With one more trading day left in March, Wall Street is poised to turn in terrible monthly and quarterly declines after another terrible week. Economic and inflation uncertainty created by President Donald Trump ‘s tariffs — both implemented and threatened — are largely to blame. Cracks in the AI trade were also a factor, with the latest knock coming from CoreWeave ‘s scaled-down initial public offering that also priced below expectations at $40. Shares of the company, which rents Nvidia chips to customers for artificial intelligence workloads, opened at $39 in Friday’s debut. The stock traded as high as $41.92 but closed unchanged at $40. CoreWeave was the biggest U.S. tech IPO since 2021. Friday’s ugly session — driven by a hotter-than-expected inflation reading and broad tech stock weakness — pushed the S & P 500 down 1.5% and Nasdaq down 2.6% for the entire week. The S & P 500 teetered on the edge of going back into correction territory, as measured by a decline of 10% or more from its most recent high. The Nasdaq dipped further into correction, now down almost 14.3% since its recent high. As of Friday’s close, the S & P 500 slid nearly 6.3% in March, while the Nasdaq sank 8.1%. Both were tracking for their worst monthly performances since late 2022. Looking at the first quarter to date, the S & P 500 dropped 5.1% while the Nasdaq plunged 10.3%. Both are on pace to break their five-quarter winnings streaks and turn in their worst quarters since early 2022. There are no Club names reporting earnings this week — and it’s going to be a quiet week for quarterly reports overall before we start hearing from the banks in the middle of April. However, developments on tariffs and a slew of jobs data are the two things to watch in the week ahead. 1. Tariffs : It’s a big week: Wednesday, April 2, is the day Trump said reciprocal tariffs would go into effect. These are tariffs against U.S. trading partners that put levies on American imports coming into their countries. There has been some jockeying ahead of the deadline, with the president himself indicating last week there may be some room to negotiate. Bloomberg reported that the European Union is looking at concessions it could make to blunt Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs. Temporary exemptions on already-imposed Canada and Mexico tariffs, covering imports covered by the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), are also set to expire Wednesday. Last week, Trump announced 25% tariffs on autos and auto parts “not made in the United States.” Those are due to go into effect Thursday, April 3. The Wall Street Journal reported that during a call earlier this month with top automaker CEOs, Trump warned them not to raise prices in response to tariffs. Responding to a question about that during an NBC News interview Saturday, the president said, “I never said that. I couldn’t care less if they raise prices, because people are going to start buying American-made cars.” Among the other tariffs that are already in effect include levies on imports from China as well as all foreign steel and aluminum imports. 2. Jobs, jobs, jobs : In addition to playing whack-a-mole on tariff headlines, investors will get a week of jobs data to ponder in the lead-up to Friday’s release of the government’s March employment report. On Tuesday, the Labor Department issues its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). Job openings for February, according to FactSet, are expected to have declined to 7.67 million from 7.74 million in January. The JOLTS numbers are reported on a lag — so, these February numbers are expected to only start to show the effects of the Trump administration’s downsizing of the federal workforce as seen in February’s weaker-than-expected nonfarm jobs growth. The ADP’s private payrolls data on Wednesday, which doesn’t count federal jobs, is still expected to reflect the overall malaise being felt in the economy. Economists, per FactSet, expect March job growth of 120,000 positions at U.S. companies. While greater than February’s gains of 77,000, that would be well short of the upwardly revised 186,000 in January. The most current impact of the federal job cuts led by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) advisory group will be seen in the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report on Friday. According to Factset, economists expect March nonfarm payrolls growth of 122,500, short of February’s 151,000. The nation’s unemployment rate for March is expected to show a slight increase to 4.2%, while wages are seen rising 4% year over year, matching February’s gain. Week ahead Monday, March 31 Chicago PMI at 9:45 a.m. ET After the bell earings: PVH Corp. (PVH), Progress Software Corp. (PRGS), TechTarget (TTGT) Tuesday, April 1 ISM Manufacturing at 10 a.m. ET JOLTS survey at 10 a.m. ET After the bell: nCino (NCNO), Sportsman’s Warehouse Holdings (SPWH) Wednesday, April 2 ADP Employment Survey at 10 a.m. ET Before the bell: BlackBerry (BB), UniFirst Corporation (UNF) After the bell: RH (RH), Penguin Solutions (PENG), Resources Connection (RGP) Thursday, April 3 Initial jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. ET ISM Services PMI at 10 a.m. ET Before the bell: Conagra Brands (CAG), Lamb Weston Holdings (LW), Acuity Brands (AYI), MSC Industrial Direct Co. (MSM), Lindsay Manufacturing Co. (LNN) After the bell: Guess (GES) Friday, April 4 Nonfarm payrolls report at 8:30 a.m. ET (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters about auto tariffs after signing an executive order in the Oval Office at the White House on March 26, 2025.
Jabin Botsford | The Washington Post | Getty Images
With one more trading day left in March, Wall Street is poised to turn in terrible monthly and quarterly declines after another terrible week.
