U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 7, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
In a rare display of disapproval against U.S. President Donald Trump, the Republican-led U.S. House on Wednesday passed a resolution rejecting his tariffs against Canada, a signature economic policy of his.
Several Republicans crossed the aisle to support the resolution, even as Trump threatened that dissidents from the party would “seriously suffer the consequences come Election time, and that includes Primaries,” in a Truth Social post.
Clearing the House means the bill now heads to the Senate, which approved similar resolutions last year. However, the effort is likely symbolic since Trump can, and likely would, veto the legislation.
U.S. stocks, meanwhile, retreated on AI jitters and following better-than-expected January jobs data, with the Dow snapping a 3-day winning streak.
Jobs grew by 130,000 in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ January nonfarm payrolls report (which was delayed on account of a partial government shutdown that ended Feb. 3).
The latest figure blows past expectations of a 55,000 gain by Dow Jones-polled economists, and is a huge jump from December’s revised 48,000.
It’s not surprising that a good jobs report would fizzle out investors’ enthusiasm, as it reduces the likelihood of interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. But the report bore some trouble spots underneath: Gains in job growth remained highly concentrated mostly in health care-related sectors, raising questions over the ability of displaced and new workers to be able to get hired.
On top of that, all months in 2025 saw a negative revision. In all, the revised BLS release puts job gains last year at just 15,000, which means — in the words of Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller — the year’s job growth was close to “Zero. Zip. Nada.”
AI-related fears also continued to sweep through the stock markets, pulling shares of software companies lower Wednesday. ServiceNow and Salesforce led the losses, retreating 6% and 5%, respectively.
In Europe, investors will be keeping their eyes peeled for a slate of earnings reports due later in the day, with Siemens, L’Oreal and Mercedes-Benz Group among the companies reporting. Japan’s Nissan Motor will also report its third-quarter results later.
U.K. fourth-quarter GDP and industrial production figures will also be in focus.
— CNBC’s Justin Papp, Garrett Downs, Jeff Cox and Holly Ellyatt contributed to this report.
What you need to know today
The House on Wednesday passed a resolution disapproving of President Donald Trump’s tariffs against Canada, a blow to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and a rare Republican rebuke of the president’s signature economic policy.
AI fears, jobs data hit U.S. stocks. All three key Wall Street indexes slid Wednesday after the January jobs report failed to assuage investors’ concerns about the labor market, and AI-related jitters continued to drag software stocks down. Asian markets were mostly in the green Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 breaching 58,000 for the first time.
Musk’s xAI undergoes reorganization. The SpaceX CEO said in an X post Wednesday that the firm’s xAI artificial intelligence venture implemented a reorganization that “required parting ways with some people,” but it was still “hiring aggressively.”
A U.S. attack on Iran is unlikely, an analyst told CNBC, adding that U.S President Donald Trump has no good options when it comes to using force. That comes amid tensions running high between Iran and the U.S., with both at an impasse after talks last week in Oman.
[PRO] Boom for funds that buffer against market drops. Investors seeking protection from market losses have piled into these products, and demand for them is expected to continue, according to Morningstar analysts.
And finally…
Jeffrey Epstein and Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Group CEO of DP World.
House Oversight Committee Democrats
Meet the high-profile Emirati business leader lawmakers are linking to Epstein ‘torture’ email
U.S. officials on Monday identified Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, one of the Emirates’ most powerful business figures, in a 2009 Epstein email referencing a “torture video.”
CNBC sought comment from Sulayem through DP World, where he serves as chairman and CEO, but did not receive a response. Sulayem has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing. It is also unclear exactly what the referenced “torture video” was, and whether it had actually been sent from Sulayem to Epstein.
However, the email adds yet another thread to a tapestry of years of communications between Sulayem and Epstein, which referenced everything from business deals, politics, to sex.
— Dylan Butts
