SOTS 2nd Hour: Tesla’s Stock Surge, Cooling Trade Tensions, Live: World Bank President 04/23/25

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David Faber (1:02)

Market insight and analysis. You're listening to the opening bell of CNBC's Squawk on the Street.

Carl Quintanilla (1:14)

Good Wednesday morning, welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with David Faber here at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Sara Eisen, once again, live from the World Bank down in DC this hour. Adding to yesterday's gains, Dow back to back, thousand point gains in place, S&Ps up 3%. I mean, amid these reports this morning that the White House is considering cutting tariffs on Chinese imports after the president's comments yesterday. And Sara, best in just a few moments.

Sara Eisen (1:43)

Yep, also happening in DC this hour, guys, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson. As you mentioned, Carl, speaking at the IIF Global Outlook Forum, that's the group of global banks. As we digest these new headlines on China, we'll bring you the headlines throughout the show from the Treasury Secretary. But I'm here today at the World Bank, which is host of meetings of finance ministers and central bankers from around the world. They usually get almost 200 of them. In just a few minutes, we'll sit down with the head of the World Bank, the boss here, Ajay Banga. It's the perfect time to be having these conversations. Why? Well, just like you're seeing the thumbs up in the markets right now on these more market-friendly trade headlines, last night President Trump saying we're going to be friendly in a trade deal with China. This morning, the headlines from the Journal about de-escalating these tariffs to try to thaw the situation, and then Eamon Jabber clarifying that that would be done in concert with China over some sort of negotiations. All of this is more toward the things are going well on the trade deals and negotiations front, which is soothing the market, but it's also giving people here a sigh of relief. Why? Because it affects everybody. What happens between the US and China, what happens between these other countries and the US in terms of bringing tariff rates down. So we've got the perfect guest, David, in the World Bank, in order to talk about the impact that it's having on some of these developing market countries, the asset prices and what that's doing to these countries. I mean, everybody's here. Rachel Reeves, for instance, the Chancellor of the Shecker, the Finance Minister of the UK, just getting into the US. She's got pressure to bring a draft deal to meet with Secretary Besant here at the IMF. I mean, that's what's happening behind closed doors in this building. There's just this extra urgency where we're not just sitting around talking about productivity and inequality and how to deal with AI. We're talking about getting things done, trade deals done with this White House and with this administration.

David Faber (3:42)

Okay. Thank you, Sara. Obviously, Sara will be with Ajay Banga shortly. Let's get you some housing data that just crossed the tape. Rick Santelli has that for us. Rick.

Rick Santelli (3:52)

Yes, David. These are March read on new home sales, expecting a number a bit below 700,000, seasonally adjusted, annualized units. It's stronger, 724,000 and a slight revision to last month, which puts this up over 7% for the month of March. And here's something notable. This is only the second reading that tops 700,000, seasonally adjusted, annualized units in almost two years, almost two years because this comps all the way to May of 23, May of 23 And if you recall, this morning we had Mortgage Bankers Association inform us that up till the 18th of April, the rate on a 30-year mortgage was a bit under 7% at 690 We all know there may be inventory issues to new home sales. This might be whittling them down a bit. And for more information regarding this number, let's head east to Diana Olick. Diana?