CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Higher, Crude Oil Prices Lower, More Private Sector Jobs Created In February Than Expected 3/4/26

Episode Date: March 4, 2026

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 and reported by CNBC's Jessica Ettinger. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I'm Jessica Eddinger. CNBC Wall Street ticking into the green, trying to make up for some of this week's losses. Out of the gate this morning, crude oil prices are a little bit lower following the surge. That happened as the Iran conflict unfolded. The Dow is up 65 points. The S&P 500 index up 25 points. The NASDAQ now up 172 points. Checking shares of Nvidia, they're up a little more than 1%.

U.S. crude oil down about a half a half. percent sitting around $74 a barrel. Bitcoin back above $71,000. That's still down about 40 percent from its recent record high. Gold is higher today up 1 percent at about $5,175 an ounce. Investors are reminded to take a long-term view as history shows U.S. stocks tend to recover from military action. If we actually go back 40 years and look at all the strikes from the U.S. in the U.S. the region. So Middle East, North Africa, we include Libya, Operation Desert Storm, all of these, whether they're very short, like what we saw in the summer of last year or something like Operation Desert Storm, much longer. After eight weeks from the initial strike, U.S. equities are actually

up about a little over 4 percent, and they're positive 95 percent of the time. That's Goldman Sachs Sharman Massivar Romani on CNBC. Investors like slightly better. jobs data today. Private employment picked up more than expected in February with 63,000 new jobs, according to data from payroll firm ADP. Most of the jobs were with businesses that had fewer than 20 employees. It was in construction and education and in healthcare, which has been now the new stalwart and from small businesses. In fact, very small businesses. One to 19 created 58,000 of those job gains. But this has been a very frozen labor market. It's more defined by its low fire, low higher inactivity than for its vigor. And most of those gains, they're low paying jobs.

ADP chief economist Neela Richardson on CNBC. Investors are brushing off the announcement on CNBC that President Trump's global tariffs will rise from 10 to 15 percent as soon as this week on everything coming into America. Here's CNBC. Joe Kernan with Treasury Secretary Scott Besant. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant telling us that President Trump's 15% global tariff will probably be implemented this week. That's likely sometime this week. And again, that's under something called Section 122. And that's 150-day authority. And it's my strong belief that the tariff rates will be back to their old rate within five months. And those are very fulsome authorities that provide they have survived more than 4,000 legal challenges.

They are more slow moving, but they are more robust. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik voluntarily agreeing to testify before the House Oversight Committee about his ties to sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, according to Republican Representative James Comer of Kentucky. Senate Democrats working on legislation to possibly break up the U.S. meat packing industry as the government tries to curb record high beef prices. The World Baseball Classic begins tonight. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. Take the Bull by the Horns every morning with Jim's Top 10.

Write to your inbox. Sign up now for free at CNBC.com slash top 10.