Return to Transcripts main page
First Move with Julia Chatterley
India Reports One Million New Cases in Just the Last Three Days; U.S. Recovery Strengthens, Apple is Latest Tech Firm to Warn Shortages Will Bite. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired April 29, 2021 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:39]
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR, FIRST MOVE: Live from New York, I'm Julia Chatterley. This is FIRST MOVE, and here is your need to know.
COVID calamity. India reports one million new cases in just the last three days.
Growth gains. The U.S. recovery strengthens.
And chip crunch. Apple, the latest tech firm to warn shortages will bite.
It's Thursday. Let's make a move.
A warm welcome once again to FIRST MOVE. Great to be with you as always. Today, when the stimulators in chief are well and truly front and center.
Yes, I'm talking U.S. President Joe Biden and Fed Chair Jerome Powell delivering powerful messages.
America is recovering, but the work isn't over yet. President Biden's plans include $6 trillion in spending. That including a new $1.8 trillion plan he
proposed to Congress last night to shore up education, child care and paid leave.
Fed Chair Jay Powell meanwhile, no slouch on stimulus either. A more positive tone on the economy, but tone deaf to criticism, but it's time to
discuss tapering some of that support, and on that note, just out, U.S. GDP data showing a rise of 6.4 percent on an annual basis. Stronger than Q4
gains, a four percent plus touch shy, in fact, of expectations, and that says something.
Strong data, stronger stimulus and potent profits from tech Titans Facebook and Apple, our premarket drivers, and as you can see, Wall Street heading
for gains across the board as a result.
Europe also basking in a warm earnings glow. Oil majors, Total and Shell, beating expectations. Nokia shares surging some 14 percent in the session
today on a strong 5G sale, and you can see Asia by and large seeing gains, too. Positive progress in so many parts of the world to point to, but no
one can rest easy until the entire world can, and right now, the life and death struggle continues in India and that's where we begin today's
drivers.
The coronavirus crisis in India reaching new levels of horror. Official figures indicate over 18 million cases so far. Just on Thursday, the Health
Ministry said there were nearly 380,000 new cases, 3,645 more people had lost their lives. The true numbers though are believed to be much, much
higher.
Sam Kiley joins us now from the crematorium in New Delhi, and I want to warn you that some viewers might find his report now disturbing.
Sam, good to have you with us. You're at a crematorium that I believe is currently working day and night to cremate those who have lost their lives.
Some horrific scenes, I think, that you are seeing there.
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Julia. Your sound too is breaking up a bit, so I am just going to tell you where I am, which
is I'm at a crematorium that has been dealing with around 150 people, dead people, on these pyres every day.
Just in this area here, which is a section that has been added on using waste ground to the normal crematorium to cope with the scale of the
cremations that are going on. There are 29 bodies either being burned or about to be burned.
This is a particularly tragic illustration of the failure, frankly, of Prime Minister Modi's BJP, the Hindu Nationalist Party that has been ruling
this country since he romped to election victory two years ago.
But earlier this year, he decided, and his party decided to campaign aggressively in local elections rather than continue with the isolation
policies that they had been following which also were crippling the economy, and to allow new gatherings, particularly the Kumbh Mela at the
Ganges where many tens of thousands, indeed, millions of people were cheek by jowl.
These super spreader events have resulted in this. A vision frankly that speaks for itself, but it is an absolutely tragic example of people putting
or politicians putting the future of their political parties ahead of their own people.
[09:05:20]
KILEY: This is the consequence, whatever the figures are, of a collapse of the public health system, Julia, in a country with a space program, in a
country that is seen as one of the great hubs around the world of technological innovation and manufacture, but the reality is that it has
not got enough oxygen, it doesn't have enough places for beds.
There is a massive international effort now being made to get particularly the capacity for improving oxygen delivery to patients into India. There's
$100 million worth of aid coming from the United States. The United Kingdom was first out of the block with the oxygen concentrating machinery.
The Indian Army has been unleashed. Singapore has made contributions. France, Germany, and other countries in the E.U. They are all weighing in,
but they are plugging a gap that was left in public health by a government -- Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, and was telling people that the pandemic was all but over, and clearly, it wasn't. Sam, thank you for being there for us.
You and your team stay safe please and go and grab some water if you can hear me.
Sam Kiley in New Delhi there. Thank you for that.
And later in the show, we'll hear what Corporate India is doing in response. The CEO of payment services company, Paytm joins us.
Okay, let's move on. Here in the United States, President Joe Biden making the case for his economic agenda in the speech to a Joint Session of
Congress including a new $1.8 trillion spending proposal called The American Families Plan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Autocrats think that democracy can't compete in the 21st Century with autocracies, because it
takes too long to get consensus.
To win that competition for the future, in my view, we also need to make a once in a generation investment in our families and our children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHATTERLEY: Christine Romans joins us now, and we've talked about it before, Big Government is back, big spending is back and we mean, in
really, really big size.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And it is not a dirty word this time. You know, it has been since the Reagan
administration that Big Government was, you know, get the government out of your life because they're going to mess things up, and you have Joe Biden,
the President of the United States seizing this moment, this COVID moment where government can help you with stimulus checks, right, and unemployment
benefits and ways to save small businesses and he is trying to pivot on that moment and say, we can seize this moment and we can fix inequities in
the American system.
We can invest in infrastructure. We can invest in our people power. We can get universal pre-K and free community college for two years and we can do
things to help our people that will make us stronger as a country, and we can pay for that by taxing the rich and raising taxes again on
corporations.
And that is his message, that tilting the scales back to working Americans, and that the beneficiaries of this big little government movement over the
past 30 years, they are the ones who will pay.
CHATTERLEY: And the question is, some of the biggest taxpayers in the country, and they do pay perhaps an amount of tax and could add to the
amount of tax they are paying, but I'm sure whether they are Democrats or Republicans now, they are shuddering actually listening to some of this
talk.
But the truth is, Christine, something has to give. You can't have people in this country that are working one, two, three jobs and still are not
being able to feed their families. The inequality in this country has built up over decades and something has to change.
ROMANS: And he is layering a lot of things on top of that. You know, he is talking about pay, you know, obviously, you cannot raise a family on a
minimum wage job in this country and the minimum wage is a Federal, bare moral minimum. He would like to raise that.
He has done that for Federal contractors, effectively raising the pay for 390,000 workers this week with the stroke of his pen, but it's not just how
much people are paid, it is the supports around there.
We know we've seen in this recession, the coronavirus recession, we wiped out a generation of gains for women because women did not have the support
structures for education, for child care, for elder care, right? He's got all of those things he is trying to wrap into this package so that you can
encourage women back into the workforce for the kinds of support they need to get the economy moving.
We also know that you could be facing, some economists say, labor shortages in the not too distant future here. We know that in leisure and
hospitality, there are lots of people are retraining for other careers because of the pay and the stress, and quite frankly in some cases, the
attitude of people who aren't wearing masks at the moment, you know, in restaurants and the like.
And so, there could be some sectors of the economy that are actually going to start having some labor shortages. If you have supports for working
families, maybe that can ease the labor shortage potential down the road.
[09:10:03]
CHATTERLEY: Yes, and you've got a sentiment Jay Powell was -- I asked about this yesterday. In that press conference, he was, like, when I start
talking about labor shortages, I want to see the wage rises that follow when you can't hire the right kind of staffers. I'm waiting for that
reaction.
Very quickly, it was interesting in light of what we got with the growth numbers this morning, 6.4 percent annualized for the U.S. economy. Jay
Powell holding the line.
I'm not tapering no matter what's going on.
ROMANS: Yes, I mean, he's going to let this thing run so we're sure that it is -- so that we are sure that there is recovery here.
CHATTERLEY: Sustained.
ROMANS: Yes, and giving -- I guess, giving the American economy that leadership role in the rest of the world on the way out of all of this. You
know, I talked to Mohamed El-Erian who you know very well yesterday. He says, he thinks that holding off on tapering is a mistake, and being too
afraid of a Wall Street reaction, we shouldn't be afraid of a Wall Street reaction for, you know -- for thinking about tapering sometime here down
the road.
This is -- look, you see last year on that? That's last year's GDP. That was awful. The worst since 1946.
This year, you've got four, five, six, seven percent, some of the estimates are for the year. That is gargantuan gangbusters growth, but the Fed is
standing pat.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. It will be an interesting few months.
ROMANS: It sure will
CHATTERLEY: Christine Romans, thank you for that.
Okay, let's move on. Apple juiced, the tech giant crushing revenue and profit expectations fueled in in part by 65 percent rise in iPhone sales on
the quarter. Shares, as you can imagine are up premarket.
Paul La Monica joins me now. Paul, it's tough to find a division that didn't do incredibly well here wherever you look across the board, Apple
beat expectations.
PAUL LA MONICA, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Exactly. This was a great quarter, Julia, for the company. You already noted the iPhone revenue surging once
again as people upgrade to those 5G phones.
Well, it isn't just the iPhones that Apple is really benefitting from. They talked about Mac sales hitting a record. Remember, they used to make -- and
still make these computers. That is something that is obviously doing well for them.
And then services which ties into the whole iPhone ecosystem. You think of things like Apple TV plus and Apple Music and Apple Arcade for gaming, they
hit a record with their sales in services as well, and that is another unit that revenue grew dramatically.
So Apple obviously, you know, firing away on all cylinders. It's not just the iPhone that is the reason why this company is doing so well.
CHATTERLEY: And I want to talk about the new privacy measures at Apple as well because much has been made of what that's going to mean not only for
Apple, of course, and their desire to protect consumers' privacy, it makes it harder for apps to track users, and therefore, advertisers arguably
across the internet.
Facebook has said it would hurt them. Can you just explain why perhaps it would hurt them? Because, you know, I look at what we got from Facebook's
earnings last night and you can't help but think, hey, you're going to be okay without it.
LA MONICA: Yes. I mean, Facebook's revenues grew dramatically. The stock is up. Clearly, Facebook is not hurting in any sense of the word right now,
but I think that the company is worried about this battle that they are having with Apple with regards to privacy changes, the updates to the
latest iOS that could hurt Facebook down the road if it makes it more difficult for Facebook to generate strong ad revenue because of these
privacy changes that are being put into place.
And I think here is what's telling. You look at Apple and you read their earnings release and you read the transcript of their conference call, they
don't mention Facebook because they are talking about new iPhones, they are talking about Chinese consumer demand surging.
Facebook mentioned Apple and iOS several times during the conference call. So this is a bigger problem for Facebook obviously than it is for Apple,
and I think Facebook is going to have to work with its advertising partners to figure out whether or not there are going to be any revenue hits and how
they mitigate that.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, because it perhaps makes sense for advertisers to buy direct from Apple, buy the ad space direct from Apple rather than going to
alternative users, so it will boost perhaps, Apple's advertising revenues at the cost of some of the others.
We shall see.
LA MONICA: Yes.
CHATTERLEY: Paul La Monica.
LA MONICA: This used to be Apple versus Microsoft as the Big Tech battle in Silicon Valley, it now seems like it is Apple versus Facebook.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. Competition hurts, but it can be a good thing for the small businesses especially that are trying to advertise, and be seen.
Paul La Monica, thank you for that.
All right, and as it report, forgive me, and as it reports the blowout earnings, Apple also warns of a global chip shortage. The company expects
revenue to be at $3 billion to $4 billion less than what it could be in the current quarter because the chip shortage could dent iPad and Mac sales.
But Apple is not alone, many other global companies including Ford and Samsung are now facing the same problem
John Defterios has been looking at this with all of the details and Ford actually, the latest and quite fascinating because this is a material hit,
they are saying to what they can do in terms of production and therefore, their bottom line.
[09:15:08]
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN BUSINESS EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Yes, this is an economic hit, Julia. It's interesting that it has so many components.
Number one, you have traditional manufacturing if we still have that in the 21st Century competing now with the tech companies for supplies, and this
as a trend, as you know for the last 20 years is just in time manufacturing.
The auto manufacturers have learned in that timeframe to keep it as lean as possible, keep the inventories low, but that's not for the pandemic
environment. It is coming back to snap back and hit their earnings as you suggested for Ford.
In fact, what happened is that the demand, because of the economic growth and all of the stimulus, jumped up in the fourth quarter of last year. They
didn't have the product. Now they're trying to jump start the product and they are short of chips to do so.
So Ford is saying, this could cost them $2.5 billion of EBIT in the second half of the year. Ten percent of their supplies or 1.1 million units and we
are starting to hear this from the other manufacturers as well who are starting to shut down manufacturing as of tomorrow. That's the case of BMW
Mini for up to four days and another five days if you think about it with the bank holiday weekend.
We have Honda in the month of May shutting three factories for six days in Japan, and a similar tale for VW as well.
And Julia, the other interesting number here, we've become so addicted to smart devices, quite extraordinary. A hundred and sixty nine industries
dependent on chips, and then you have to bring the question forward. China can join a lot of manufacturing. The rare earth materials that go into
chips as well.
These are challenges that are going to stay with us perhaps to the end of this year, and even spilling into 2022.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. We've talked a lot about chips on this show as well, and of the highest tech chips, South Korea and Taiwan completely cornered the
market, and to your point as well, this is not just about auto makers. Apple also warned about this, and Samsung also saying it is going to have
an impact on their business, too.
DEFTERIOS: Yes. Samsung says that we can't get our manufacturing chips up, our customers, this is interesting, will suffer, and then LCD manufacturing
will be slower than expected. So not meeting the demand of the 6.4 percent growth we're seeing in the United States right now, and we saw with Apple
with the surge of 65 percent, 75 percent for their products right now.
They are saying it is a $3 billion to $4 billion hit, it is something again that is going to spill into the June quarter as a result of it as well.
So that's certainly something that's going to pose challenges, and then, you say 6.4 percent for growth in the United States. What is the longer
term impact, Julia? We are looking at GDP hit according to Goldman Sachs by half a percent to one percent based on chips alone.
So, if you have the manufacturers of automobiles that need five percent of their overall industry GDP spent on chips, it does filter to the overall
outlook for growth going forward as well.
I don't think it is going to go well into the second quarter of 2022, but many of the people who are reporting earnings right now are suggesting,
yes. Q1 for 2022, it will be a problem that stays with us.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, it is here for several months more at the very least. John Defterios, thank you so much for that.
Okay, these are the stories making headlines around the world. A gaunt Alexei Navalny tore into Russian President Vladimir Putin when he appeared
in court via link in his Appeal Court hearing.
In his first public appearance since he ended a hunger strike in prison, he likened President Putin to the naked king in the Emperor's New Clothes.
Navalny is serving more than two years for parole violations.
In Turkey, shoppers and travelers are bracing for a national lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19. The stay-at-home orders starts in a few hours
and will last for a little more than two weeks.
Turkey has the highest rate of coronavirus infections in Europe.
China says it successfully launched the core module of its own space station. It is the first part of Beijing's push to establish a permanence
presence in space and a potential rival to the International Space Station.
Chinese officials expect it to be up and running by the end of next year.
Okay, coming up on FIRST MOVE, we've heard from the President and we've heard from Powell. We will look at the direction that the head of Fed is
taking when it comes to the recovery.
And can Apple do no wrong? Blowout tech earnings in focus. More analysis later in the show.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:22:23]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. President Biden said his address to Congress last night that America is on the move again. Fed Chair Jay
Powell repeated his pledge to keep massive stimulus flowing yet again, and blowout numbers from Apple and Facebook are wowing tech investors once
again, and once again, signs of a post-lockdown surge in U.S. economic activity, too.
First quarter GDP rising at a 6.4 percent annualized rate, evidence perhaps that those stimulus and science are doing their work. Fed Chair Jay Powell
assuring us yesterday that the Fed will only remove support when it sees persistently strong data, and they will continue to look through
temporarily, quote, "high inflation."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEROME POWELL, U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: Those pressures are likely to be temporary as they are associated with the reopening process, and an
episode of one-time price increases as the economy reopens is not the same thing as and is not likely to lead to persistently higher year-over-year
inflation into the future, inflation at levels that are not consistent with our goal of two percent inflation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHATTERLEY: A combination of all of this sees major averages sets for a solidly higher open with record highs once again in sight.
Matthew Luzetti joins us now. He is Chief U.S. Economist at Deutsche Bank. Matthew, great to have you on. Lots to discuss, clearly. I want to get your
take first on the GDP numbers this morning.
I've regularly seen people talking about a booming U.S. economy. Accurate?
MATTHEW LUZETTI, CHIEF U.S. ECONOMIST, DEUTSCHE BANK: Sure. Thanks so much for having me. I think the GDP report this morning is kind of the front end
of the strong data that we are anticipating.
It was right in line with our own expectations. The consumer saw growth more than 10 percent annualized, helped by the stimulus checks and I think
importantly, you did actually see a big inventory draw that subtracted more than 2.5 percentage points.
So going forward, we can expect even stronger growth. Prior to this report this morning, we've penciled in above nine percent growth in Q2 and I think
we're really on track for that, certainly given the stimulus and the reopening that is happening.
CHATTERLEY: I mean, Jay Powell acknowledged a more positive tone as far as the U.S. economic recovery is concerned, but you know, he stands pat on
reducing any stimulus, even having the discussion within the Fed about it.
Is this the right move at the right time?
LUZETTI: I think it is, you know, I think Chair Powell has drawn this very key distinction between the Fed is looking at realized data and wants to
see this substantial part of progress in the realized data versus a forecast which at this point, we and the Fed have a very strong forecast,
and they are also focused, I think on the big gaps that we still have.
He noted a number of times yesterday, we still have 8.4 million jobs shortfall relative to where we were pre-COVID. Broader measures in the
labor market and unemployment rate, I would suggest that it is even higher than six percent, so there is still is a very long way to go even if we do
have a string of strong data over the coming months.
CHATTERLEY: Even if he finds that balance, and to your point, you think it's the correct balance, it is not going to stop investors pushing. Even
with that, are you expecting to see an ongoing push higher in U.S. interest rates? We are seeing it around the globe.
[09:25:27]
LUZETTI: We are. You know, in the coming months, we expect to see strong inflation data, a very sharp rise in the year over year inflation rates.
Headline CPI could get up to 3.8 percent on our forecast. Some of that is base effects, but some of these -- these bottlenecks that Chair Powell has
talked about, and I think, you're going to couple that with very strong jobs reports.
You know, jobs numbers in the millions, you know, above a million over the coming months would not be at all surprising and we expect the Fed to talk
about tapering in the second half of this year towards the end of the summer.
I think the interesting thing from a market perspective is all of this is expected from, you know, investors -- interest rate investors. They've
expected higher rates and steeper curves and so the question has been, what type of surprise do you need for the next catalyst higher?
CHATTERLEY: What about stock market investors though, to your point, if we start to have the conversation that we're at least starting the
conversation about tapering by the middle to end of the summer, reasonable? Particularly in the face of what President Biden was talking about last
night with yet more stimulus, assuming he can get even just a chunk of it done.
LUZETTI: Yes. I know, whether or not we'll be talking about tapering I think was in the question yesterday.
CHATTERLEY: Yes.
LUZETTI: And I think, you know, stock market investors are looking at a very strong growth environment as well, but I think that they are also
focused on the second derivative, is growth picking up or decelerating?
And on our forecast, Q2 is the peak in growth and we think in a lot of these survey indicators, we probably will see a peak in, you know, the ISM
Manufacturing Index and a lot of those indicators over the coming months.
So, if that's true that growth is still very strong but decelerating, at a time where the Fed is sounding a little bit more hawkish, you know, at
least, starting the process of talking about tapering that may lead to some bumpiness, I think, in the stock market in the second half of the year.
There are these big cross currents that the market is facing. But you know, certainly very strong growth, but at the same time, the Fed may be taking
their foot off the pedal a little bit.
CHATTERLEY: What are you saying to investors about the prospect of labor shortages to your earlier point we are still down 8.5 million jobs since
the pandemic began, and yet, the conversation is building about labor shortages, and Jay Powell made a very reasonable comment. Hey, let's look
for some wage rises as well, if indeed there is a labor shortage out there and that will benefit the workers in this country.
LUZETTI: Yes, it is certainly it's an interesting question. We are, you know, 8.5 million jobs short. We have seen the labor force actually decline
by five million relative to the pre-COVID era, and so, given those numbers, you would be really surprised to see some of these survey indicators where
we are going out and asking businesses and it is telling you it's hard to find workers and skilled workers at this point.
I think Chair Powell laid out a number of reasons for that. There is probably some skill mismatch, there may be geographical mismatch. We still
don't have everybody back in school, so you know, parents, some like myself have to stay home.
You have also that people are still afraid, I think, from the virus perspective.
So I think it will take some time to get past a lot of these, you know, what Chair Powell was calling bottlenecks in the labor market. Ultimately,
I think we will get through those towards the end of this year and into next year, and that should allow for a big supply of labor coming in, which
in our mind does help to keep inflation pressures in check, and does have this inflation turn this inflation bump in the coming months into a
transitory story.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. Matthew, great to get your perspective this morning. Thank you so much. Matthew Luzzetti, the Chief U.S. Economist at Deutsche
Bank.
Stay with us. The market opens next. We are back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:32:07]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. U.S. stocks are up and running this Thursday and we're seeing Wall Street at fresh record highs as
investors react to a torrent of news today.
Blowout tech earnings from Facebook and Apple, twin pledges of stimulus support from President Joe Biden and Fed Chair Jay Powell, as well as fresh
signs of a post-lockdown surge in U.S. economic activity.
First quarter GDP numbers coming in at an annualized rate of 6.4 percent. And new evidence, too, that the U.S. jobs market is also on the mend. Five
hundred and fifty three thousand new jobless claims recorded last week, another pre-pandemic low, and the third straight week below 600,000 claims.
So as I mentioned, two tech giants riding high after their latest results, both Apple and Facebook. Shares of those two opening higher after both
reporting sales that blew past expectations.
Well, Facebook up some seven percent. Both also as we mentioned earlier, locked in a data privacy battle. Apple introducing settings that ask users'
for permission to track their activities, suffice it to say, Facebook is not happy about those changes and made that very clear.
Ivan Feinseth is the Chief Investment Officer and Director of Research at Tigress Financial Partners. Great to have you with us, Ivan.
Let's talk about Apple first because I look across the board here whether it's the bump up in sales, whether it's the fact that they increased their
share buybacks, the dividends rates as well. There is very little for investors to be upset about. What do you make of the numbers?
IVAN FEINSETH, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER AND DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH, TIGRESS FINANCIAL PARTNERS: It was a great quarter, great announcements. They
raised the buyback to $90 million from last year's -- sorry -- $90 billion from last year's $50 billion, consistently raises the dividend, and it just
shows the strength of their product line, the strength of the brand equity and the strength of the consumer, and they are benefitting from this 5G
upgrade super cycle for the iPhone, which for Apple has a tremendous halo effect that spreads throughout their ecosystem driving consumers to
purchase other Apple products and services.
CHATTERLEY: Any short term concerns about the chip shortages? It was something that the CFO mentioned on the call and said, look, it is going to
have an impact on the numbers, but when you are talking about multibillions in terms of the revenues in sales that they are creating all over the
world, it is tough to get some perspective on that. Anything to worry about?
FEINSETH: Well, you always have to plan and highlight concerns that could, you know, be a problem later on. The pandemic and all the CEOs are
highlighting that. There is still uncertainty around the pandemic and around pandemic-driven breaks in supply chains that we have experienced
over the past year and this global chip shortage, but it is a global chip shortage because of consumer demand for electronics is so strong, and the
5G rollout for server and data center upgrades.
[09:35:00]
FEINSETH: So overall, the backdrop of the strength of this demand cycle is very powerful and eventually production will increase to meet demand.
So I think Apple also manages their supply chain very well, and books purchases well in advance that they have ample supply in their supply
chain, so I don't foresee it being a significant problem. It may cause spotty outages in certain product lines -- see, Apple also experiences
stronger demand in the more expensive iPhones than the less expensive ones, which is also a positive to me.
CHATTERLEY: Speaking of expensive, what do you think in terms of the stock here? What's advice to investors on Apple's stock?
FEINSETH: Oh, I think it's got a lot more upside. It is still a cheap stock when you back out the value of the cash. You add the fact that they
continue to raise dividends, continue to increase buybacks and they can really even buy back significantly more. They are usually pretty
conservative even though a $90 billion buyback is a record number and a very powerful number.
So I think Apple is in the beginning of this major 5G super cycle iPhone upgrade, which as I said has a huge halo effect to drive sales of other
products. So, I think Apple has a long way to go.
CHATTERLEY: Okay, let's shift to Facebook then and I mentioned the data privacy concerns. Apple doesn't talk about it, and Facebook says, look, we
can have a problem here with perhaps advertisers going direct to Apple rather than coming to them.
Again, how material? Can you give us any sense that you are coming up with any estimates of how damaging perhaps this could be to Facebook's monster
advertising revenues, let's be clear.
FEINSETH: It is a concern. It's an issue. Privacy is becoming an issue both financially and economically and politically, but what it consistently
shows is that even during when there was a call for boycotting Facebook, advertising revenue still increased. User engagement still increased.
Membership still grew.
So I see pandemic habits of connecting with friends and family, shopping and spending time engaged on Facebook will continue long after the pandemic
is over. So I think they have a tremendous tailwind.
There's concerns for privacy, but people still will engage on Facebook and advertising revenue, and advertisers continue to get their best return in
advertising invested dollar on a place like Facebook and they are going to continue to increase their allocation to digital advertising especially on
Facebook because that's where the people are.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, you've got to remember, the granularity of the advertisers as well, it is more businesses and when you are looking at this
number of eyeballs on Facebook, that's where you go irrespective of the concerns.
Ivan, super quickly because I have about 20 seconds. Again, opportunity in the stock in terms of price, Facebook?
FEINSETH: Absolutely. Facebook goes a lot higher. It is up a lot, and if you don't own it, you buy a little here and wait to add on pullbacks. But,
I think Facebook -- both Facebook, Apple and the tech sector, I am also looking for very strong results and even a possible stock split from Amazon
tonight after the close.
CHATTERLEY: Oh, how exciting. Okay, again, Ivan Feinseth, Tigress Financial Partners, we shall watch out for that. Thank you so much for
joining us today.
FEINSETH: Thank you.
CHATTERLEY: Okay, after the break, tackling India's oxygen shortage in the midst of a crippling COVID wave. The CEO of Paytm on Corporate India's
response. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:41:38]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUNDAR PICHAI, CEO, ALPHABET: The situation there is dire and it has been heartbreaking to see, and I think that our -- the worst is yet to come.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHATTERLEY: The Alphabet CEO's grim assessment at the appalling COVID wave that's killing so many in India at this moment as U.S. tech firms responds
with aid and expertise, India's e-commerce giant, Paytm is also stepping up by putting much needed oxygen concentrators with a donation drive to raise
money for more. The company rapidly expanding help beyond its own employees to anyone who asks for help.
Paytm is an e-commerce payment system and Fintech giant, and Vijay Shekhar Sharma is founder and CEO of Paytm and he joins us now.
Vijay, it is great to have you with us. I know you're incredibly busy. I think the world is watching and praying for what is going on there and for
your welfare. Talk to me first about how you and your workers are doing.
VIJAY SHEKHAR SHARMA, FOUNDER AND CEO, PAYTM: Thank you, Julia for having me here and like you said, this is a very grim moment for everyone here.
From earlier assuming that COVID was nearby, and now literally every teammate has one or two COVID patients in their house, so we right now are
normally working in home, but we are also taking care of near and dear ones around us who are COVID patients, and the situation is so horribly bad that
oxygen concentrators, which is sort of a precursor for an oxygen ventilator because we cannot go to the hospital or a hospital does not have a bed, so
these oxygen concentrators can be put on a patient to the time period the oxygen levels are lower or up to a level that oxygen concentrator can take
care.
And those are also in short supply. We are importing them. We are trying to buy from as many countries of them, like you said, we started first as a
help for our employees, then we went out to find out that there are so many people who need it, and finally we are now in a full blown
donation/collections drive, and then matching those donations with our support.
So, we have raised about $2 million as of now, more than $2 million and we are expecting tens of thousands of oxygen concentrators to be purchased and
donated to the different kind of hospitals, families, or resident welfares associations in different cities.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, I mean, it is incredible steps that you are taking. I know, you set up a donations page. As you said, you're matching those
donations. You also set up a page for people that can simply ask for help and say, look, we need the support.
Vijay, just, can you give us a sense of when those supplies will get there, and where you are actually sourcing them from?
SHARMA: Well, in fact, one of the first thing is that when we are trying to source them from, they more or less come all the way from China, and
China is going through its labor break from 1st May to the 5th May and then we go to other countries and then a little bit of number there, so we are
sourcing from all neighboring countries and I can say that the first lot is expected around -- after the end of the first week of May, and we are
expecting that they will airlift them and then quickly, government has done a little bit of support there that they have support the custom duties and
other taxes that you have to put on oxygen equipment, so we are expecting effectively, net effectively, it will be out to use around the 10th of May
here.
[09:45:05]
CHATTERLEY: Okay. I mean every day, every hour matters at this moment. Vijay, you mentioned the local government there reducing some of the import
restrictions. Are you working hand in hand with the local government? And what's your take on the national government's response here, too?
Because there are a lot of people that are looking at the situation saying, you shouldn't be having to do this. You shouldn't be having to make these
instant life and death decisions to provide people with oxygen because India should have been better prepared.
SHARMA: There's no doubt about it that all of to us in India from the men to the citizens to doctors to scientists, to everyone, sort of
misunderstood what this wave could have been or how fatal it could have been, and we probably should have done it much, much, much, much better and
I'm speaking on behalf of literally every citizen and every person in government who should have done a lot better.
No doubt about it that this is the moment of truth where we are doing what we are not expected to do, but it is sort of citizens coming together,
people coming together and trying to do as much as they can do.
We do not have a clue what kind of oxygen concentrator we need to buy. There are medical specifications, there are deployment procedures. We are
trying to work with friends and families who know some doctor, doctor is verifying then we are asking some government aid, can you confirm this is
good?
So it is sort of everybody is joining hands together moment here, but like you said, every day sort of to go by, that oxygen cylinder, oxygen for
hospital, hospital bags and free oxygen cylinder, there are so much of medicines, nearly everything is in a low supply here, I can say.
Or you see, we hope that the worst is not crazier than what it is today, but it is expected that the peak could be somewhere around 10 to 15th of
May, and by that time, we would have gotten a lot of equipment that we are seeking here.
CHATTERLEY: Are you frightened, Vijay, by what that means? I mean, you're a leader of a company. You're trying to help people. You're trying to help
their families, but are you frightened about what the next week, the next two weeks if we are still not yet at peak, and it looks that way, will
mean?
SHARMA: Yes. No doubt about it. I feel -- I feel pained. I feel pained for what we all are going through, yes.
I hope that next week does not bring and make it harsher and harder for us to survive because the bad part is that it is hurting younger people. It is
hurting people around us, and it is sort of for the first time, it is another phenomenon here, near and dear ones are all victimized.
Literally, living is surviving that is the moment, and you are scared that I don't know how will it happen or not, vaccinations have started. That
also is going to start for the young people like us from 1st of May and the demand is so large, the supply is not there.
I see that different countries are talking and helping us. We are literally a billion lowered on capacities that were built for a few million.
CHATTERLEY: I know. Vijay, if people are watching this, you're asking for donations. Your message to those people, your request for help, please.
SHARMA: I think, if you are an Indian or a well-wisher of India, you should come out all the way with everything and anything that you can bring
us to. Obviously, there's no doubt about it that there is supply needed for oxygen equipment, generation of vaccination, medicines. Nearly everything
matters and it is in short supply not because that we were thinking that it would be so harsh, but we found ourselves in the middle of this.
Everyone who wants to see India as a thriving economy, please come forward, and help us all. We look forward to your help, and I'm sure that we are
great allies, so we would be paying back as a good company and friend together. Thank you.
CHATTERLEY: Vijay, our hearts, my heart is with you. Thank you for all the work that you are doing, and stay safe, please, and we hope you get the
support you need. Vijay Shekhar Sharma there, CEO of Paytm.
Wow. Okay, India isn't the only South Asian country suffering from a surge in COVID cases. Several of its neighbors are enforcing new lockdowns and
strategies to try to avoid the devastation India suffering as Kristie Lu Stout explores.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fueled in part by the devastating second wave burning through India, the number of global cases of COVID-19
has been on the rise for nine consecutive weeks.
As you can see on this map of cumulative COVID-19 cases by Johns Hopkins University, India is not the only place in Asia hit hard.
Cases are spiking in neighboring Nepal. The border city of Nepalgunj has become a COVID-19 hot spot. Local lockdowns have been imposed and cities
including Kathmandu and there have been reports that tourists of Mount Everest base camp were infected, but the Nepalese government has denied
this.
Other neighbors are not taking any chances. Pakistan has deployed the Army in 16 cities to enforce pandemic safety protocols.
Bangladesh has imposed a strict lockdown. On Monday, it sealed its border with India for 14 days. The trade will continue.
Meanwhile Sri Lanka is bracing for a third wave of infection. Local media report that all ICU beds in hospitals are full after Sri Lanka detected a
new variant over the weekend, and starting Wednesday, schools across the country will close. Residents in designated areas are required to remain
indoors and a police curfew is enforced.
Indonesia is also badly one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in Asia with over 1.65 million infections since the pandemic began. To prevent the
spread of the new variant, Indonesia has stopped issuing visas for travelers who recently spent time in India.
And this week, The Philippines logged its one millionth case of the virus. A grim new milestone as it struggles to boost healthcare capacity.
About 16 months as the virus was first identified in China, the surrounding region is being ravaged again, and medical workers across Asia are
struggling to push back the pandemic.
Kristie Lou Stout, CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHATTERLEY: You're watching FIRST MOVE. More to come.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. This week, CNN's Bianca Nobilo is looking at what post-pandemic transport may look like in a special series
called Road to the Future.
Today, the focus centers on the use of air filtration technology.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Air pollution has long been a problem many have tried to solve.
AirLabs, a U.K.-based company that specializes in clear air tech and air quality management has developed a potentially groundbreaking technology
known as Air Bubble.
MARC OTTOLINI, CEO, AIRLABS: The Air Bubble technology is aimed at cleaning large volume of air, so we're talking about 30,000 liters an hour
which is really massive.
The aim is really to process as much air as possible whilst having a product that is full enough to fit in the interior of fleets of busses and
trains. The technology that we use is actually very effective, so we are removing up to 95 percent of the pollutants and pathogens.
We are also removing gas pollutants, of course, at the moment, the focus is on particulate matter and coronavirus.
NOBILO (on camera): And what's the cost of owning and installing one of these devices? Who exactly are you targeting? Can I have one in my house,
for example?
[09:55:09]
OTTOLINI: Yes, you can. Its overall cost, it depends on, you know, do you buy it outright, or do you basically take a subscription service where, you
know, we provide it including regular filter replacements, but if you think about public transport, you would be thinking maybe $20.00 to $30.00 a
month or so as on operating cost.
So you're probably talking less than a dollar a day.
Our mission is to play a leading role in reducing exposure to air pollution. We are committed to continuing to develop technology that is on
one hand, dealing with the evolving nature of air pollution as well as making these technologies more energy-efficient and producing less waste.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHATTERLEY: Okay, and that's it for the show. If you have missed any of our interviews today, they will be on my Twitter and Instagram pages in the
coming hours. You can search for @jchatterleyCNN.
In the meantime, and I say it always, but I will continue to say it, stay safe.
"Connect the World" with Becky Anderson is next.
We'll see you tomorrow.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:00:00]
END
