perry candidacy mean to that repuican field? it's "way too early" for this. good morning, i'm willie geist and this is way too early. the show that will make clear its intentions on saturday to terrific whiskey while watching the yankee game. i'm glad you're up with us this morning, watching on msnbc or listening live on sirius xm radio. shoot me an email or tweet me @williegeist1. we'll read the best responses later in the show. the next 30 minutes will be your cram session for this tuesday, august 9th. another very busy day today. we'll have a live update in just a moment on the overseas markets and what they mean for the day on wall street. plus, stephen colbert

reassuring the nation, starts to pack his survival kit after yesterday's selloff. the late-night reaction to the economic mess a bit later in the show. but first, let's get to the news live at 5:30 a.m. in new york city. from asia to europe to here in the united states, standard and poor's historic downgrade of the nation's credit rating is having a ripple effect on the world's financial markets. although that's only a part of this story. the front page of the "wall street journal" reads, downgrade ignite a global selloff. stocks resume free fall on fear over economic and credit woes. when the closing bell rang on wall street yesterday, the dow finished down 634 points, that's the sixth worst point loss in the index's history and the sharpest one-day decline since the 2008 financial crisis. the s&p 500 fell 79 points, while the nasdaq tumbled 174 points. those all big percentage jumps. to plunge followed earlier remarks from president obama, who reaffirmed his belief in the

strength of the nation's credit. it added that the ratings cut could be useful in future deficit talks. >> markets will rise and fall, but this is the united states of america. no matter what some agency may say, we've always been and always will be a aaa country. i realize that after what we just went through, there's some skepticism that republicans and democrats on the so-called super committee, this joint committee that's been set up will be able to reach a compromise. but my hope is that friday's news will give us a renewed sense of urgency. i intend to present my own recommendations over the coming weeks on how we should proceed. and that committee will have this administration's full cooperation. and i assure you, we will stay on it until we get the job done. >> fortunately, the president's remarks did not calm the markets. s&p president, devon sharpa,

welcomed the president's comments, calling his outlook on debt talks quote encouraging. later speaking at a democratic fundraiser in washington last night, president obama said he inherited many of the country's debt and deficit problems, a theme that's likely to dominate the 2012 campaign. republican presidential candidates pointed to the downgrade as latest sign that it's time for a change in washington and in the white house. >> the fact that we have not been able to deal with our challenges, does result, i think, from a lack of leadership. and leadership starts at the top. harry truman used to have what was it, the sign at his desk that says the buck stops here. this administration's sign should be, the buck stops somewhere else. >> for the first time in the history of america, the united states lost our top aaa rating. it didn't happen in the great depression, it didn't happen in world war ii, it didn't happen when we were engaged in korea or vietnam or in the middle east or

even during 911. but it happened under president barack obama. >> the downgrade in the market conditions are a reflection of a much deeper and bigger problems facing the country. and again, we've had a president who is asleep at the switch on the most pressing financial challenges of our country. >> the tim paw lenti there. in today's trading session, losses extended into a second day for asian and european stocks. while futures indicate another rough session for wall street. let's take an early look at the markets as we get all up in your business this morning. we turn to cnbc's steve sedgewick, live in london for us. what's the latest on the markets? >> the latest is at one point, the open of the european indices, we thought we were going to have a much better day. they went into positive territory. now let me gif you a list of the biggest markets in europe and how they're performing. london is down the best part of 3%. the german market, which obviously represents the biggest economies in europe, one that's doing really well, was down 5% yesterday, is down 4.3% today so

far. looking at the futures for the dow, the dow which closed down 5.5% in the 634 points yesterday, the dow is down again at start of trading, at the morning, .6 of 1% lower. it was down triple digits at one point. improving from the lower levels. >> so much of what's happening on wall street in the united states is tied to what's going on in europe. someone put it to me this way, that the countries are like our banks in 2008. in need of bailouts. is there even a european mechanism that could pull off something like that to bail out entire countries at a time? >> yeah. i mean that is the question of course we've seen bailouts for portugal, for greece, for ireland. but now we're getting to what is a stage of realization. either bigger countries nearer to the center of europe. the third and fourth largest countries in europe, italy and spain, which potentially need a lot more money put into them, if they are to service their debt commitments over the next couple of years. we're not talking about bailouts

of under $100 million. we're talking about bailouts of possibly up to $1 trillion put into the debt markets of italy and spain in order to see them service their debt commitments. there's question marks about that. that said, the markets are trying to find a line in the sand and they can't find it in the equity markets, at least not just yet. >> italy and spain, different than portugal and greece. what are you seeing outside as you come into work today relative to the rioting and london. >> i come in from way outside of london. i've had to alter my route twice over the last couple of days. it started off in localized events. now it seems to be spreading for a lot of areas. certainly where there are social challenges. clapham, south london, north london. there's a lot of outon the street who seem very disenfranchised. the politicians are calling them criminals, others are saying there are social issues beneath the surface which are causing

the big riots on the streets of london. >> steve sedgewick, we appreciate the live report from london. we'll get back to the riots in just a second. for more on the markets and what can be done to get us back on track. we turn to "new york times" columnist, co-anchor of cnbc's squawk box, andrew sorkin. the dow down 634 points yesterday, politicians at home, you heard some of the republican presidential candidates linking it directly to the downgrade. but the problem obviously much bigger than that. what's at the root of this? >> take a deep breath. i had a conversation yesterday with hank paulson, a former treasury secretary, who knows a thing or two about financial crisis and we discussed this. as much as the downgrade seems like the problem, it's not clear that that's it. it's exacerbating the bigger problem, which is what you talked about earlier, which is europe. and the possibility that that creates some form of contagion. as you said, this idea that all of these countries, spain,

italy, greece, they're all like banks that are insolvent. and how do you find enough money to put it together to save these banks? and there isn't a hank paulson or a one institution that can almost unilaterally do this. in the case of europe, you need everybody to get together and politically, as we've seen even in our own country, it is so very difficult on the downgrade side, it's exacerbating it because people are reading the papers, they're watching what we're talking about. they're calling their brokers saying, oh, my goodness, i can't believe this is happening. in reality, if you look at what's happening in the bond market. treasuries rallied yesterday. yields went down. that means that investors actually thought that treasuries were a better bet after the s&p downgraded them than before. >> that's the great irony of all of this. treasuries, people now rushing to them, despite what the s&p said. andrew, i read what hank paulson said on the deal book, he suggested that he saw this as a

moment perhaps where the united states could come together once and for all and do something about the root problems that are causing our economic woes. but given what we've seen over the last couple of months, the fight over the debt ceiling, what did he say about that? >> ha was the saddest part about that. he did see it as a moment to get our own house in order and the super committee when they come back from vacation, for them to do something big and bold. having said that, the question is, can it be a balanced approach? can taxes and revenue be on the table? is that off the table now? and how does that all work. and really ultimately, what do we do about europe, because that's really the pressing problem. and i don't think sadly, he had an answer for that. >> we need bipartisan change, but we're hamstrung by our own politics. andrew ross sorkin. appreciate it. as the uk faces its third straight day of fighting in the streets, british police struggling to put a stop to the rioting, which is now spreading beyond london. and into liverpool, bristol and birmingham. today's "daily telegraph" calls

the violence, the rule of the mob. the "guardian" newspaper, the battle for london. just south of london, rioters are burning buildings to the ground, including a 140-year-old furniture store. that's been a landmark in that city. as far out as birmingham, teens are looting stores and protesters taking bats to vehicles that have been left in the streets. in liverpool, riot police facing off with protesters who are hurling rocks. overall, more than 450 people have been arrested so far. police say at least 100 are under the age of 21, dozens have been injured, including 35 police officers. the riots broke out in tottenham on saturday, after protests over fatal police shooting turned violent. but as steve sedgewick pointed out, there's probably a lot more going on here than just one shooting in tottenham. we turn to 2012 politics, texas governor rick perry reportedly expected to announce his candidacy for the white house on saturday. politico reports that perry will remove any doubt about his

presidential intentions in a planned speech in south carolina. the announcement falls on the same day as perries first trip to new hampshire and the iowa aims straw poll, where perry's news, if he jumps into the race on saturday would swamp whoever wins the iowa poll. still ahead on "way too early," incredible surveillance video. tornado that leveled the town of joplin, missouri, in late may. bill karins brings us the new look at the storm and gives us a check of the forecast in a few minutes. plus one more reason to be grateful the nfl came back from the lockout. without it, we'd be watching players wrestle fans for balls inside basketball arenas. look at that guy. that video and the night in baseball when "way too early" comes back.

at the bel air home of director roman polanski, police continue their investigation of the five slayings. the telephone lines that were cut presumably by the murderers were restored. ostsers were combing the deep terrain in search of the weapons used. police said the actress's husband had not visited the home and was in seclusion. ♪ let me entertain you ♪ let me make you smile ♪ let me do a few tricks ♪ some old and then some new tricks ♪ ♪ i'm very versatile

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welcome back to "way too early," it's 5:45 in the morning here on the east coast. a look at the beautiful live picture 69 united states capitol. let's bring in nbc meteorologist bill karins. bill, before we get to the forecast, this new video of joplin, missouri. >> it's not often you see 200-mile-per-hour winds go through a high school cafeteria. that's the scene here. these are all the interior shots from the cameras from the joplin high school. that's down the hallway. the most impressive video is coming up as it tears through portions of the cafeteria.

that's just a sad state of the high school. there's the cafeteria, as you watch, all of a sudden the chairs and desks and everything comes tumbling database. they're not going to get this high school cleaned up in time. they'll start this upcoming school year at the mall. one of the bigger facilities they can have for the high school students. let's show you what's happening out there today, nothing like that thankfully. the forecast does have thunderstorms in it today for areas of the east, including new england and the mid-atlantic, bau we won't deal with those until late this afternoon. showers and storms rolling through areas like erie, pennsylvania and pittsburgh and up towards buffalo. the clouds will increase, keeping temperatures down a little bit. hartford, new york and philly will be in the mid 80s, instead of the 90s. d.c. should barely sneak into the low 90s. widespread thunderstorms in the southeast and in dallas, we'll have another 100-degree today, we'll top it off at 106. but there's a little hint of niceness, minneapolis, 77, low humidity.

some of the nice cool air that will arrive in new england come thursday, friday. be prepared for two gorgeous days. >> beautiful. let's turn to sports, the phillies shane victokviktorreno pair of giants players expected to get suspensions, received only fines. the phillies taking on the dodgers last night in los angeles, roy halladay getting out of trouble in the sixth with a strikeout. then in the ninth, shane victorino going to give phillies a little breathing room, with a solo home run to right. his 12th of the season. the phillies win 5-3. roy halladay becomes the national league first 15-game winner. the red sox in minnesota against the twins, boston down 5-2 in the sixth when big papi, the former twin crush as two-run home run, ortiz with a four-hit night. the very next batter, jared

saltalamacchia goes back to back, a solo home run to the right field seats for salty. the red sox come back to beat the twins 8-6. the yankees had the day off so boston goes up a game and a half in the a.l. east. if you need a reason tore thankful that the nfl is no longer in lockout. look no further than arena football. this is a playoff game. the jacksonville sharks and the georgia forest, you throw out the records when these two teams get together, during the dpirkt kickoff, georgia's returner grabbed by a fan before he could even get out of the end zone. the fan puts the bear hug on johnson, wow. and -- the players congratulate the fan for helping them. come over to congratulate him on the assist, jacksonville is penalized in the play. no one seems to care, the sharks, let's just watch this one more time, the sharks going on to beat the forest, 64-55 in a defensive struggle.

now for all your thailand premiere league soccer league news, navy goes up two goalings a collision at the net. the player takes a little poke at the goal keeper. wow. who delivers a swift kick to the chest. that was no joke. soccer players flop. this is no flop. i'm being told it was kind of a flop. the refs come over, goalie having none of it. welcome to thai soccer, apparently. coming up at the top of the hour on "morning joe," a day after the dow dropped 634 points, ben bernanke and the fed meet today to see what options they have left to slow the losses on wall street. we'll have the latest on this economic slide. and when we come back we'll huddle around the water cooler to watch stephen colbert attempt to calm the nerves of a jittery nation with his words, if not by

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yesterday's market drop ranks among the top ten worst ever for u.s. stocks, we're making a habit of these historic selloffs over the last two years. if you want to sound smart today, tell your friends that seven of the ten biggest point drops in the history of the dow jones industrial average have occurred in the past three years, eight of the declines have taken place over the last decade. all right enough of the real news for now let's huddle up around the water cooler to get the fake news reaction to yesterday's freefall of the dow. jon stewart weighs in first. >> maybe standard and poor's are incredibly tough graders, are there other countries who still have aaa ratings. >> everyone from australia to denmark to germany, the netherlands, sweden, the united kingdom and even the isle of mann off the coast of the uk. >> ouch. we're below the isle of mann? this place?

♪ that place has better credit than we do? there's no industry there, they just horse around in the pool all day. i'm being told that's mann island, not isle of mann. >> folks, there is nothing to worry about. on wall street, cooler heads always prevail. >> you can see the dow jones industrial averages down almost 300 points. >> down more than 400 points. >> the dow is now down 500 points. >> down nearly 600 points. >> down 631 points. >> wall street spending yet another day in what's being described as freak-out mode. [ laughter ] >> don't panic! everything is fine! i'm just, i'm just down here looking for my emergency hobo satchel. okay. now remember, folks, just remember, just remember, over

the long term, stocks always increase in value. okay? this is just a temporary correction. okay? there is no need to lose confidence in the system. and yes, yes, perhaps, perhaps we're experiencing a wee bit of a contraction here, but do not pull your money out of the stock market just yet, okay? just get in there, just get in there, get in there. >> always close with the live chicken. well done. still ahead on "way too early," why are you awake? your gold-buying tweets and texts are moments away. [ female announcer ] so you think your kids are getting enough vegetables?

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better than old friends. at ally bank, we treat all our customers fairly, with no teaser rates and no minimum deposit to open. it's just the right thing to do. one of the things that the s&p cited when making this downgrade decision was all the political problems we saw in congress in getting everyone to agree to raise the debt limit. >> the tea party will not budge on tax cuts and right here, s&p is saying that kind of rigid position was a major reason for the downgrade. >> also you've got the external situation, the rest of the world also not in great shape. the final factor was monetary

policy, that's the federal reserve and its decision on interest rates. >> you're suggesting our political system is reckless, populated by ideological children, well you don't watch the sunday morning news shows. my friend. >> this is without question, the tea party downgrade. >> on the other side of the aisle had been unwilling to reform the problems. >> a tea party downgrade. >> the debt and senator you voted to increase the debt limit. >> the debt already -- >> if this were -- >> president obama would be fired, the corporation -- >> gentlemen, gentlemen -- >> shut up! just shut up! i'll spray you like the dogs in my neighborhood who hump for pleasure and of course, profit. >> that's one way to look at it here are the top three stories here on msnbc.com. riots spreading to third british city as we told you at the top of the show, it's not just london any more. the third night of rioting in london has thread spred to the three other city, b