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U.S. Markets Open Down After Trump Pauses Most Tariffs; U.S. Inflation Cooled in March, But Tariff Pressures Remain; Tech Giants Donated Big Dollar to Trump, Now They're Out Billions. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired April 10, 2025 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:30:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Arguably, one could argue China might suffer more because it's already faced some economic headwinds in recent years. But that doesn't mean both sides don't suffer. So, there's incentive there for some sort of accommodation.

The final thing I'll say, Kate, is something I've heard from a lot of folks is that the Volodymyr Zelenskyy moment in the Oval Office is something that was a cautionary tale to China. They do not want to put their president if and when Trump and Xi do meet at some point in an embarrassing situation where if he's not publicly berated, he's at least surprised. They want things lined up and buttoned up before they would allow their leader to meet with President Trump. They're not going to go into that meeting with a bunch of open questions. So, that's another hurdle to get over before you could get to what Trump says is his ambition of a face-to-face with Xi Jinping.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. And also kind of speaks to -- I don't know if it's a disconnect, but two very different approaches. Donald Trump loves to negotiate in public and you know that Xi Jinping would like it to be much more behind that. I mean, and just speak to that because those two different approaches, those are two drastically different approaches to negotiations that we could be seeing.

SCIUTTO: 100 percent. From the Chinese perspective -- and, by the way, this used to be the American perspective, right, is that the principles don't meet until you already have the agreement, right, that at the lower level, you were working out the details and the principles get together for the signing ceremony. Trump is the reverse of that. I mean, if you look at the Kim Jong-un meetings during his first term, you had three of them and didn't get anywhere, right? There was no agreement in the end, China's not going to play by those rules, at least for now. They got to know what's happening before they send the leader of 1.3 billion people to meet face-to-face with Donald Trump.

BOLDUAN: It's great to see you, Jim. Thanks for coming in, buddy.

SCIUTTO: Good to see you.

BOLDUAN: John? JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the breaking news just moments ago, let's try to show you here. The opening bell rang on Wall Street. This is where stocks stand at the moment. You can see the markets opening lower this morning, that after the huge gains yesterday, just the whiplash, the back and forth over the last few days. Yesterday, saw huge gains. Today, a little bit more tempered. You can see the Dow down more than 1 percent, the NASDAQ down nearly 3 percent, the S&P down 2 percent.

Let's get right to CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich live I think at the markets. Vanessa, maybe backing off a little bit, all the ambulance from yesterday.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well this is to be expected. Yesterday was the best day on Wall Street in 16 years. I spoke to traders after the closing bell, and they said it was very much a good day. Anytime the Dow closes up nearly 3,000 points, that is a good day.

But I think they expected that we would come back to reality, and that is what we're seeing here today on Wall Street. As you mentioned, the Dow down about more than 600 points, and you have the NASDAQ down about 500 points, S&P is down about 125 points right now.

I spoke to an analyst, Ross Mayfield, earlier today and just asked what is the expectation for today and this week going forward. And he said he believes that sort of investors are getting this reality check, very much realizing that we are still in the middle of a trade war. Even though those reciprocal tariffs have been pulled off, we are still seeing a very high tariff with China, 125 percent, those auto tariffs at 25 percent, steel and aluminum tariffs. And then, of course, that 10 percent universal tariff across the board. So, still here, there is a sense of uncertainty.

A 90-day pause is obviously incredibly welcome, but at the same time, traders here realize that these countries are going to have to negotiate with the United States, and they don't really know sort of where the president's benchmark is, what do they need to do in order to make sure these reciprocal tariffs don't go back into effect?

And especially with China, I heard from an analyst this morning who said that, are there other options on the table for China? Is there a deal to be made with TikTok or the Panama Canal? Those are things that investors and traders are going to be watching today, just trying to see what other news comes out of the White House and out of the administration. That could very much dictate, John, what these markets will look like today.

BERMAN: It takes a little bit of intestinal fortitude right now to be in the markets. You can see down after the open, after the big gains yesterday.

Vanessa Yurkevich down on Wall Street, thank you so much for being with us.

We're going to keep our eye on the markets over the next several minutes and talk to people about what they're seeing and what it means. This is CNN News Central.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:35:00]

BERMAN: All right, a live look at the markets, they opened just a short time ago. You can see losses across the board, around 2 percent or a little bit higher. This falls just a huge day on Wall Street yesterday. It also follows some good news this morning on inflation, a six-month low.

With me is Kai Ryssdal, host and senior editor of Marketplace, very good to see you this morning.

Let's talk about what we're seeing right now on Wall Street. With the market opening down about 2 percent across the board, after those gains, what is that investors are waking up to? How do they feel this morning? What kind of hangover is there?

KAI RYSSDAL, HOST AND SENIOR EDITOR, MARKETPLACE: Well look, there is a hangover but I think, John, the thing to look at is not equities, right? Equities go up, equities go down. Yesterday was a blip and we all know why it happened. Look at is the bond market, right, and what the yield on the ten-year has been doing, because that's what got President Trump to pull back yesterday. You know, the reporting is that he had a meeting with the treasury secretary and Kevin Hassett of the Council of Economic Advisers, and they said, look, the bond market is telling you can't keep doing this.

[09:40:03]

And when the bond market reacts, that's what motivates things to happen. And that's the thing to look at, right?

Equities, up and down. Today will be a down day because the hangover has worn over, right? Equities are going to go where they're going to go. I think you got to look at the bond market.

BERMAN: Well, let's look at the bond market. I mean, what do you think it is telling us or will tell us today?

RYSSDAL: So, here's the deal. Yesterday, what happened, and the reason that this all happened, was that bond investors were worried about the future security, number one, of the American economy, right, the biggest and most important economy in the world. But what happened was that in times of stress, people go to safe havens. American treasuries and the American dollar are the safest thing in the world, right? Even paradoxically, when bad things happen in the American economy, people want to own the dollar and they want to own American debt.

Yesterday, that stopped happening. That stopped happening. And when people look at that and go, oh my goodness, people don't want the safe haven, then people get really, really nervous. Yields spiked right at a time when stocks were going down yesterday morning early. And so people become concerned when the dollar and the bond market aren't what people want. That's just a not a good sign.

This is not about the dollarization. It's not about the reserve currency. It's about right now or yesterday morning and what was happening then.

BERMAN: And very quickly, the inflation numbers, what impact will they have going forward?

RYSSDAL: Well look, the inflation number is good on the face of it. As Richard Quest said earlier, though, it's falling because, number one, the economy is slowing, but also you got to look at the core number because that's what the Fed looks at. It was 2.8 percent and that's not a great number for the Fed.

BERMAN: All right. Kai Ryssdal, thanks so much for being with us. I have a sense we're going to talk to you again because this whole thing, it's not over.

All right, this morning, some of the president's biggest donors are seeing the greatest losses from his tariffs policy. What tech giants are saying this morning after losing trillions of dollars,

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:45:00]

BOLDUAN: We're going to show you a live look at the stock market. Right now you can see opening in the red to start the morning as President Trump's tariffs continue to concern investors and confuse consumers. Wednesday saw one of the best days for the market in well over a decade. This came in response to President Trump's decision to backtrack, to put a 90-day pause on his targeted tariffs on pretty much everyone else except for China.

This morning, we have been speaking to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle about this backtrack and what they think it means. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETH BENIKE, CEO, BUSY BABY: The news yesterday is almost feels like the nail in the coffin for us.

BOLDUAN: Tell me why.

BENIKE: I have products in China right now produced ready to ship. They were supposed to get on a boat yesterday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Oh, all right. We're going to -- I'm going to play that one for you in just a second. Here are the lawmakers we're talking about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D-OR): I don't know if it's genius to produce convulsing stock markets in a distressed bond market. I mean, normally when there's a selloff in stocks, people move their money into bonds, which means that the interest rate drops, but in this case, the reverse.

This was a massive signal that the world was losing faith and the stability and the logic of the U.S. market.

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R-FL): And this was the strategy all along. Try to reestablish a new base and a new reality for commerce around the world with the United States. For far too long, we've been taken advantage of and the president wants that stopped. And this was his strategy all along. And so I think he's doing just fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now to talk about the political impact of all of this now, CNN Political Commentators Karen Finney and S.E. Cupp, S.E. here with me in studio.

S.E. from the White House, we heard this is strategic economic genius. The reporting suggests that the president was spooked by the bond markets is what we saw. John was just talking to economists who said very much the same. Trump's approval rating also took a really big hit when all of this was setting in. Politically then, do you see it as no harm, no foul? I'm not saying economically because there is clearly impact, but politically, I don't know.

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No. I think this was politically disastrous. And it's hard to tell what market force got Trump to back down finally, because that's not like him. And we won't know, because as you said, he'll say, this is how it was always going to go and claim victory, but something spooked him. Your last guest said it was the bond market, maybe the stock market, which saw trillions, with a T, evaporate over this week.

Maybe it was polls. His approval numbers are really down, especially on the economy, his like signature policy area. Republican lawmakers you just played. We're going home and hearing from very angry and anxious constituents. They know the political ramifications of this. His investors, his own donors, from Bill Ackman to Elon Musk even, reportedly saying, you got to walk this back. This is terrible.

So, I haven't seen a moment like this in politics where there were so many overwhelming rebukes at one time coming from inside the House. That's not even bringing in like conservative media and, you know, his favorite folks. Everyone was coming together to oppose this. It's really hard to see which one thing got him to finally back off.

BOLDUAN: It is also interesting because there was I think it was J Mart (ph) had some great reporting of some saying -- an adviser close to Trump saying we've never -- we don't know how to deal with Trump that's committed to something, like he's always been ready to make a deal.

[09:50:03]

And now I'm not in -- now -- that was a couple days ago. Now, I'm not sure where we end up.

But, Karen, if markets are breathing a sigh of relief, so are Republicans, you would have to think. I mean, as Richard Quest had put it, this 90-day window that they have now is exactly where they should have began in trying to renegotiate trade deals.

With that in mind, how should Democrats handle this?

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, a couple of things. I mean, I think as the clip that you were, you first played about the small business owners. The markets -- we may be in slightly better territory and we have this 90 days, but Americans are still very concerned. I mean, the chaos and pain of the last week or so is still very much still in the system in terms of what people are feeling. And as we saw last weekend, people were already angry about DOGE. They're angry about a number of things that the president has done.

So, I think this is a moment for Democrats where we need to galvanize the anger, the fear, the concerns that Americans have, and, number one, make it clear Republicans are doing this. If Republicans in Congress had stood up to Trump last week, we could have avoided some of the worst of what we saw last Friday where he's golfing. And, you know, it felt like America's economy was exploding.

And so I think it's really an important, and it's usually -- you know, it's hard sometimes to delineate between the two parties on different issues, but Americans trust Democrats when it comes to things like protecting healthcare, protecting, you know, a number of the critical services we know are potentially on the chopping block in the budget that's going to get voted on or the blueprint today. And so I think this is a moment where they can really frame, we are for economic sanity. This president and this Republican Party are for chaos and pain, and they're not being honest with you about what it's really going to take to bring manufacturing jobs back.

BOLDUAN: Well, I did want to play what we're hearing from business owners, small business owners, because what it -- we just, I just spoke with two of them last hour, and the way they talk about what just the uncertainty of this moment has meant for them is very real. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENIKE: The news yesterday is almost feels like the nail in the coffin for us.

BOLDUAN: Tell me why.

BENIKE: I have products in China right now produced ready to ship. They were supposed to get on a boat yesterday and come to America. And I can't ship them because what would've cost me maybe $30,000 with a reasonable tariff now is going to cost me almost $200,000. And I have to have that money when the products get to customs, and I don't have that, nothing close to that. It's not even reasonable.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BOLDUAN: She says she's got four months of inventory and then she might be wiped out. What is that message -- what is the message in that to the White House and politicians on both sides of the aisle here?

CUPP: Well, that message is really clear. I don't know that Donald Trump is very moved by these kinds of stories. He should be for politics. But when it comes to the economy and politics, they're both a confidence game. And if you've got folks like these small business owners, I don't know, they might have voted for Donald Trump. But now they have this economic uncertainty. And that uncertainty affects consumer confidence and it impacts political confidence in a party. Do these people know what they're doing?

And if he can be this erratic, this impulsive, you know, when is the end of that? I don't think we've seen the end of tariffs. I think you're going to feel those ramifications politically and economically.

BOLDUAN: That's a really interesting way of putting it.

It's great to see you S.E.

CUPP: You too.

BOLDUAN: Great to see you, Karen. Thank you very much. John?

BERMAN: All right. Just a short time from now, the House of Representatives is set to try to take the next step on a budget. This is supposed to be kind of the easy part. Mike Johnson says he have the votes, the House speaker does. We'll find out pretty soon if he does.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:55:00]

BERMAN: This morning, President Trump's tariff policies have hit some folks who've been supportive of him really hard. The tech companies founded or run by Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have lost a collective $1.8 trillion in value so far.

With us now, Clare Duffy, CNN tech writer and host of CNN's terms of Service with Clare Duffy podcast. It's kind of a lot of money for these people.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: It is a lot of money, and these are the guys who sat front and center at the inauguration. Presumably they had hoped that their support of Trump would be good for their businesses, but that is not how things have played out, at least in these first three months of his presidency. These companies, in the case of Meta, have lost tens of billions of dollars since the start of this year in market value. In the case of the others, it's hundreds of billions of dollars in market value so far.

And that has a lot to do with the uncertainty around these tariffs. And the loss in share price and value has also affected many of these guys' personal net worths, none more so than Elon Musk who donated at least $290 million to Trump's campaign. He has now lost $107 billion, with a B, in net worth since the start of this year. So, these guys who supported Trump are really now seeing their personal pocketbooks hit by some of these policies.

BERMAN: Does it have an impact on the consumer? Is it something that would trickle down to what we buy or what we use?

DUFFY: I mean, look, a lot of these tech companies are core to the markets. They make up a huge part of the market. So, a lot of our 401(k)s are going to be taking a hit when the value of these companies fall. And I think the question will be, in the case of an Apple or a Tesla, will they potentially pass along the cost of some of these tariffs down to the consumers? That remains to be seen, but I think that's a real likely situation.

BERMAN: What are the issues surrounding the iPhone? People are -- you know, everyone always says, look, when it starts to get to the iPhone, then people are going to care.

DUFFY: Yes. Well, the iPhones really are produced in large part in China, and, of course, we know that is the one country where tariffs are remaining quite high despite the pullback that we saw yesterday. And the concern is that the iPhone is already pretty expensive. And Apple is struggling to get consumers to upgrade every year. That takes a hit to its bottom line. And so the question is, if the iPhones get even a little bit more expensive, if Apple passes on some of the cost of those tariffs to consumers, will people be able to get the latest technology?

BERMAN: Elon Musk was very public in his tweets about these tariffs, at least in attacking Peter Navarro about it, and everyone knew where he was there. These other leaders, have they been public?

[10:00:00]

DUFFY: We have not heard from these other leaders on this issue yet. You know, I think it'll be interesting to see as we potentially see some of these tariffs come back, whether they might speak up, especially Apple, because Apple really does sort of the heart of this conversation. But so far, they're staying pretty quiet on this.

BERMAN: Fair enough. Great to see you this morning. Thank you so much for sharing your reporting on all this.

BOLDUAN: That is a good point because CEOs of other types of companies, they are speaking out about what they're dealing with and pulling back on the productions.

BERMAN: They got some numbers. They can call if they want to.

BOLDUAN: You think so?

Thank you all so much for joining us. This is CNN New Central. The Situation Room, up next.