leslie brinkley is live at the pacific stock exchange in san francisco. leslie? >> reporter: the stage has been set. and the anticipation is that wall street is set for a sharply lower opening today. especially given how asian markets fared today in reaction to the news about the u.s. credit rating downgraded on friday. nikkei lost 2.8%. market drop in hong kong of over 2%. the markets are already closed. pessimistic trading in europe. london and germany markets fluctuating between 1.7 and 2.5% down. some say it could have been worse. >> i heard the reaction in asia was better than expected. that's really because last friday we had one of the biggest of the years 4-5% in most asian markets. but today, we still have 1 to 3%. [ no audio ] >> that was abc7's leslie brinkley reporting. we will check back in with leslie later with more on a preview of what will happen when the stock markets open this morning. >>> with friday senate action to end the faa shutdown, construction workers can go back to their jobs this week in oakland international airport. the $31 million

. >> leslie brinkley talked to investors about this and tells us more. >> the rumors swirl about rumors of a double-dip recession. i'm at the floor of the new york stock exchange where things got off to a rocky start. stocks opened down 227 points on news from europe, where markets dropped 3-4%. and asia where the market lost 2%. by mid-morning the dow dipped lower down 3%, with some analysts saying it could have been worse. >> no, we could have been down 1,000 at the open. i think overall, our electronic markets all across the united states did very well. handling the increase of volume. it helped that the s&p did this on friday afternoon evening. people could digest it. we could have a little more orderly response on a monday. >> then there was more bad news from standard & poor's, the agency that downgraded u.s. on friday. they downgraded the debt of government backed mortgage giant fannie mae and freddie mac. >> we have liabilities with them, almost half a trillion dollars. we have already backstopped them $160 billion. now we're over $200 billion. everybody expected that, but not a

abc7's leslie brinkley is live at the pacific stock exchange in san francisco. leslie there have been varied reactions around the world to this. >> we're trying to take account of that as we wait for the pacific exchange and the u.s. stock market to open in 90 minutes. asian stocks, however, did take a nose dive today. as you mentioned the first ever downgrade of u.s. credit sending reverbrations around the globe. final results for overall 2% decrease in market value in japan and hong kong. trading in europe is down so far. london hovering around 1.5%. germany, down about 2%. some say global reaction is better than expected. all eyes are now on wall street. >> the big issue is how the u.s. trades tonight and how it deals with that recent announcement. >> off 401(k) -- you have a 401(k), and you may hold your breath until monday but you should exhale. over the long term, this is a bump in the road for the country. >> it's pretty bumpy. wall street dropped over 5% last week. futures on the dow jones show that the average is going to be down 242 points today. gold,

reporting live in downtown san francisco, leslie brinkley, abc7 news. >> thank you. >>> well, stocks in greece plunged to their lowest level in 14 years today. the general index on the greece stock exchange closed to lowest level. leslie talked about the gold prices. they skyrocketed. price for up on of gold rose to $1700 in early trading. gold doubled in price since start of 2009. it typically increases in value as the appeal of the u.s. dollar weakens. >>> another major story we're following today. san francisco mayor ed lee made it official this morning, he is running for office he was appointed to. >> rivals in the race quickly issued welcomes and warnings. >> abc7's eric thomas is live with the latest. eric? >> as ed lee officially entered the race. there were four key words he kept saying over and over again. i've changed. >> i'm ed lee, mayor of san francisco, i filed papers to file for the mayor's ration this year -- mayor's race this year. >> that is what he did in basement of city hall after seven months of vows and promises he would not run for mayor, he was not a politici

>>> i'm leslie brinkley live in pacific stock exchange. the world is market and global stocks have take an nose dive. i have a live report. >> police are investigating shooting death of a man killed while driving on city streets. >> decision day for interim mayor ed lee. he has set a time and place to let everyone know whether he is ready to run for a full term. >> weatherwise, look at the thick clouds. we have drizzle and cool conditions. i do see a slight warming trend in our forecast. >> good morning. i'm sue hall in the traffic center. we have fog to affect the morning commute. we'll talk about that and look at the monday morning drive times. >>> 6:00 a.m. on monday morning. thank you for watching. i'm eric thomas. >> i'm kristen sze. from wall street to main street, worry is building ahead of the stock market opening in a half hour from now. this is the first trading day after the unprecedented downgrade of the credit rating. abc7's leslie brinkley is live in san francisco. >> just 30 minutes and counting until the stock exchange in t

here is leslie brinkley. >> cancer researchers were shocked but they documented it in two medical journals? what is being called the most significant sflans decades. it works like this. blood was taken from leukemia patients and the t-cells the body uses to fight disease were removed. this inserted a harmless version of hiv into the cells and they were reinjected back into the patient. a single tchtd cell was capable of killing thousands of cancer cells and even killing new cancer as it emerged. so far two patients are cancer flee and one is in remission. goal now is to find out how long the remissions last. >> we know they hang and the body for some time that may be helpful but also hurtful. we have more to learn before we can say this is generally used for patients that have this particular type of leukemia. >> this could employ a kind of tumor attack road map for the treatment of other cancers including melanoma and lung cancer. they are calling the killer cells remarkable. >>> coming up, why no more classes will be added to a controversial war memorial in the east bay. >> a massive pol

as leslie brinkley reports, he now understands why employees are afraid to come to work. >> i object served an attack where a patient was attacking another, and five of the staff had to go in to intervene to bring this person down and medicate them. >> reporter: he was a former psych tech, but he was not so much shocked as he was impressed. >> i wanted a look at what was going on at the hospital. what i saw was you have really dedicated staff that are dealing with situations where they simply do not have enough help to get the job done. >> there have been 800 staff injuries here over the last two years including the murder of worker donna gross last october by massey. he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison last week, but the assaults continue. patients attacking staff and each other just the other night. >> several police officers were hit and another was assaulted within 24 hours. >> they welcomed alan's visit so he could look at the quality and service the staff survive and better understands the complexity of the hospital. >> there was a swarm of hospital police officers t

. >> in napa, leslie brinkley. >>> san francisco muni officials say they are weeks away from a plan to fire up to 48 muni drivers who are still working without the required commercial driver's license. the "san francisco examiner" report that some of the muni operators have been without a valid license for two years. despite the threat of termination, none have been fired. the new muni contract imposed in june gives the transit agency much more leeway in the issue. of the 48 operators without licenses some have let them lapse, some have let them suspend and others involved medical clearance issues. >>> this morning, san jose state university says 100 returning students who were bumped from dorms because of overcrowding are offered accommodations as a resort style hotel. the media partner, "san jose mercury news" reports the san jose state upper classman will have the option to stay at the clarion hotel, three miles from the downtown campus. the hotel has a pool, hot tub, spa, cable tv and weekly maid service. last month, some students were sent letters saying the university had a highe

in the newsroom, leslie brinkley, abc 7 news. >>> the news about jobs is not going over well on wall street initially here. since the announcement apple stock has fallen 5%. that is $19 a share or $18 billion in value in afterhours trading. $18 billion is roughly the same as the gross domestic product of paraguay as an example. >>> a police officer and security guard were wounded in a bank robbery at the wells fargo off fitzgerald drive as an armored truck drove up to pick up or drop off gas. >> reporter: a witness saw the gunman running from the bank. >> at first i thought he was okay but then there was something about him where i thought maybe he got hit. >> reporter: another witness was just walking out of the outback steakhouse. >> they let loose and shot him like seven times. i'm pretty sure he was pronounced dead on the spot. >> the chief of police said one of the robbery suspects was shot dead in the street and a police officer and a loom miss security guard were also wounded. >> my understanding is it was one shot that our officer took to the shoulder. he has been transported