CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Lower, S&P 500 Index Poised For Its Worst Q1 In 3 Years, Gold Hits Fresh All Time High 3/31/25

Episode Date: March 31, 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 lower as investors are jittery before President Trump's tariff day on Wednesday. Asian markets tanked on worries of a global slowdown led by the U.S. This after Friday's ugly sell-off for stocks. Today is the final trading day of the first quarter. The major averages are on pace for a losing March and are all lower for the year. The Dow is down 373 points. The S&P 500 index down 85 points. That's one and a half percent. And the Nasdaq is now down 426 points.

That's two and a half percent. We did go down 10.8 percent in the S&P and it seemed like the president relented. This seems like an president relented. This seems like an angrier president. I don't get the sense that he's not only not thinking right now about the market, I question whether he's thinking about the people who voted for him. CNBC mad money host Jim Cramer, the S&P 500 index poised for its first losing first quarter in three years, down at least five percent compared with last year's 10% gain.

Goldman Sachs, the latest investment house to declare that tariffs will spike inflation, raising the risk of recession. Gold hitting a fresh all time high already today. It's on pace for its best first quarter since 1986. Gold traditionally holds its value in tough economic times. Investors are betting that the U.S. economy is heading for problems. First quarter growth is forecast to stall at three-tenths of one percent in a new CNBC

survey on GDP, gross domestic product. The country could enter a period of stagflation, a stagnant economy with high inflation. President Trump, meantime, says he won't rule out seeking a third term in the White House, telling NBC News there are methods to do so. Air Canada has trimmed flights to the U.S. for April. Air Canada, year over year in April, the flights will be down 9 percent. Some have said, well, is that because nobody is booking trips? Well, there may be some influence

there in terms of Air Canada flights. 9%, again, is not the end of the world, but it is worth noting, and that's strictly Air Canada. We're not really seeing this drop off with other carriers, the big American carriers in terms of U.S. Canada flights. CNBC's Phil LeBeau, the nation's top vaccine expert. Dr. Peter Marks is leaving the Food and Drug Administration as a former FDA commissioner tells CNBC that HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr.'s dismantling the U.S. vaccine enterprise just as measles spreads.

23 states. I think the scope of the outbreak is much larger in West Texas in what's being reported. There's perhaps thousands of cases there. We'll have to see what happens this week in states like Kansas and Ohio, whether those measles outbreaks tip and we start to see many more cases accelerate in those states. The WHO put out a warning over the weekend giving travelers a travel advisory about coming to the United States.

We have to get this outbreak under control within the next 10 months or so to make sure we don't lose our measles elimination status, which could have some profound impacts on advisories related to travel to the United States. Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb on CNBC. Home shopping network and QVC, Parent QVC group, cutting about 900 jobs as it attempts a turnaround according to Retail Dive.

Amazon MGM's blue collar drama, A Working Man, won the weekend box office. 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.