it aa+. by this point you know it's america's new credit rating according to s&p and worse than a aaa. find out what it means and why it matters after this short break. 54 minutes after the hour.

57 minutes after the the hour. the word of the day is aa+.

america's new credit rating according to the s&p. keep in mind in the eyes of the other two major credit agencies we're still aaa. our word of the day is a two-fer. aaa is the highest rating, it means a country has extremely strong capacity to meet financial commitments. aa+ means a very strong capacity to meet financial commitments. s&p says we're in between. the agency knocked the u.s. down because of political risks and rising debt burden. a lot of people don't agree, secretary timothy geithner said s&p showed terrible judgment. let's go to carter evans live from the nasdaq marketsite in new york. everybody is asking how futures are looking, what's going to happen to our stock market. i know you can't prognosticate beyond the open, but you can give me some clue as to how it's going to open. >> let's not forget aa+ that's a high capacity battery, right? i think. just trying to lighten the mood a little bit here because here are futures. they're not looking so good

right now. dow futures down 280 points. all the major indices down more than 2.25%, down about 2.5%. we'll see how that opens, how that goes, as the morning progresses. i want to talk about something on cnnmoney.com that you should know about. your money in a aa rated u.s. what's going to happen to your money? keep in mind we've not been downgraded to junk status like greece. some analysts are saying aa is going to become the new aaa because we are still the best economy in the world right now. but it is likely or bonds will go up in the u.s. so our country, our taxpayers will be paying a little bit more for bond interest. that sort of thing. credit card rates are tied to prime rates so if prime rate goes up we could pay a little more there. treasuries are actually tied to mortgage rates so mortgage interest rates could go up slightly. lots more on cnnmoney.com today. finally today, ali, wantedo