Nightly News   |  August 12, 2011

Consumers ‘pessimistic about the economy’

CNBC’s Sue Herera discusses the stock market’s wild swings with Brian Williams.

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This content comes from a Full-Text Transcript of the program.

BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor: We turn now to the economy. What a week it's been for anybody with money in this market. Wild swings every day of the week . It's finally over for this week, and here finally is where we stand. Stocks went up again today, nearly 126 points on the Dow . The other indexes regained some ground, as well. But for the week, the Dow was down overall 1 1/2 percent. We have asked our friend Sue Herera from CNBC to join us once again from their global headquarters. And, Sue , to me, the lead story today was this consumer confidence number.

SUE HERERA reporting: Yes.

WILLIAMS: It's not a surprise, I mean we could have guessed it, but it's just shocking to realize that the last time it was this bad was 1980 when Jimmy Carter was in the White House .

HERERA: I think you're right, Brian . I think we all knew that it probably wasn't going to be a good number, but it was way, way below what Wall Street thought it should be. Consumers are more pessimistic about the economy than they have been in some time, three decades. And that's because of the problems in Washington , high unemployment, and the wild ride in August that investors have been taken by the stock market. It remains to be seen, I think, whether or not the volatility that we've seen this week continues into next week, but that statistic certainly didn't help, Brian .

WILLIAMS: All right. Well, Sue , you guys have been running full tilt. Will you please try to have a nice weekend? We'll see you Monday.

HERERA: I will. You, too.

WILLIAMS: All right. Sue Herera from CNBC global headquarters, thanks.

BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor: And here's a sign of these hard times. A crowd of 4,000 people came to