CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Add To Severe Losses, China Announces Retaliatory Tariffs, US Economy Adds More Jobs Than Expected In February 4/4/2025

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

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

I'm Peter Schack, now CNBC. Stocks are getting slammed once again as investors respond to the latest round of tariffs announced by President Trump and the announcement overnight of retaliatory tariffs by China. The benchmark S&P 500 could end the day with its biggest weekly loss in more than five years since the beginning stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. I think this is the biggest policy mistake in 95 years. That's Wisdom Tree chief economist Jeremy Siegel, who nonetheless does see a bright spot.

The good news, I think the Fed is going to be lowering interest rates. I think they have to lower interest rates as a result of this global shock. Yes, there will be higher inflation to be sure, but this is a self-inflicted wound. And traders are indeed betting that the Fed will accelerate the pace of interest rate cuts in response to any economic damage inflicted by the tariffs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average down 980 points at 39,565, the S&P 500 taking a 2.7% hit or 146 points,

and the Nasdaq Composite tumbling 3.1%, 509 points. One bright spot this morning, the U.S. economy added 228,000 new non-farm jobs last month, well above the consensus forecast of 140,000. However, the unemployment rate did tick up to 4.2%. Among the stocks taking fresh hits this morning, deer is down 6 percent, while rival heavy equipment maker Caterpillar is sliding 5 percent. That comes following those retaliatory measures by China, and Apple is down 4 percent.

China accounts for about 80 percent of Apple's production capacity, and 90 percent of its iPhones are assembled there. Peter Schacht now, CNBC.