CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Lower, But Off Earlier Lows, US Pauses Mexican Tariffs 2/3/25

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

From 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. Anchored by CNBC's Jessica Ettinger.

I'm Jessica Edinger. CNBC stocks are recovering somewhat this afternoon from the morning plunge as Mexico says President Trump has paused tariffs on Mexican goods being moved into the U.S. just hours after he said he was imposing tariffs. As of midnight tonight, the Dow down 123 points. It had been down 600. It's being led lower by shares of Apple, which are down almost 4%. The S&P 500 index down 46 points and the Nasdaq is down 230 points. That's a little more than 1%. Shares of Nvidia are down 3% this afternoon. I mean, investors overall view the whole kind of tariff momentum as kind of a war of choice that they would prefer not to have to play. But you're going to have to navigate around

it and it's going to hover over this market, too. So I think that's the other interesting part. You're never going to basically relax entirely that this is going to go away. CNBC's Mike Santoli. There are companies whose shares have hit new record highs today, including Olive Garden parent Darden Restaurants, O'Reilly Auto Parts, and grocery chain Kroger. Mexico gets that pause on tariffs for a month before they even start. Mexican troops at the border in exchange for the U.S. trying to stop the flow of weapons into Mexico. The U.S. is the biggest supplier of guns for cartels there. One third of this trade war at least appears to be on pause. That news came out of Mexico first with President Claudia Scheinbaum saying she had a good

conversation with President Trump. That's very different from what happened with Canada. We know that Trump has also been in touch with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau once today. He posted on True Social after that, really not seeming pleased with how the conversation went and said that he would talk again with him at 3 p.m. today. So we had known earlier this morning that talks were going better with Mexico than they were with Canada. Paused or deferred on one end and still in play on the other. And I would also just add, we don't know of any conversations ongoing with the Chinese government today. CNBC's Megan Casella in Washington. For up to the minute trade war developments, you can check CNBC.com and the CNBC app. Super Bowl week is on in New Orleans. There's an opening night party tonight at the Superdome. I'm Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. CNBC, live ambitiously.