Sell-off on Wall Street deepens on inflation worries, with Dow closing 700 points down: Live updates

The stock market appears to be on more solid trading after weeks of choppy trading, according to Piper Sandler chief market technician Craig Johnson.

“We believe the weight of the technical evidence suggests an intermediate-term low may be in place despite the heightened uncertainties surrounding tariffs and inflation. While the path to a more meaningful recovery is often not a straight line upward, it appears that equities have found some footing off the March lows from which to build upon in the upcoming weeks,” Johnson said in a note to clients.

One positive technical sign is that the S&P 500 has “found support on a test of its bullish gap from Monday at 5,670,” Johnson wrote. Breadth indicators have also improved, according to Piper Sandler.

— Jesse Pound

U.S. stocks are lagging most foreign markets, data compiled by Oppenheimer’s trading desk shows.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) has dropped more than 3% so far this year. Meanwhile, the average country’s exchange-traded fund has gained more than 8%, Oppenheimer found.

Oppenheimer reported that the S&P 500 ETF currently ranks 39th out of the 45 country funds it tracks.

SPY ETF, year to date

CRWV

Cryptocurrencies tumbled with equities to finish out the week.

The price of bitcoin was last lower by more than 3% at $83,850.80, according to Coin Metrics, putting the flagship cryptocurrency on pace for its first three-week slide of 2025 as concerns around Trump’s tariff push rocked markets in March. It’s just under the flat line for both the week and the month.

Ether dropped 6% to $1,875.16, tracking for a 5% weekly decline and a loss of 15% for the month. It’s heading for its fourth negative month in a row — its longest such slide since late 2018.

— Tanaya Macheel, Nick Wells

The S&P 500 is on track for its first negative quarter in six, with just two business days left in the first quarter of 2025, according to Deutsche Bank.

The broad market index is down 4.9% year to date. Tariff uncertainty has weight on stocks, with the S&P 500 down 1.8% Friday after consumer sentiment data for March missed expectations, while February’s core personal consumption expenditures price index was hotter than economists had forecast.

— Hakyung Kim

U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke Friday. The Canadian readout of the discussion called the conversation “very constructive” but warned that Carney’s administration would push back against any additional tariffs from the U.S.

“The Prime Minister informed the President that his government will implement retaliatory tariffs to protect Canadian workers and our economy, following the announcement of additional U.S. trade actions on April 2, 2025,” the readout said.

Carney became prime minister earlier this month, replacing Justin Trudeau. A federal election in Canada is scheduled for April 28 and will determine whether Carney stays in the top role.

— Jesse Pound

Rick Rieder, BlackRock Senior Managing Director, Chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income, speaking at the Delivering Alpha conference in NYC on Sept. 28th, 2023.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Rick Rieder, BlackRock’s chief investment officer for global fixed income, said Thursday that a rocky start to the year for Wall Street could tamp down economic growth.

“We came into the beginning of this year, it was all about animal spirits. And it seems like it has moved to animals in hibernation from animal spirits. And that can translate into a bit slower growth for a couple of quarters,” Rieder said on “Closing Bell.”

The stock market has struggled so far in 2025, with the S&P 500 down 3.2% year to date. Surveys of investors and small business owners also show that confidence has dropped in recent months.

— Jesse Pound

Check out some of the companies making headlines in midday trading:

• Rocket Lab — Stock in the aerospace manufacturer gained 3% after the U.S. Space Force listed the company as one of the firms entered in its pool of launch providers.
• Braze — Stock in the cloud software company added 6% after beating analysts’ estimates in the fourth quarter on the top and bottom lines. Braze reported adjusted earnings of 12 cents per share, while analysts surveyed by FactSet were looking for 5 cents. Revenue of $160.4 million also beat the $155.7 million forecast from analysts. 
• Lululemon — Shares of the athleticwear company plunged more than 14% after the firm issued 2025 guidance that disappointed analysts. The company said consumers are spending less due to economic and inflation concerns, resulting in lower U.S. traffic at Lululemon and industry peers.

Read the full list here.

— Brian Evans

Raymond James believes lower growth will drag down shares of Lululemon, despite the athleticwear maker’s acceleration in innovation.

In a Friday note, analyst Rick Patel downgraded shares of Lululemon to market perform from outperform. He also removed his previous $430 price target.

Shares of Lululemon have slipped 11% this year and nearly 13% over the past 12 months.

LULU YTD chart

Patel pointed to slowing growth in the U.S. as a major catalyst for the downgrade.

“This was prompted by lower U.S. traffic in F1QTD due to an uncertain consumer. LULU already has self-help initiatives underway through accelerating innovation. But despite favorable initial reads from recent product launches (improvement in conversion, average order value, units per transaction), the U.S. remains challenged and is only planned to grow modestly in FY25,” he wrote. “Net, we’re on the sidelines looking for more conviction on upside to reset expectations.”

— Lisa Kailai Han

President Trump said Friday morning that he had a positive conversation with new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

“It was an extremely productive call, we agree on many things, and will be meeting immediately after Canada’s upcoming Election to work on elements of Politics, Business, and all other factors, that will end up being great for both the United States of America and Canada,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

Trump has shared hopes of making Canada a U.S. state and referred to Carney’s predecessor as “governor.”

— Alex Harring

Despite Friday’s slide, Tesla is on track to end its longest weekly negative streak on record.

While the electric vehicle stock lost more than 3% during the session, it is still up more than 6% on the week. If that holds, it would mark its first positive week of the past 10.

Tesla, 5 days

Shares have been on a record-setting weekly losing streak amid mounting pressures on Tesla and Elon Musk, its chief executive who is also running President Trump’s controversial government efficiency initiative. Despite this week’s pop, the stock is still down more than 34% in 2025.

— Alex Harring

Customers shop for produce at an H-E-B grocery store in Austin, Texas, on Feb. 12, 2025.

Brandon Bell | Getty Images

The University of Michigan’s final read on consumer sentiment for March came in at 57, slightly below a Dow Jones estimate of 57.9, as inflation expectations reach multidecade highs.

“Long-run inflation expectations surged from 3.5% in February to 4.1% in March, reflecting from a large surge among independents plus a sizable rise among Republicans,” Surveys of Consumers director Joanne Hsu wrote. Expectations have not been that high since early 1993.

“This month’s decline reflects a clear consensus across all demographic and political affiliations; Republicans joined independents and Democrats in expressing worsening expectations since February for their personal finances, business conditions, unemployment, and inflation,” Hsu said.

— Fred Imbert

Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:

• Lululemon Athletica — Shares tumbled more than 11% after the athleisure retailer’s 2025 guidance came in weaker than expected. Lululemon forecasts first-quarter earnings in a range of $2.53 to $2.58 per share, compared to the $2.72 expected by analysts polled by LSEG. First-quarter projected revenue of $2.335 billion to $2.355 billion was also lower than the $2.39 billion consensus forecast. However, fourth-quarter results beat on both sales and profit.
• U.S. Steel — The stock jumped nearly 5% after Semafor reported that Japan-based Nippon Steel is willing to invest as much as $7 billion in the American steelmaker to obtain President Donald Trump’s approval for their merger.
• Bausch + Lomb — The eye health company pulled back more than 4% a day after it announced a “voluntary recall” of certain implantable eye lenses following reports of complications. Wells Fargo downgraded shares to equal weight from overweight in a Thursday note, citing the recall.

The full list can be found here.

— Hakyung Kim

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 26, 2025. 

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

President Donald Trump warned top automaker CEOs not to raise prices in response to tariffs during a call earlier this month, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The president reportedly said any increases would be looked upon unfavorably by the administration. The warning disturbed some of the executives and left them concerned they would be punished if they hiked prices, the Journal said, citing people with knowledge of the call.

On Wednesday, Trump announced 25% tariffs on “all cars that are not made in the United States,” to go into effect April 2.

—Michelle Fox

Wells Fargo downgraded shares of Bausch + Lomb to an equal weight rating from overweight in a Thursday note.

Simultaneously, analyst Larry Biegelsen reduced his price target on the stock to $15 from $24. Shares of Bausch + Lomb closed at $15 on Thursday, slipping more than 4% during the day’s session after announcing a recall of its enVista intraocular lenses over potential safety concerns due to an increased number of reports of toxic anterior segment syndrome.

BLCO 5D chart

Biegelsen cited this recall as the main catalyst for the downgrade. “enVista was an important growth driver and BLCO’s main entry into the fast growing premium IOL segment,” he wrote.

The analyst added that he believes enVista products will eventually return to the market, although it’s still uncertain how long the issue may take to resolve. He also predicted that the product would most likely lose market share.

“We believe the enVista recall and limited visibility on impact/timeline further complicates the outlook and will likely keep BLCO shares range bound. As such, we are stepping to the sideline on BLCO,” the analyst wrote.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Michael Intrator, CoreWeave CEO appears on CNBC on July 17, 2024.

CNBC

February’s personal consumption expenditures price index is expected to a show a 0.3% increase last month, and a 2.5% rise from 12 months earlier, according to economists polled by Dow Jones.

The PCE price index reading is due out Friday morning.

— Sarah Min

Stocks could stage a major comeback after April 2, much as they did in 2018 when investors last sought clarity on the tariff front from President Donald Trump, according to Fundstrat’s Tom Lee.

“The odds of a V-shaped recovery in stocks that come after April 2 is just extremely high because we’ve already sequenced a lot of the panic that people saw in 2018,” Lee said Thursday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.”

If that’s the case, Lee expects the “Magnificent Seven” stocks could outperform. As an example, he noted the recent recovery in Tesla, which is up nearly 10% this week after coming under pressure this year from CEO Elon Musk’s involvement with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The electric vehicle stock is still off by 32% in 2025.

“I think if Tesla is leading us into this balance, that’s a bold case for Mag Seven to be the group to own in the next few months,” Lee said.

— Sarah Min

Here are the stocks making the biggest moves in extended trading.

• Lululemon — Shares tumbled 10% after the athleisure company issued a weaker-than-expected first-quarter outlook, even as fourth-quarter earnings and revenue topped analysts’ expectations. Lululemon forecasts first-quarter earnings in a range of $2.53 to $2.58 per share, compared to the $2.72 expected by analysts polled by LSEG. First-quarter revenue of $2.335 billion to $2.355 billion was also lower than the $2.39 billion consensus estimate.
• Braze — Shares surged about 9% after the customer engagement platform posted fourth-quarter results that beat analysts’ expectations. Braze posted adjusted earnings of 12 cents per share, topping the FactSet consensus estimate of 5 cents in earnings per share. Revenue of $160.4 million also exceeded the $155.7 million expected by analysts polled by FactSet.

— Sarah Min