Market Sell-Off: The Trump Tariffs Effect 2/3/25

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Jim Cramer (0:43)

It's Jim Cramer here. You're listening to the opening bell of CNBC's Squawk on the Street. Don't miss a minute of the action.

SPEAKER_4 (0:51)

No, no, I'm not going to say it. We may have short-term, a little pain, and people understand that. But long-term, the United States has been ripped off by virtually every country in the world. We have deficits with almost every country. Not every country, but almost. And we're going to change it. It's been unfair.

Carl Quintanilla (1:12)

That is the president announcing tariffs on imports from the country's biggest trading partners.

SPEAKER_4 (1:17)

Good Monday morning.

Carl Quintanilla (1:17)

Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with Jim Cramer, David Faber at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks are selling off, of course, as the street really guesses as to whether or not these tariffs truly take effect tonight and for how long. Let's begin with the global sell-off. The president has signed an executive order to impose 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico. Canadian energy 10%. Same for Chinese imports. Canada and Mexico have threatened retaliatory measures. Trump is expected to talk with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts later today.

Jim, your thoughts are going into this incredibly busy week.

Jim Cramer (1:53)

Well, first, he said this over and over again. And if you didn't take him seriously, I don't know what you were thinking. This is what you elected. You elected this. You elected the idea that we have too many people coming from Mexico. You elected the fentanyl. You elected that we have a strong stand against China. Did you elect the Canada? And that's a little bit more, that's a little harder to understand. But I just think, well, what were you worried about other than the fact he was going to do this? So the market was way too high. But even last night, as soon as this came out, Nasdaq was down 2.6%.

Now it's come back. I think it has to revisit that level, David.

David Faber (2:35)

Why do you think it has to revisit that level?

Jim Cramer (2:36)

Well, because I think people are just waking up and saying, what the hell? What am I doing? No, but I saw someone this morning.

David Faber (2:42)

Well, I wake up every morning.

Carl Quintanilla (2:45)

It ends in Y, that's what we're saying.

David Faber (2:46)

It has nothing to do with the market.

Jim Cramer (2:48)

I was watching someone on Frank's show this morning, 5 o'clock, and the person was basically, she was like an end of the worlder. I'm not an end of the worlder.

Carl Quintanilla (2:56)

Of course not.

Jim Cramer (2:57)

I think it's going to be a rough day. The market was at one point off a percent and a half of the high. Take it in. Just suck it up.

David Faber (3:06)

There is still an argument that I continue to hear that the president is a negotiator. He's coming big. He always does early and then he's going to ultimately back off. But I don't know.

Jim Cramer (3:19)

I have a view.

David Faber (3:19)

There is something curious about this in the sense of it, certainly as you raise it with Canada, it's just not clear to me exactly why. I think many people are also wondering why Canada in the way and what they can do to truly alleviate the burden because it has to do with fentanyl. But I don't know. Listen, I've got to look into more of the numbers. You hear how many pounds of fentanyl were transported across the border. 47 pounds that were found. Obviously, yeah, it's an enormous border, 47 pounds. By the way, fentanyl is a terrible crisis. That alone could kill 9 million people.

We've had 100,000 people a year dying from opioid. There's no doubt that that's a crisis that we have to deal with in a more effective way. But I don't know that this is it. And I'm curious as to what it's going to mean in terms of our relationship with Canada and what they can possibly do to get out of it.