President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs are sending shockwaves throughout the world. Local and international stock markets continue to nose dive, with the Dow opening 1,200 points lower on Monday morning and the S&P entering Bear Market territory.
At the same time, the tariff drama has benefited the business news networks, with CNBC reporting that Thursday, April 3 was its highest-rated day in total viewers since Jan. 26, 2022.
The business network—which will soon spin-off from the NBCUniversal News Group and join SpinCo—saw a notable increase from normal weekday ratings that day. It was up by +49% and +13% in total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo, respectively.
CNBC also drew more viewers in both measured categories than Fox Business Network during business day and market hours on April 3.
FBN also experienced a viewership increase during market hours on April 3, attracting 236,000 total viewers and 16,000 A25-54 viewers. That’s an uptick of +28% in the former category and +100% in the latter compared to the previous Thursday—March 27.
And compared to the same day in 2024, FBN saw jumps of +23% in total viewers and +60% in the demo. FBN has a +2% lead over CNBC in total viewers during market hours for the year to date.
Anxiety surrounding the tariffs and the stock market also benefited CNBC Digital as the website had its best day for page views since January 2022 and the best day for unique visitors since May 2021.
On Monday, though, CNBC was at the center of a misinformation web after reporting that the Trump administration was considering a 90-day tariff pause for all countries except China. The news caused a temporary rebound in the stock market.
the Dow turns positive as CNBC talks about reporting that Kevin Hassett is saying Trump is considering a 90 day pause on tariffs for all countries other than China
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 7, 2025 at 10:24 AM
But that information turned out to be inaccurate. The original source was a Reuters bulletin, which the other news outlets picked up. Reuters has since deleted the bulletin, and CNBC has issued its own correction. The stock market resumed its downward trend once news of a tariff delay was shown to be false.
Reuters is officially withdrawing its incorrect report on a possible pause in tariffs, which used CNBC’s incorrect reporting as the source pic.twitter.com/77Xj8LETla
— Hadas Gold (@Hadas_Gold) April 7, 2025
