CNBC Business News Update - Market Close: Stocks Close Worst Week in 5 Years, Tariffs Continue To Weigh On Sentiment, Boeing Faces Day In Court 4/4/2025

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

The latest in business, financial, and markets news and how it impacts your money, reported by CNBC's Peter Schacknow

I'm Peter Schack, now CNBC. Investors are hoping for better results this coming week than they saw this past week, which saw the markets tumble following the announcement of new tariffs by President Trump and a subsequent retaliatory action by China on Friday. Huge sell-offs Thursday and Friday resulted in the worst week for Wall Street since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Friday saw the Dow lose 2,231 points to close at 38,315. The S&P 500 tumbled 6 percent or 322 points. That is the worst day for both the Dow and S&P since June of 2020. And the Nasdaq slid 5.8 percent or 963 points.

The tariff news makes it more likely that a recession will occur, according to Jason Furman, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. We have just so much uncertainty now. Record amounts. How much does this matter? How do these tariffs get resolved? I think they're just so crazy that we're not going to have them two months from now. On the other hand, I didn't think we'd have them now. Peter Buchvar, chief investment officer of Bleakly Financial Group, says the impact of the tariffs on economic activity will have far-reaching effects.

Economic activity is just coming to a halt. So that then puts into question, what are the earnings estimates actually going to come in this year? I would have to believe they're going to be less than what is currently estimated and also the P.E. multiple. Why should we pay 20 times earnings in this economic situation? And I think the net result is lower stock prices. On the calendar for Monday, Jetmaker Boeing will be in court in a trial involving the 2019 crash of a 737 Max jet in Ethiopia.

Apparel maker Levi Strauss releases its quarterly earnings, but investors will be particularly interested in what the company has to say about tariffs, which would hit clothing makers hard. And Monday is National Beer Day, celebrating the anniversary of a 1933 bill that put beer and wine back on the market, ahead of the full end of prohibition later that year. Peter Schacht now, CNBC. Get tomorrow's big stock stories delivered to your inbox tonight when you subscribe to prohibition later that year. Peter Schack now, CNBC.