How global markets might affect Americans' pocketbooks

CARL QUINTANILLA, anchor: For more on the global impact of all of this, we're joined by CNBC 's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera in Rome and Steve Liesman , CNBC 's chief economics reporter. Michelle , what happens to markets where you are could well set the tone for the Dow here tomorrow.

MICHELLE CARUSO-CABRERA reporting: Yeah, absolutely, Carl . And countries around the world seem rattled by the US downgrade as well. Markets in the Middle East Sunday, today, were open and they tumbled badly. New Zealand just opened. It's down as well. Now as for here in Europe , ironically enough, they have even bigger debt problems. There are three countries here, Portugal , Ireland and Greece that cannot pay their bills without the help of a bailout. And the situation was growing so bad that just an hour ago the European Central Bank announced new measures to help this country, Italy , stem off any more problems. We'll see if that has an effect on worldwide markets as well tomorrow. Carl , back to you.

QUINTANILLA: Problems on both sides of the Atlantic tonight. And, Steve , does this downgrade from S&P hit Americans' pocketbooks at home or not?

STEVE LIESMAN reporting: There's plenty of confusion and concern about that, Carl . We've never been in a situation where the world's benchmark debt, the United States , has been downgraded. So anybody who claims to know what they're talking about here probably is making it up. There is concern, though, about interest rates , mortgage interest rates , credit card interest rates , some concern it may go up. But I will tell you, plenty of speculation on the other side that we've seen the worst of this. The market anticipated this and it's going to digest this latest bad news with pretty good equanimity the way it has other things.

QUINTANILLA: Michelle Caruso-Cabrera and Steve Liesman , our friends over at CNBC , Michelle , Steve , thanks. And a