CNBC Business News Update - Market Close: Stocks Mixed, Investors Bracing For Tariff Announcement, Gas Prices Spike 4/1/25
Episode Date: April 1, 2025From Wall Street to Main Street, the latest on the markets and what it means for your money. Updated regularly on weekdays, featuring CNBC expert analysis and sound from top business newsmakers. Ancho...red by CNBC's Jessica Ettinger.
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I'm Jessica Edinger, CNBC.
Wall Street opens Wednesday morning after a volatile start to the first day of trading
for April and of the second quarter and ahead of the Trump tariff rollout.
Markets were mixed with the Dow down 11 points, led lower by shares of Johnson & Johnson,
which tanked 7.5%.
The S&P 500 index up 21.
The NASDAQ was up 150 points, eight tenths of a percent.
Nvidia shares were up more than one and a half percent.
President Donald Trump set to begin the biggest gamble of his second term, betting that the
broad-based tariffs on imports will jumpstart a new era for the U.S. economy and will generate
revenue to extend or increase the 2017 corporate tax cuts.
The tariff announcement comes Wednesday afternoon from the Rose Garden at the White House.
Investors are bracing for it. A lot of clients that I've talked to at Raymond James just don't
want to be caught offside because the president has a history of big bold announcements,
negative market reactions, and then changing his mind. Clients can't invest in that environment,
and businesses cannot plan in that environment,
and other governments don't know what this president wants.
There is going to be months upon months
of uncertainty related to tariffs.
We still have to brace for that.
That's Raymond James, Ed Mills on CNBC.
Here's CNBC Mad Money host Jim Cramer.
I think it's inflation, inflation, inflation.
And I think the tariffs are inflationary and that that's what people are really thinking
about.
And I think that's extending to our market, which therefore means that there's not as
much spending, which means that consumers pull back, which means you've got to be careful.
Big Pharma waiting to see what the White House says about tariffs on prescription drugs.
A third of all drugs prescribed
in the U.S. are imported. Many generics come from India and China. And you may not realize where
most of the big brand name drugs that are imported are made. Ireland is the main hub. That country
represented 20 percent of pharma imports in 2023 per ING. Germany, Switzerland, those are other
hotspots. Last year, the U.S. imported at
least $127 billion of pharmaceuticals from European countries. That's according to data
from Import Genius. And that makes medicine our largest European import. So we talk about
other things like wines and whiskeys, but it's really pharmaceuticals that is the biggest
imports. CNBC's Angelica Peebles. The labor market remains solid in the US, although job
openings slipped in February in the new Joltz report on job opportunity and labor turnover.
They fell from 7.8 million open positions in January to 7.6 million. Meantime, job cuts
at the US Department of Health and Human Services and the FDA's tobacco director
has been forced out. In all a reduction of workforce of about 20,000 people. Gas
prices are higher up 10 cents a gallon in the past month. This is the time of
year that summer blends start to roll out. They are more expensive. AAA says
the national average for a gallon of regular is now $3.20.
Mortgage rates ticked lower. Bond yields fell. The average rate on a gallon of regular is now $3.20. Mortgage rates ticked lower.
Bond yields fell.
The average rate on a 30-year fixed home loan is 6.7 percent, according to Mortgage News
Daily.
On Wednesday's watch list, it's all about tariffs Wednesday afternoon, but Tesla will
report first quarter deliveries.
Earnings are coming from RH, Restoration Hardware and Blackberry. We get March
private company hiring numbers in the ADP employment report and we get a
forecast for retail sales for the full year from the National Retail Federation.
Jessica Erringer CNBC.
April 8th join the CNBC Changemakers Summit featuring powerful women
transforming and redefining leadership in the world of business.
Request an invite at CNBC events.com slash changemakers