P.M. Edition for Mar. 6. Markets dipped and Nasdaq closed in correction territory. WSJ markets reporter Sam Goldfarb talks about what’s got investors on edge. Plus, demand for nuclear energy is growing, but as science reporter Eric Niiler tells us what to do about the U.S.'s’ radioactive waste is a persistent problem. And books reporter Jeffrey Trachtenberg joins to discuss why publishers of nonfiction books are increasingly skipping the paperback. 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 U.S. stocks tumbling?
The U.S. grants tariff exemptions for certain goods from Canada and Mexico. Plus, stocks sink as trade policy changes make investors anxious.
There's also just the uncertainty. It potentially unnerves businesses. They don't know what's in the future, so it's harder for them to plan, harder for them to make investments.
And what can the U.S. do with its nuclear waste? It's Thursday, March 6th. 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. We start our show with the latest developments on President Trump's tariffs. The White House said today that the U.S.
will pause tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada that comply with the North American Free Trade Pact until April 2nd. that have disrupted markets and strained relations with close allies. A White House official said the exemption will cover about half the imports from Mexico and more than a third of imports from Canada. Any tariffs already paid since Tuesday will not be refunded to companies.
Chapter 2: What caused the Nasdaq to close in correction territory?
In a later address from the Oval Office, Trump said that his decision to roll back some tariffs on Mexico and Canada was unrelated to the volatility they caused in US markets. The day-to-day changes in the White House's tariffs policy did spook the markets. The tech-heavy Nasdaq closed in correction territory, falling by about 2.6 percent.
The S&P 500 tumbled roughly 1.8 percent, and the Dow dropped about 1 percent. The reaction in the markets is a sign that 2025 isn't going as some investors had hoped. At the start of the year, they were optimistic. The economy was strong and a market-friendly administration seemed poised to roll back regulations.
Chapter 3: How are tariffs affecting investor anxiety?
Instead, today's market performance is a continuation of the recent dip, which shows that investors are more anxious. WSJ Markets reporter Sam Goldfarb is here to tell us more. Sam, what is underpinning investors' anxiety?
It's largely one word, which is tariffs and uncertainty about tariffs, which is changing day by day, hour by hour. It does seem that U.S. tariffs on a broad array of goods coming from a broad array of countries are going to be going up. And so that's one thing that investors are a little queasy about because the fear is that Those tariffs, the cost of those will be passed on to consumers.
Then consumers might pull back spending a little bit. Either that or the businesses will have to accept smaller profit margins if they don't pass on those costs. So either way, it's not great for stocks. And then there's also just the uncertainty. It potentially unnerves businesses. They don't know what's in the future. So it's harder for them to plan, harder for them to make investments.
Chapter 4: What are investors doing in response to market volatility?
So investors have all this anxiety. What are they doing as a result?
In short, selling riskier assets like stocks and buying safer assets like gold and U.S. government bonds. That's kind of like the standard playbook for when they're concerned about at least a slowdown in economic growth, even if we don't have a recession. So yields on U.S. government bonds have fallen since January and the price of gold has gone up.
You know, you write that so far the worst economic reports have been confined to soft data like confidence surveys. How significant is that? What does that mean for the prospect of a recession or a slowdown in growth?
So, you know, I guess it's step one. And because they could signal that the hard data, like the jobs report that we're going to get on Friday or the incoming months could turn worse. Sometimes the soft data doesn't translate to the hard data. People might be saying that they're not feeling great, but they actually just keep on spending. That's happened a little bit in recent years.
So we'll just have to see.
That was markets reporter Sam Goldfarb. Thank you, Sam.
Thank you.
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Chapter 5: How is the U.S. trade deficit changing?
The U.S. trade deficit surged in January as imports grew much more than exports. According to Commerce Department data out today, imports rose 10 percent to about $401 billion, while exports climbed by 1.2 percent to roughly $270 billion. That resulted in a deficit of about $131 billion, which was 34 percent greater than the deficit in December.
I'm joined now by Matt Grossman, who covers economics for the journal. Okay, Matt, break it down for us. What is driving this growth and the deficit?
Chapter 6: Why did U.S. imports surge in January?
A lot of economists think that what's going on is companies in the U.S. that rely on goods from overseas, whether that's products that they want to sell to American consumers or things that they need for their factories to create goods in the United States.
Those companies saw tariffs coming and in anticipating that, many of those companies really ramped up their imports in January, thinking that tariffs would come into play down the line.
So where do we go from here? Was this just potentially a one-off?
It's a little bit hard to say. These data are more than a month old now, and we're going to have to wait a couple months to see how the tariffs that went into place this week affected the trade balance in March. Often the exchange rates between countries adjust, and that's another layer that affects the decisions that companies and shoppers make about where to buy things from.
This is really a new world. So it's going to be very challenging for economists to see what's coming. And that's why data like this are so important.
That was WSJ reporter Matt Grossman. Thank you, Matt.
Thank you.
And in companies reporting today, Macy's said it expects sales to decline again this year, as even affluent customers wait to see how swirling tariffs and inflationary pressures hit the economy. Speaking of retailers, we've got another bonus episode for you today.
In What's News and Earnings, we take a look at American retailers and how the industry is grappling with a growing list of issues, including tariffs, cautious consumers, and still high inflation. You can find it in the What's News feed just before this episode. Coming up, what should U.S. nuclear power plants do with their waste? That's after the break.
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