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Quest Means Business

Dow Above 10,000; U.K. Jobless Number Down;

Aired October 14, 2009 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ADRIAN FINIGHAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, the Dow has done it, within the last hour, it crossed the 10,000 mark.

U.K. unemployment rises, but a slim gain soothes the economic pain, we'll be back with our "JobQuesters."

And looking for an economic trophy as countries battle for World Cup qualification. One South African town gears up for a Spanish invasion.

Hello, I'm Adrian Finighan, in for Richard Quest. This is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

Good evening. We knew it would this week, the Dow right now is toying with 10,000 points. A short time ago it briefly crossed the five-digit mark. And as you can see right now, it's just back below it again at 9,993.

Now bumper earnings from corporate giants are boosting the markets today. The second-largest U.S. bank reported a blow-out third-quarter profit, chip-maker Intel also posted upbeat results. Tonight we look at all of this excitement on Wall Street.

Well, the Dow might not have been able to hit 10,000 today without some help of those better-than-expected corporate results. Earnings season is, of course, in full swing. And Wall Street is liking what it's seeing. Our Maggie Lake is going to be our guide to this all-important period.

We kick off officially tomorrow with the Q-25, Maggie. But these results today, JPMorgan and Intel, not a bad start.

MAGGIE LAKE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right, Adrian. It's just what the market wanted to hear. Of course, Intel was almost a day ago now our time right after the close. And they had -- they had good results, you know, a lot of it still coming from some squeezing the business, but they gave pretty good guidance going forward.

But it was really JPMorgan that was a real catalyst today, and very hard to find fault with anything in this report. They continued to set themselves apart from the competition. They completely blew out Wall Street estimates.

The Street was looking for something like 52 cents a share, they did 82 cents a share. I mean, that's just a huge margin to beat by. Very strong investment banking, specifically bonds and deals. And that really helped offset the weakness that they are continuing to see in consumer lending.

But even on that point, Jamie Dimon talking about the fact they're putting another $2 billion into the war chest to sort of, you know, protect -- prevent, protect against future bad loans. But he did say that the bank is starting to see some signs of stabilization in consumer credit. That they weren't able to say whether the trend was going to continue. But the fact that they were seeing some stabilizing in that really troubled area, all of that just fantastic news for Wall Street, they loved it.

And that's what really set us off on this race to 10,000, which, of course, if you blinked, you missed it, but hey, we've still got two more hours of this trading session, and you know those bulls are going to want to try to see if we can close above it.

FINIGHAN: Absolutely. So when we get to the Q-25 tomorrow, when Richard is back and we start to mull over these earnings figures, is it going to be all greens that we see up on the board? Just if you don't know about the Q-25, it's a barometer of how the economy is doing based on what results are coming in through earnings season.

You get reds and greens and what do you reckon, Maggie?

LAKE: That's right. Yes, and in completely unscientific, we should say, although we do try our best, and you know, I'm not so sure, you know, we usually try to be discerning about this, Adrian. And we already know that on the top -- you know, we're going to see profits probably better- than-expected in most cases.

But we're going to try to look at those other things we've been talking about. Are revenues increasing? Are they getting the business from actually selling more things or is it just that they're still cutting costs, which, although it helps the company, isn't a great sort of statement on where the business is heading?

In the economy, can they give us guidance? Are they willing to say that things are getting better in the future?

You know, one of the things that we've seen is that although these results are coming in really good, what you're hearing from the CEOs, most of them are extremely reluctant to sort of get pinned down on the fact that this is sustainable. And that's really interesting.

So we're going to be taking all of those factors into account to see, you know, whether it gets a red or a green. But based on sort of the general feeling we're getting from the market and certainly where some of those whisper numbers are, it looks like we're going to have a heck of a lot more green apple this time around than we've had in the past Q-25.

FINIGHAN: Maggie, many thanks. We'll see you a little later in the show in downtown Brooklyn.

Right now, though, let's get some more expert opinion. Larry Levin, a professional futures trader and the president of secretsabouttraders.com (sic), he joins me now live from the CME Group in Chicago.

Larry, can we really have gone from the threat of another great recession to almost full market recovery in what, just nine months?

(VIDEO GAP)

FINIGHAN: ... Tokyo.

Right. High time we got you up-to-date with what else is happening in the world. Fionnuala Sweeney joins us live from the London newsroom.

FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Adrian, a key White House meeting taking place on Afghanistan. President Barack Obama and his national security team are discussing the future of the U.S.-led war. At issue, whether to send in tens of thousands more U.S. troops. The same issue has been under debate in the U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown says Britain will send 500 more troops to Afghanistan, but only if certain conditions are met.

Football diplomacy is in full gear as fans flocked to today's World Cup qualifier between longtime foes Turkey and Armenia. The presidents of each nation are attending the match in the Turkish city of Bursa. Last weekend they reached an agreement to establish diplomatic ties and open their borders. The match is now early in the first half, and so far the score is nil all.

Eighteen years after she was kidnapped, the world is finally getting to see images of Jaycee Duggard as an adult. Duggard released photos to People magazine, which features her in an upcoming cover story. Her alleged abductor and his wife are in custody, charged with kidnapping and rape.

And those are the headlines. Don't forget to tune in for more on the day's biggest stories, "WORLD ONE" at 8:30 p.m. London time. In the meantime, back to you, Adrian, in the studio.

FINIGHAN: Fionnuala, many thanks.

Now call him Bernie "The Bruiser" Madoff. Yes, his reputation in the financial world may be in tatters, but apparently his street cred just moved up a notch. The New York Post says that the Ponzi fraudster got into a prison tussle and won.

But you could hardly call it a "Rumble in the Jungle," the report says that an argument over the stock market with a 60-year-old man turned into a shoving match. When pushed, Madoff pushed back, harder, causing the other inmate to, quote, "stumble."

Don't worry, though, it looks like they made up. They were seen hanging out in the prison yard the next day.

Well, it's a sign of the times that more people can be out of work, but it could still be good news. As more people join the queue for benefits here in the U.K., we look at what the numbers say about Britain's economy.

And we'll check in with two people who have a very personal understanding of unemployment. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FINIGHAN: Well, it's bad, but it's not getting much worse. Unemployment numbers in the U.K. look as if they're stabilizing. Less than 21,000 people joined the queue for jobless benefits in September. That's the smallest monthly increase in the U.K. since May. The jobless rate is holding steady at 7.9 percent. That's slightly below what economists were expecting. The U.K. National Statistics Offices said on Wednesday that 2.47 million people are currently out of work.

Let's break down what those numbers actually mean, though. Chris Humphries is the head of the U.K. Commission for Employment and Skill, and he joins me now.

Chris, what happened to all of the dire predictions of 3 million unemployed by the year 2010?

CHRIS HUMPHRIES, CEO, U.K. COMMISSION FOR EMPLOYMENT & SKILLS: Well, I mean, I'm afraid one of the things that tends to happen in this field is that unemployment projections always -- or predictions always get more attention the higher they are. And I think there has been a little bit of great inflation, if you like, going on here.

As one of those who has actually been speculating and believing that it's not going to reach 3 million, even in 2010, I think the figures are coming up roughly where I expected. I think it's starting to stabilize.

You know, look any more unemployment is too much. So there is no complacency here or attitudinal probably. But the fact is that I think it is slowing down, the biggest issue is that it's very disproportional in its effect, and we really need to understand who is in trouble to the greatest extent and try and do something about it.

FINIGHAN: Yes, well, break down the figures in just a moment, but first, I want to pick you apart on that belief that you said that you believe that unemployment wasn't going to rise as quickly as some had predicted. Is that belief based on perhaps a more responsive labor market these days?

As the economy begins to recover, the reforms that we've seen over the past few years mean that there is longer the lag that we used to get when the economy was in trouble before, and that the economy...

(VIDEO GAP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... ad campaign or something like that. So at this point, this is where I'm -- I've been doing.

I do play the guitar, so maybe it will come to a point that I will have to go the metro and earn (INAUDIBLE) in the metro. It's something that I might be considering too.

I met my wife here in Barcelona four years ago. We've been together for four years, pretty much. We got married last July. And I got laid off just a month before my wedding. So that kind of put a little bit of stress on the wedding.

But, yes, the situation of unemployment makes it really uncomfortable for us at sometimes, but we're just trying to be positive and get positive things out of this -- this situation. So we'll get through, I think.

LES YOUNG, JOB SEEKER: Well, right now I'm looking for something that's really my passion, and that's coaching and training young people in public speaking. I enjoy it because when we first start out, it's like nobody wants to do this, nobody wants to participate. They don't think they can do it. But after about the third week or the fourth week, then everybody is involved. We've got them motivated. They really see that they have a higher confidence level in themselves.

A toastmaster is actually a person who has gone through or is going through the curriculum of the Toastmasters International Organization, which is public speaking, leadership development.

Ahem, ahem. OK, OK. All right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. You ready? You ready?

YOUNG: Yes.

They're following me on my job search.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Help us appreciate "Finding My Way Back." Please help me welcome Les Young (ph).

(APPLAUSE)

YOUNG: "Finding My Way Back" is a speech that I really just came up with last week. Life can be very, very luxurious. Life can be purposeful. Life can fulfill the desires that we have. But then at times on that road to life, we can lose our way. And that's what happened. Everyday that I go looking for a job, I think about, is this going to make stronger?

So I can't quit. I just can't quit. I don't have a job right now, but I cannot quit.

Thank you, Madam Toastmaster.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FINIGHAN: Inspirational. We'll continue to follow the stories right here on QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

Now as the world's top football teams fight for their place in the World Cup, we're taking a closer look at the writing on the shirts. Find out why, despite the recession, big companies say that sponsorship is the very last thing they'll cut.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FINIGHAN: Now World Cup qualifying season is heating up. Several crucial qualifying matches are happening right now. Finn was telling us a little earlier about the World Cup qualifier between longtime foes Turkey and Armenia, the score there: Turkey 1, Armenia nil.

When they're all over, we'll know all but nine of the 32 teams heading to South Africa. All eyes on Argentina, which could miss the tournament for the first time in nearly 40 years if it loses to Uruguay. And Portugal also need a win tonight against Malta to give them the best chance of a playoff position.

Well, it's not only those who are on the pitch who are looking for a big win, recession or not, big companies want their names on the shirts and a piece of the profit. Jim Boulden looks now at why they'll do anything to stay in the sponsorship game.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BOULDEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The red buses tell you it's London...

(VIDEO GAP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FINIGHAN: Now, World Cup qualifying season is heating up. Several crucial qualifying matches are happening right now. Finn was telling us a little earlier about the World Cup qualifier between long time foes, Turkey and Armenia. The latest score there, Turkey, 1; Armenia, nil.

When they're all over, we'll know all but nine of the 32 teams heading to South Africa.

All eyes on Argentina, which could miss the tournament for the first time in nearly 40 years if it loses to Uruguay. And Portugal also need to win tonight against Malta to give them the best chance of a play-off position.

Well, it's not only those who are on the pitch who are looking for a big win, recession or not, big companies want their names on the shirt and a piece of the profit.

Jim Boulden looks now at why they'll do anything to stay in the sponsorship game.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The red buses tell you it's London. The basketball skills might lead you to believe it's the streets of Chicago. But when two NBA teams kicked off the pre-season in the British capital, Germany's sports company, Adidas, was front and center -- appearances by one of its pitchmen, Chicago's Derrick Rose.

Even in a recession, many brands say it would be unthinkable to sit on the sidelines and miss this kind of sports promotion. In fact, according to the boss of Guinness, a recession is a great time to get in the game.

PAUL WALSH, GUINNESS: Sports sponsorship or sponsorship generally, is more affordable. Rates have come down. Equally, we like the ability to be very targeted, for example, matching the Guinness brand to run.

BOULDEN: No surprise, perhaps, from a drinks company.

But what about some of the firms badly hit in the credit crunch?

The Royal Bank of Scotland has been cutting back sports sponsorships, including Formula 1. The bank was bailed out by the British taxpayer.

In the United States, Bank of America, which also received bailout money, dialed back on a deal with the New York Yankees, though Citicorp has kept its $400 million naming rights for the New York Mets Stadium. That deal was sealed before the slump.

As was this $78 million, four year deal between American insurance giant, AIG, and Manchester United. That was not renewed and will lapse after this season, when insurer Aon will then adorn Man United's shirts. That new deal joins the one Sony Ericsson just signed to be the official mobile handset for next year's World Cup in South Africa.

CALLUM MACDOUGALL: We didn't want to take the historic corporate route of -- of branding and maybe corporate hospitality, but, rather, focus on the fans. Let's give the tickets to the fans. Let's give fans an opportunity to engage in football in ways never before via mobile.

BOULDEN: Sporting events that take place every four years are hard for some companies to pass up. Lloyd's Group, also caught up in the credit crunch, is the banking sponsor for London 2012, the Summer Olympics. The bank says these deals help with motivating staff and internal communications. It's not just about branding.

JEAN-FRANCOIS VAN BOXMEER, HEINEKEN: Well, traditionally...

BOULDEN: Something echoed by the CEO of another beer giant, who says having Europe's rugby trophy called Heineken Cup is emotional.

(on camera): Why do you continue to push forward with these kind of things?

BOXMEER: I think it attracts sympathy. I think the -- the bonding that you have watching a sport and supporting a team, there is where a beer brand is at home and where we think that Heineken fits the best.

BOULDEN: (voice-over): And, of course, many companies are looking beyond crowded developed markets.

WALSH: It also does a great job in emerging markets because many of the consumers aspire to view these sports, to be participants in these sports. So it's very powerful.

BOULDEN: As one CEO told me, in a recession, you try to only cut back in areas not visible to consumers.

Jim Boulden, CNN, London.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

FINIGHAN: Well, as South Africa gears up to make sporting history next year, one small coastal town there has its eye on a very specific prize.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We decided to concentrate on South American countries as those countries has been neglected over a long period of time in terms of tourism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FINIGHAN: We'll take you to Mossel Bay to find out exactly how far this town will go to welcome its Latin visitors.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FINIGHAN: Live from London, this is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS from CNN.

In for Richard Quest, I'm Adrian Finighan.

Now, it felt like deja vu when the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit the 10000 mark about an hour or so ago. It's come off that mark right now just a touch, hovering just below 9990.

Susan Lisovicz is at the New York Stock Exchange right now.

Let's check in with her -- and, Susan, 10000 kind of feels, for the Dow, like a movie that you've seen again and again and again and again.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. In fact, there was that movie, a Bill Murray movie, called "Groundhog Day," which I absolutely love. And the problem with the stock market is that the first time we had our groundhog moment, if you will, was 10 years ago -- 10 years ago, 1999, is when the Dow closed over 10000 for the first time.

But we have endured so much since then -- the bust of the dot-com hoopla and then, of course, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

The fact is, we've had a terrific rally since March and the Dow crossing over the 10000 mark just about an hour ago. We haven't seen five digits on the big board since last October.

More importantly than Dow 10000, we have triple digit gains again, thanks to some upbeat earnings from a couple of corporate heavyweights. Intel, the giant chip maker -- chips used in just about everything these days -- posted quarterly results that beat Wall Street estimates. It also issued a new outlook for the rest of the year.

So that was a tech giant. Then we also heard from a financial giant. JPMorgan Chase saw its profits surge in the last quarter. It raked in more than $3.5 billion. That's more than $1.5 billion than Wall Street was expecting.

You know, so we're hearing from a big bank, we're hearing from a big tech company. So if you think about it, Adrian, these are the two sectors that really powered the great bull market of the '90s and also after the recession of -- of 2001.

So it's very encouraging, indeed. We have a lot of ground to make up. After all, the Dow hit 14000 two years ago this month.

FINIGHAN: My life flashed before me when -- when you started recounting every -- everything that's happened since -- since 1990.

Is it really that long ago?

I've aged since then. You -- you look just as gorgeous as ever.

LISOVICZ: Well, thank you, Adrian.

FINIGHAN: You haven't aged a bit.

But it wasn't -- it's not just third quarter earnings figures that we've had out today. There have been some economic news, as well, helping things up, some -- some pretty decent retail sales figures, for instance.

LISOVICZ: That's exactly right. And retail sales, I think, doesn't really bear pointing out that this is consumer spending that we're talking about. Retail sales fell 1.5 percent last month. That was actually better than expected. We did expect a decline because Cash for Clunkers, which fueled retail sales in August, expired. So we didn't have that anymore.

And if you actually stripped out autos, sales in other areas rose. That includes increases in food and beverages, clothing sales, furniture sales.

So broad-based signs that slowly, ever so slowly, things are getting better. And that's why the stock market is getting better -- Adrian.

FINIGHAN: Susan, great to talk to you, as always.

Many thanks, indeed.

Susan Lisovicz live at the New York Stock Exchange.

LISOVICZ: Live from New York.

FINIGHAN: Well, the markets may be in rally mode, but on Main Street, the mood is a little more subdued. Three months ago, our Maggie Lake visited three small businessmen in downtown Brooklyn to get their take on the sales climate. Now this week, she's back in the neighborhood to see if recovery is really taking hold.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAGGIE LAKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meet the butcher, the baker, the cappuccino maker -- three businessmen, one goal -- navigating the worst economic downturn in decades.

(on camera): The last time we were on Court Street in Brooklyn, it was late spring and the shopkeepers felt that while the worst was over, they were reluctant to say that things were actually improving.

This time, we want to pop in and see if they think the recovery is really taking hold.

(voice-over): At Stabbit's Market (ph), butcher John McFadden, Jr. says sales are strengthening. Shoppers are not as price conscious as they were in the spring.

JOHN MCFADDEN, JR: Back then, I remember everyone was looking for the word sale.

It was like what's on sale?

That would be like the first thing out of their mouths. And I'm not hearing that so often anymore.

LAKE: Sentiment is improving, but it's hard to get a handle on what's ahead.

MCFADDEN: So just yesterday, I was placing the holiday orders and I kind of felt a little bit contracted. I wasn't so like oh, this is great, that's great, let's get this. I was buying a little bit more conservatively because I'm not sure that everyone is in the same place at the same time.

LAKE (on camera): Yes, because there's still not a lot of jobs.

MCFADDEN: No. There's still -- I mean you're still hearing about people losing their job.

Twenty-four minutes, you got it?

LAKE (voice-over): Baker James Caputo is guarded, as well. He's concerned about sales trends and he will consider cutting holiday production.

JAMES CAPUTO: Sales are increasing. They're not increasing at the rate we want to see them increase at. We didn't get as big of a bounce as we did get after the Labor Day holiday.

As far as the sentiment goes, personally, I think people are still where they were back in the spring -- uncertain.

LAKE: Downtown Atlantic restaurant owner Kurt Sipple (ph) agrees. He says diners are still watching what they spend.

KURT SIPPLE: Well, I'm doing a recession buster menu -- three courses at $23, which is really -- that's probably 50 percent of my sales right now. We're still down, as of this year, up until July. We're still down 20 percent. So it's still going back and forth. I'm hoping like -- I think these next three months are going to prove a lot to a lot of businesses.

LAKE: Once again, we put our businessmen to the test.

On a hospital pain scale of zero to five, where do they see confidence now?

Our butcher sees improvement.

(on camera): Where do you think we are now?

Has it moved at all?

MCFADDEN: Yes, I'd say definitely it's moved. It's somewhere, probably, between one and 2.

CAPUTO: Last time, I think I was somewhere around here, around number two. It hurts a little more. I think, personally, I've moved a little bit more toward number one, it hurts a little bit, but I'm not quite there. I'm not convinced.

SIPPLE: I would say that the feeling is probably a two, it hurts a little bit more.

LAKE: So it's a small improvement...

SIPPLE: Yes.

LAKE: But no smiles yet?

SIPPLE: No, no smiles.

LAKE (voice-over): As the seasons change in Brooklyn, our businessmen remain cautiously optimistic. But they say a crucial sales period lies ahead.

Maggie Lake, CNN, Brooklyn, New York.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

FINIGHAN: Now, Chris Humphreys and I were earlier talking about high rates of youth unemployment, particularly here in the U.K. But things aren't exactly easy at the other end of the scale either. Experience and knowledge don't always seem to count -- an age old problem, when we return, on QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FINIGHAN: So as we told you earlier, U.K. unemployment seems to be stabilizing. Just under 21,000 people joined the jobless cues in September. That may sound a lot, but it's actually the smallest monthly increase since May and the jobless rate is holding Saturday at 7.9 percent. That's slightly lower than the 8 percent that some economists have been expecting.

They disagree -- they describe the numbers, rather, as encouraging.

Well, for some job seekers, the hunt for employment can continue well into their later years and companies often overlook them for younger candidates.

But, as CNN's Diana Magnay reports now, at least one employer is looking beyond the birth date.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tony Palmer (ph) used to make his living repairing endoscopes -- instruments used by doctors to explore inside the human body. That was until he was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and dismissed from his job. Finding a new one at the age of 52 proved difficult.

TONY PALMER: I did actually talk to the local job center and they just really sort of shrugged their shoulders and said you've got no chance.

MAGNAY (on camera): So how much would something like this go for?

PALMER: Close to 200 pounds.

MAGNAY (voice-over): Tony decided his only option was to turn an old hobby engraving glass into a business. He says he enjoys the freedom of not having a boss, but thinks his skills should still be worth something to an employer.

PALMER: Even though I'm older, especially with the career path I've actually had through my years, I have a lot experience. There's a lot of things that I can actually offer an employer. But they tend not to see that. They tend to see the age and they tend to see the health issues and think oh, we can get someone younger and -- and fitter.

MAGNAY: One company that's decided there's still much to gain from the older workforce is DIY shop, B&Q.

(on camera): More than a quarter of the workforce here at B&Q are aged over 50 and the oldest staff member is 94. We'll sit down and we're off to meet him.

(voice-over): Sid Prior has been working at B&Q for 19 years.

SID PRIOR, B&Q: Hello there, sir.

Hello, there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

PRIOR: A child's?

(INAUDIBLE).

MAGNAY: He says he tried retiring, but it didn't suit him.

PRIOR: I just didn't like being at home. I've -- I started work when I was 14 and I've worked for 80 years without a stop. I've never -- never been out of work. So it's just tradition.

MAGNAY: B&Q say mature workers are more dedicated, more flexible and more willing to learn than younger candidates. But in the U.K. right now, almost one in every three people over 50 doesn't have a job. Tony Palmer has invested much of his pension in tools for his new startup. Many years hard grind in front of him before he can afford to kick back.

Diana Magnay, CNN, London.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

FINIGHAN: A year's hard grind.

Of course, there are many, many millions of people who are in work and we want to give you a glimpse of what they do to earn a crust as part of the series, Americana In Focus: Jobs That Last, photojournalist Jeremy Moorehead talked to an old-fashioned clock repairer and tried to find out what makes him tick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONNY SOBEL, CLOCKMAKER: We're at the Clock Shop of Vienna. This used to be a sleepy little town. Now it's the one that we tend to avoid at rush hour.

What's your clock doing wrong?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you wind it, it usually, as I remember, goes about seven or eight days. It's supposed to. It's only going about four.

SOBEL: You gave this five half turns?

Notice it's still got room to turn.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God. I would never have done this. Nine.

SOBEL: Now it's fully wound.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Son of a gun.

SOBEL: Here you are.

We established this store in 1973. Essentially, the family has run this business since its inception. Oh, it's hard to think of myself as unique, but I guess I'm one of the last people around that still makes parts for old clocks.

Somebody says, are you still doing it the way it used to be done, we kind of -- we were the way it used to be done. We're horologists. We're clockmakers. Most of what we do is repair or replace or refinish parts that have worn in an old clock. You can't buy parts off the shelf for these, so anything that you make or anything that you need other than a piece of glass or a chain or a cable is going to be created from scratch.

There's the old and new. They'll go back in here. There's less and less people doing this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This place is like a toy store for us.

SOBEL: Ryan's my competitor. His father-in-law own a clock shop in Alexandria.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's critical that you -- you seek out knowledgeable people.

SOBEL: Ryan asked if he could come in to pick up some pointers. What Tony Segudo (ph), my mentor, taught me.

And it has to come apart before you can clean it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ninety percent of the previous generation of clockmakers, the skill level, the high skill level ones, have not had an opportunity to have somebody come up behind them and stick with it.

SOBEL: It's a nice feeling to know that all of these things are running because you've done something to help them go.

Thank you for visiting the Clock Shop of Vienna, where all we have is time.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

FINIGHAN: Fantastic.

Right. Let's get a weather forecast.

Guillermo Arduino hard at work at the CNN World Weather Center right now.

And it's a day for strong (INAUDIBLE) here in Northern Europe.

GUILLERMO ARDUINO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, bad. Very bad, indeed. We have actually some power issues and downed trees, especially in the Poland-Germany area. And this section here, the Baltic Sea, is going to see or is seeing such intense winds that we have some floods, because the wind is coming from there.

You see from the north?

Look at the two observations that we got of gusts more than 100 kilometers here in Latvia and almost 100 kilometers in Poland, coastal sections.

Remember that here, we have a lot of ferry operations going into Scandinavia and northern parts of Europe over here. So they must be either canceled or severely disrupted because of this.

Will it continue or not?

Well, look, according to our maps, it's going to ease within 48 hours. In the North Sea, where we will have a lot of operations there, as well, we may see some more problems in the tuna -- two days to come.

let's see what's going on here. Scotland in the north with some rain showers. But London, come on. It's great. And especially in the next two days, it's going to clear again. So we're not even going to have some clouds, practically.

So let's see what the temperature is doing right here. Seven in Vienna. We continue to be way below average and also significant change from last week.

Well, before I continue about Europe, I want you to know that there has been an earthquake in the Samoa section -- the Samoa area. And we're going to zoom in and show you exactly where. And I have some information to share with you, too.

This is the latest and these are older. So it's a 6.0. No tsunami warning issued. No -- again, no tsunami warning was issued in the area, but we are waiting to hear more from the authorities over there.

We're going to show you these that are from yesterday, even lower, 4.9. And I haven't found anything in the Tsunami Warning Center. Again, no -- nothing was issued, but we're looking at the area since this was 6.0 near Samoa and these ones in the days ahead, this is a very active, active area of the world where we see a lot of earthquakes.

So we'll tell you more coming up later.

Stay with CNN.

We have more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FINIGHAN: It's a country in the grip of its first recession in 17 years. But South Africa has an ace up its sleeve. Of course, the 2010 World Cup is expected to pour millions of dollars into the economy.

CNN's anchor, Nkepile Mabuse visited one small town in South Africa which is going all out to make its visitors particularly welcome.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NKEPILE MABUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): It's the sea that sold Mossel Bay to footballers from landlocked Paraguay. The hotel where the team will be staying during the World Cup in South Africa next year is right by the ocean. Traffic and public transport, which are huge concerns in big cities like Capetown, are not considered major issues here.

LOUIS HARRIS, MOSSEL BAY 2010 COORDINATOR: The training facilities for the -- for the team is -- is five minutes away. The hospital is five minutes away. Everything in Mossel Bay is five minutes away.

MABUSE: Louis Harris was instrumental in convincing Team Paraguay, which has already qualified for the games in 2010, to locate their base here. It's all part of the town's long-term tourism strategy.

HARRIS: The recent economic recession in Europe forced us to also look at alternative markets. And we decided to concentrate on South American countries as those countries have been neglected over a long period of time in terms of tourism.

MABUSE: So, South American flags are flying high in Mossel Bay and many residents have traded chasing waves or enjoying lazy afternoons on the beach for the classroom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Quel es tu profession? (ph)

MABUSE: Julietta Brizzi is one of the teachers brought in from the University of Buenos Aires to help Mossel Bay's people learn Spanish. Some of the town's traffic officers have already been trained to conduct routine inspections in Spanish.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Es una inspection de routina, predovera licencia de condesir por favor. (ph)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

MABUSE: It's the town's goal to get at least 350 citizens working in different sectors to speak Spanish.

JULIETTA BRIZZI, TEACHER: Of course they need to -- to keep practicing Spanish. That way they are all of these to have a lot of people that will be able to -- to speak and to practice among the other population.

MABUSE: Firefighter Johann Makwak admits it wasn't easy learning a new language, but says he's ready to respond to emergencies in Spanish.

JOHANN MAKWAK, FIREFIGHTER: Es como te llamas?

What's your name?

Where do you -- where do you work?

De donde trabahas (ph)?

I think definitely I will -- I will be able to communicate with them on their level. That had to go through my nose.

MABUSE: During the World Cup, Suthe Madolo will be making sure public transport in Mossel Bay is orderly and safe. She will also act as a tour guide.

SUTHE MADOLO: I enjoy speaking Spanish.

MABUSE (on camera): Is it -- so how would you introduce yourself to your passengers in Spanish?

MADOLO: OK. What I would say, I say, (INAUDIBLE). Me (INAUDIBLE) S. Madolo.

MABUSE: What does that mean?

MADOLO: OK. This means my name is Suthe. My surname is Madolo. And what I'll do, I'll just say soy Mossel Bay. Soy South Africana. So that means I'm a South African from Mossel Bay.

MABUSE: Ah. That's awesome.

MADOLO: Yes. So that's what I know so far. But I find it very interesting, Spanish.

MABUSE (voice-over): That sounded pretty straightforward, so I decided to give it a try.

(on camera): En tonses como pedendar, Mossel Bay, esta listo para da la bien benita al y cipo de Paraguay.

Or what that means is, as you can see, Mossel Bay is ready to welcome Team Paraguay.

I don't know how people here are coping, because I found that rather difficult to learn.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bueno es su te -- te par. (ph)

MABUSE (voice-over): There are those who are struggling. But with some encouragement from fellow classmates, even locals who find it tough to learn a new language may end up helping this town achieve its goal of becoming a preferred South African destination for Spanish speaking tourists, even beyond the World Cup.

Nkepile Mabuse, CNN, Mossel Bay.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

FINIGHAN: It's spring time in South Africa.

Doesn't that look gorgeous?

Now, the World Cup is expected to bring billions of dollars and three million visitors to South Africa next year. It's estimated that the tournament will pump $2.6 billion into the South African economy and create 159,000 new jobs.

But you have to pay to play. So South Africa is spending $600 million building and renovating its 10 football stadiums; another $640 million on upgrades to the country's airports and $430 million on improvements to road and rail links.

Now, an exciting day on Wall Street today, as the Dow has teased the 10000 mark. We'll be back with some tantalizing market numbers in just a few moments.

See you in a second.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FINIGHAN: So, a landmark day on Wall Street today. As you now know, the Dow Industrials crossed the 10000 mark today for the first time in a year, after spending the day hovering tantalizing close, right now it's off 10000 once again, at 9982. The bumper session came after a spate of upbeat earnings. Investment bank J.P. Morgan and chip maker Intel both beat expectations with their third quarter results.

And those results also left European traders flush with confidence today. All the major indices closed the day at their highest level in a year after those upbeat earnings reports out of the U.S.

And that will do it for QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for Wednesday.

In London, I'm Adrian Finighan.

Whatever you're up to in the hours ahead, as Richard would say, I do hope it's profitable.

He's back tomorrow.

Christiane Amanpour is next on CNN, right after the headlines from the I Desk.

END