P.M. Edition for Mar. 10. Stocks fell after President Trump’s refusal yesterday to rule out a recession. WSJ markets reporter Hannah Erin Lang discusses whether today’s stock selloff was just about the president’s remarks. Plus, the U.S. is a leading arms exporter, and Europe is a big buyer. But as reporter Alistair MacDonald explains, Trump’s policy towards Ukraine is making some in Europe reconsider buying arms from American companies. And Utah is set to become the first state to ban fluoride in its public water supply. WSJ national affairs reporter Kris Maher discusses why it may not be the last. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: Why are markets reacting to U.S. recession concerns?
— Markets slide as concerns about a recession in the U.S. grow. Plus, President Trump's policy on Ukraine is worrying European buyers of American weapons.
Chapter 2: How is Trump's Ukraine policy affecting European arms buyers?
— European officials looking at what's happening and thinking, if the U.S. is willing to cut off weapons delivery so suddenly and cut off all that comes with that, such as maintenance and spare parts, then is it a safe bet for us now?
And why states want to remove fluoride in public water. It's Monday, March 10th. I'm Alex Osola for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. Stocks slid today as concerns about the U.S. economy tipping into a recession grew.
As we mentioned in this morning's show, during an interview on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures, President Trump refused to rule out the U.S. entering a recession this year. In contrast, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told NBC News, quote, there's going to be no recession in America. All major U.S. indexes ended the day lower. The Dow dropped by nearly 900 points, closing down about 2 percent.
Chapter 3: What factors are influencing the current stock sell-off?
The S&P 500 fell 2.7 percent. And the Nasdaq plunged by 4 percent as big tech companies extended their sell-off, its largest one-day percentage decline since 2022. Tesla's stock lost about 15 percent, its worst day since 2020. Shares of the other Magnificent Seven stocks — Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, and Meta — fell between 2 and 5 percent.
For more, I'm joined now by Hannah Aaron Lang, who covers markets for The Journal. Hannah, is all this just about the president's comments or are there deeper worries here?
It's a little bit of both. One thing that did seem to really rattle markets today were those comments that Donald Trump made over the weekend. Of course, we had Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, later say that there will be no recession in America today. But it does seem there was damage done from those Trump comments.
And it wasn't so much his answer specifically as much as what it signified about his approach to policy and how he's thinking about markets in his second term. And what does it signify? These comments, and also just the last few weeks on Wall Street, have signaled what looks like a real shift in how investors are thinking about Donald Trump and his presidency and the economy right now.
In the weeks immediately following Trump's victory, investors were pretty thrilled about what Trump could bring for the That carried through to the new year. Even as Trump was inaugurated, started overhauling the federal government, started to threaten tariffs, there was still that sense of enthusiasm.
But I started to notice a shift when that first round of tariffs on Canada and Mexico first took effect earlier this month. Of course, there were changes shortly after. But what I called money managers and market watchers the day that that first implementation happened, there was this Kind of shock I heard from the folks I talked to.
There's this sense that all of this tariff talk and these threats had been a negotiating tactic or all bluster. And some of the reactions I heard were, I can't believe he actually did it. So that's a little bit of what's happening right now is that investors are starting to realize that Trump might not be as fraudulent
friendly to or as concerned about the stock market as they had initially wanted or hoped for. And then layered on top of that, you have some broader concerns about the health of the U.S. economy.
That was WSJ reporter Hannah Aaron Lang. Thank you, Hannah.
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Chapter 4: How are tariffs impacting the lumber industry?
Thank you for having me.
Lumber producers have migrated from Canada to the American South. Now, lumber's futures trading is moving south too. The exchange operator CME Group has said it would launch trading in southern yellow pine futures on March 31st. Ryan Dezember, who covers commodities for the journal, joins me now. Okay, Ryan, why is this happening?
Well, this has been discussed by the exchange operator and traders for a long time as the south has become the sort of top lumber producing region in the continent. And why now? The price of the lumber that's coming from Canada, northern species, the price has risen pretty dramatically and separated from the price of southern yellow pine. It's like 50, 60 percent higher now.
And a lot of that is being driven by the duties that are existing on Canadian wood that is shipped into the U.S. And, of course, Trump's tariffs, which he said he's going to put 25 percent on top of those existing duties.
What will this mean for U.S. producers?
This would give them something to hedge production, like a corn farmer might buy corn futures to lock in prices, and a food company might trade futures to protect their prices of the corn that they're buying. Same thing for lumber.
And this would give them a tool to do that that's a lot more relevant to what they're doing than the existing lumber futures, which is a contract that's fulfilled by northern species of wood, predominantly from Canada.
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Chapter 5: Why is Utah banning fluoride in public water?
That was WSJ reporter Ryan Dezember. Ryan, thank you.
Thank you.
Utah is set to become the first state to ban fluoride in the public water supply after Governor Spencer Cox said he would sign a bill to do so. The Utah law is set to take effect in early May. That's just one state considering rolling back efforts to add fluoride to water. In 2022, about 63% of Americans had tap water with fluoride in it. But now that number is shrinking.
In Florida, at least 23 cities and counties have removed fluoride since September. And eight of 12 states mandating fluoridation face bills ending those requirements. For more, I'm joined by WSJ National Affairs reporter Chris Marr. Chris, what is at issue here exactly?
So the opposition to fluoridation really ramped up last year. There was a report by a group called the National Toxicology Program, which is part of the federal government. And they took a look at some human health studies involving fluoride. And their conclusion, which they said was with moderate confidence, was that
The greater the fluoride exposure, the lower the IQ scores for youth that had been exposed or their mothers had been exposed. And then a month later, a federal judge told the EPA that it had to take some action because of the findings of this study. But for a long time, the mainstream belief was that there were no problems with this whatsoever.
It was effective at helping to prevent cavities, tooth decay. A lot of dental groups, the American Dental Association, some health organizations were In fact, the EPA and the CDC have always been in favor of fluoridation, and the CDC has considered water fluoridation one of the top health achievements of the 20th century.
And what is the Trump administration saying about this?
Back in the fall, when the federal judge told the EPA that they had to take some sort of action, the EPA had said that it was going to be filing an appeal. But that was before the Trump administration came in and Robert F. Kennedy became the top health official in the United States. So it's unclear right now what position the Trump administration is going to take.
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