CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Higher, Investors Digest 25% Auto Tariffs, GDP Solid For 4th Quarter 3/27/25

Episode Date: March 27, 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 Heddinger CNBC Wall Street has swung around and turned higher this morning. The Dow is up 47 points. It's being led higher by shares of Verizon which are up almost 2%. The S&P 500 index now up 11 points. The NASDAQ also in the green now up 36 points. Nvidia shares still in the red. They're down a third of a percent. And carmaker shares are still lower this morning. General Motors down 8 percent. Stellantis, the parent of Jeep,

down 5 percent. Ford shares are down 4 percent. As investors got a surprise in President Trump's announcement of auto tariffs on any car or light truck not made in the U.S. A lot of people thought this was going to be just on finished autos, but now it's actually on autos and auto parts. His new 25 percent auto tariffs will begin to be collected on April 3rd and will be applied to imported passenger vehicles, including sedans, SUVs, crossovers, minivans, cargo vans and light trucks.

And they'll also apply to key automobile parts, including engines, transmissions, power train parts, and electrical components. Now, last year, the US imported 46% of the nearly 16 million sold in this country. This is a president who views these tariffs as a way to restructure American manufacturing, and by extension, American society in some

ways and generate revenue for Treasury against his proposed tax cuts. CNBC's Eamon Javers. Here's Mad Money host Jim Cramer and CNBC's Carl Quintanilla. This is a classic left wing issue in that this is the hard left UAW calling for this. And I think it's kind of intriguing that the president is agreeing with the hard left UAW. Oh yeah, UAW has come out with statements of support. Of course, they're arguing for high paying jobs,

which is gonna make the end product a little more expensive. Is it not? Exactly, yes it will. Solid economic growth for the fourth quarter of last year. The third and final read of US GDP, that's gross domestic product, a measure of the nation's output of goods and services. It's out but the holiday quarter slipped from Q3 of last year. On the GDP of course this is our third time around the block. Previous quarter was 3.1, 2.4. So 2.4 is our final read. CNBC's Rick Santelli, 2.4% is still a healthy growth rate. Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week than expected, 224,000 right around the pre-pandemic average. Economists

don't expect the federal workforce job cuts to show up until severance ends for those workers. Health and Human Services jobs to be slashed. The Wall Street Journal reporting that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. planning to significantly cut the size of his department according to documents viewed by the Journal. He plans to reshape the nation's health agencies, close regional offices, lay off 10,000 full-time workers. Those layoffs are in addition to the roughly 10,000 employees who opted to leave the department since President Trump took office.

CNBC's Joe Kernan. Copper prices hitting record highs amid the tariff anxiety. New tariffs are anticipated in the coming weeks. That could impact the home builders and in turn would be new construction home buyers. Major League Baseball opening day is here, 28 teams and 14 games today. It's also the start of the Sweet 16 in the men's NCAA college basketball tournament.

Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. April 8th, join the CNBC Changemakers Summit featuring powerful women transforming and redefining leadership in the world of business. Request an invite at CNBCEvents.com slash changemakers.