Two-Day Sell-Off, Sec. Lutnick's Tariffs Message, Pres. Trump Slams the CHIPS Act 3/5/25

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Jim Cramer (1:29)

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.

Carl Quintanilla (1:36)

Good Wednesday morning. Welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla, Jim Cramer, David Faber at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Futures steady, on guard for anything after yesterday's roller coaster. The Commerce Secretary again, hinting there could be some tariff relief announced this afternoon. Meantime, the biggest drop in ADP payrolls in two years. A roadmap begins with this roller coaster ride in the markets. Nasdaq falling in and out of correction territory. Major averages wiping out their post-election gains.

David Faber (2:05)

President Trump talks tough on tariffs in his speech last night before Congress, saying Americans will feel a little disturbance. Plus, new comments from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who is saying a decision is expected this afternoon involving those existing tariffs now on Canada and Mexico. We'll try and work our way through all that. And we'll take a look at Tesla. Shares continue to come under pressure. Goldman Today cuts its price target on the stock.

Carl Quintanilla (2:33)

Let's begin with the markets after that sell off and rebound and sell off yesterday, Jim. We got some reports today that Trudeau and the president may speak today. Yeah.

Jim Cramer (2:42)

Look, maybe I'm in Alice in Wonderland through the lookiest world, but I heard a president last night that I think is intransigent and is in no mood to do anything other than raise tariffs to help the American people and to pay for things. And then I hear people walk it back. I read a conversation about next comments this morning on Bloomberg. I listened to the idea that might be a deal. I'm like, huh? I mean, I think the guy's doubling down.

I mean, did anyone listen to it? I mean, it was ferocious. The American people obviously love for it. They vote. The American people voted for ferocity. They got ferociousness. Why are we saying that lesser people who are involved in this cabinet are saying it could be a deal when the guy we heard last night, I think he's just saying, you know what? Not only are there no deals, but everyone is going to have to take pain. Agree. Especially shareholders, by the way.

David Faber (3:38)

Agree. Although the market is going to play off the comments from Lutnick, which again, 24 hours ago, he was on our network. He then went on a number of others, but frankly, parsing through exactly what's going on here is somewhat difficult. I mean, I'm quoting here where he's trying to clarify his comments in an interview. He said, the president is listening to the offers from Mexico and Canada and thinking about trying to do something in the middle. He's thinking and talking about it.

Jim Cramer (4:05)

But the companies.

David Faber (4:06)

I don't know what that means exactly. By the way, why would you put tariffs in place if you were going to, 24 hours later or 48 hours later, change them?

Jim Cramer (4:20)

Yeah. I don't think that Secretary Lutnick's where there's a bit of 50-year work around to have the global supply chain have a lot in Canada. If you do anything, what's going to happen is that affordable cars from the US, no, it'll be much more affordable by something from Korea, from Japan. It's going to shrink the new car volumes. Customers are used to affordability. I guess what I'm saying is that it's not about Mexico and about Canada. It's about our car companies and whether they'll be crushed by this.