Unemployment Steady at 4.2% -- In the face of DOGE federal government cutbacks, the economy added a healthy 228,000 jobs in March, the Labor Department reports Friday. Unemployment ticked up slightly to 4.2% (from 4.1% in February). Retail trade added jobs, but federal government employment did decline, according to the report. [CHART: Bureau of Labor Statistics.]
FRIDAY 4/4/25
UPDATE II: On its second-day reaction to President Trump’s draconian tariffs, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 5.5%, or -2,231.07, to 38,314.86. The tech-heavy NASDAQ fell 5.82% and the S&P 500 was off 5.97%.
UPDATE: The New York Stock Exchange was off another thousand points at the opening bell Friday morning. As of 10:11 a.m. ET, it had fallen 1,176 points, nearly -3%, to 39,343.29. The tech-heavy NASDAQ was off 3.76%.
China Syndrome – This is what retaliatory tariffs look like in a trade war. China announced overnight it will impose a 34% tariff on US imports in reaction to President Trump’s 20% tariff applied after midnight Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reports. Trump’s tariff piled on a 20% tariff already in place to make the total tax on incoming Chinese goods, which include “fast fashion” clothing and much of the stock in your local Walmart, 54%.
Director James Bridges’ 1979 film, The China Syndrome refers to a fictional result of a nuclear power plant meltdown in which the containment structures sink into the Earth “all the way to China.”
Wall Street still doesn’t like tariffs … Dow Jones and NASDAQ futures slid and bond prices rallied (spoiler alert: not a good thing) ahead of the market’s opening Friday, the WSJ reports.
--TL
_____________________________________________
Liberated Yet?
THURSDAY 4/3/25
UPDATE II: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 1,679 points, nearly a 4% drop Thursday.
UPDATE: The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 1,566 points, or -3.71% as of 11 a.m. ET Thursday, after the Trump White House’s “Liberation Day” tariffs announced Wednesday.
Red Thursday Comes – The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged (checking phone app) 1,409 points as of 10 a.m. Eastern Time Thursday morning, a 3.34% drop from the New York Stock Exchange’s opening bell some half-hour earlier. The tech-heavy NASDAQ was down about 4.5%. Stellantis, parent of the Chrysler brands, announced it is idling the Windsor, Ontario plant where it assembles the Pacifica minivan and the Toluca, Mexico plant where it assembles the Jeep Compass, The Wall Street Journal reports, but also announced about 900 layoffs in Michigan and Illinois factories.
Son of Smoot-Hawley … After Wall Street went home for the day Wednesday, President Trump announced tariffs on 57 countries and territories, on top of the “base” US tariff of 10%. Key tariffs include:
China: 34%
European Union: 20%
India: 27%
Pakistan: 30%
Japan: 24%
South Africa: 31%
South Korea: 26%
Switzerland: 32%
Vietnam: 46%
And Paul, too … Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Time Kaine (D-VA) co-sponsored a Senate joint resolution late Wednesday to effectively end President Trump’s “steep tariff on Canadian goods,” CQ Roll Call reports. It passed, 51-48, with Republican senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, joining Paul and all the Democrats to vote in favor. The House is not likely to take up the non-binding resolution.
The resolution calls out the Trump White House’s use of “emergency powers” to impose 25% tariffs on such Canadian imports as steel, aluminum, assembled cars and trucks and many other goods.
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa