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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Wall Street Sell-Off Worsens Amid Tariffs, Recession Fears; Ukrainian & U.S. Delegations To Hold High-Stakes Talks; Asian Markets Mixed After Wall Street Sell-Off; Vatican: Pope Spent Another Peaceful Night In Hospital. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired March 11, 2025 - 05:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[05:00:35]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from the U.S. and all around the world. I'm Rahel Solomon. It is Tuesday, March 11th, 5:00 a.m. exactly here in New York.

And here's what's ahead on EARLY START.

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LARRY SUMMERS, ECONOMIST: Market prices suggest a very real risk of recession.

DOUG FORD, PREMIER OF ONTARIO: I call it the self-made Donald Trump recession.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE: As long as the president keeps changing his mind, the market will keep selling off.

NATHAN HOCHMAN, LOS ANGELES COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: If the Menendezes acknowledge the lies that they have told and persisted in for over 30 years, then we will certainly evaluate the quality of that sincerity and decide whether or not it's real or fake.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody has found her. We don't know where she is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's definitely really like concerning because it can happen to anyone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who would think it would be a girl from Pitt?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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SOLOMON: And we begin with that turmoil and uncertainty rattling markets around the globe and here at home following that major selloff on Wall Street.

No cheers for investors as U.S. stocks plunged Monday, with the Dow closing down nearly 900 points to mark its worst day of the year. It has been a bumpy ride for U.S. stocks as fears continue to grow over the impact of Donald Trump's tariffs and his refusal to rule out a recession this year.

Now, it's early. We are still hours away from a new trading day. But here's where U.S. futures stand right now. It is green across the board. But if you were with us yesterday morning, I do believe futures were also higher yesterday. And we see how the day ended.

So unclear if these will hold, but it has been a rocky ride for U.S. markets and the Dow, especially over the past few months, with Mondays sell off coming amid heightened concerns over Mr. Trump's economic policy.

And in the midst of this selloff, Trump officials have been taking to the airwaves to try and ease fears over what lies ahead for the U.S. economy.

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HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: There's going to be no recession in America.

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: There's going to be a natural adjustment as we move away from public spending to private spending. There's going to be a detox period.

KEVIN HASSETT, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR: Just be very wary, Joe, of -- of conversations about recession.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: But former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has a different take.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUMMERS: On January 1st, no one thought that a recession was a substantial likelihood. And today, market prices and consensus opinions of economists suggest a very real risk of recession.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Now, America's neighbor to the north has been responding forcefully to Trump's tariff plans, with the Ontario premier issuing a warning if the trade war escalates.

Doug Ford says that he is moving forward with a 25 percent surcharge on electricity exports to three U.S. states, but says that he'll turn off access completely if the U.S. adds new tariffs on Canadian goods. And Ford says that Trump's moves aren't working.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORD: There's no reason for a recession. I call it the self-made Donald Trump recession. He -- he ran on a mandate to lower prices, to make sure we didn't have inflation, to create more jobs. And it's backfired.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Now, we've already seen U.S. alcohol products being removed from shelves in Canada, and the premier of British Columbia says that people there support the move.

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DAVID EBY, BRITISH COLUMBIA PREMIER: The feeling that many British Columbians have now, when we look at American products, we don't even want to see them on the shelf anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: And U.S. President Donald Trump may look to calm economic concerns when he sits down later today with top business leaders.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is following developments from the White House.

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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: President Trump out of sight Monday at the White House, and unusually silent as the market was suffering its biggest loss of the year.

Now, the president over the weekend spoke about recessions. When asked if he feared a recession coming later this year, he did not rule it out, and it was those simple words that sent the markets reeling once again on Monday. Of course, the uncertainty over his trade policies also are contributing to this. There is no question the White House is keeping a very close eye on the market.

White House officials telling CNN that they were pointing to the success of the first term of the Trump administration as a metric, where they believe that they will be successful in the second term.

[05:05:02]

But that is very much an open question, not being able to point to anything specific in the -- the short term. But markets around the world, of course, were responding to this.

But the president is scheduled to meet with business leaders in Washington on Tuesday at the Business Leaders Roundtable. That, of course, is some of the top American CEOs.

So the president perhaps will offer some more clarity on his trade policy. But even as the off again, on again policies for Canada and Mexico have underscored, the volatility, new tariffs were imposed from Beijing on Monday, hitting the -- the ag sector soybeans and pork and chicken. That, of course is a worrying some of those red state senators.

A new aluminum and steel tariffs also set to take place on Wednesday, and then a bigger round of tariffs in April. The open question in all of this is will the president continue with these tariffs, or will they simply be a threat and used in a negotiations? One thing is clear. For as much as the president has followed the stock market over the years, he has said he is not paying attention now. We, of course, shall see about that. But he is scheduled to meet with business leaders on Tuesday. We'll see how the markets react.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.

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SOLOMON: And in fact, throughout the hour, we will keep a close eye on U.S. markets. And in just about 30 minutes from now, I'm going to be speaking with Ken Rogoff, former chief economist at the IMF, to get his predictions, his thoughts for the markets in the coming years. So stay with us.

And a new effort to find an off ramp for the war in Ukraine is about to get underway. Delegations from the U.S. and Ukraine are expected to meet in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, any minute now.

Top American diplomat Marco Rubio has said that he wants to know what concessions Ukraine would be willing to make. These talks come less than two weeks after the last U.S.-Ukraine meeting at the White House devolved into a shouting match.

Earlier, the U.S. envoy to the Middle East spoke about what he considers signs of progress since then.

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STEVE WITKOFF, U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY TO THE MIDDLE EAST: Zelenskyy sent a letter to the president. He apologized for -- for that whole incident that happened in the Oval Office. I think that was an important step. And there's been a lot of discussion between our teams and the Ukrainians and the Europeans who are relevant to this discussion as well. And I would like to describe it as -- as progress.

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SOLOMON: Okay. Let's get to CNN's Clare Sebastian tracking all of this from London.

Clare, this meeting with Secretary Rubio was set to begin any minute now, about seven minutes ago.

I mean, what can we expect and where do things stand right now?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Rahel, it's hard to play down just how significant this is as we move towards a potential peace process. But you do hear Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, somewhat playing down expectations in the lead up to this. He seemed to suggest this would be more of a sort of exploratory phase.

They want to find out what kinds of concessions that Ukraine would be willing to make in talks with Russia. They're in listening mode, he said ahead of this and the mineral deal, which of course was supposed to be signed in that ill-fated Oval Office meeting, might, might be signed, might not be signed, he said it was still being worked on in the lead up to this.

So, a sort of lowering expectations there, in slight contrast to what you heard from Steve Witkoff. Now, Steve Witkoff, by the way, will not be at these talks, even though he was one of the three U.S. officials that took part in the U.S. Russia talks three weeks ago, he is dealing with the Middle East at the moment, but he is, according to a source familiar with the matter, expected to travel to Russia later this week.

We don't know yet if he will be meeting with President Putin, but Marco Rubio made it clear that whatever they find out in this meeting today with Ukraine will then be presented to Russia. But I think for Ukraine, clearly, the Oval Office meeting represents a significant backward step. And the first job for today is to try to repair the damage from that and to unpause U.S. aid, which continues to be mostly pause and some intelligence sharing are also on hold.

Marco Rubio said that, you know, if they had a good feeling about this meeting off the back of it, then some decisions could be made. So that is one key deliverable to look for today from that meeting.

SOLOMON: Yeah. It just gives you a sense of what's at stake here.

And, Clare, just hours before this meeting was set to begin, Russia reported a massive drone attack. What do you know about that?

SEBASTIAN: This was a really massive drone attack, Rachel. We haven't even seen Russia fire 337 drones in one night, which is what the Russian ministry of defense says it shot down over a number of Russian regions. The mayor of Moscow says that 91 drones were shot down over the Moscow region.

You can see it. CNN's geolocated that video to the south of Moscow there. And two people are now reported dead. We've only ever seen, I believe, one death before in Moscow in a drone attack last September. Airports have also experienced closures and delays. So this was a significant move.

Ukraine hasn't commented on this yet, but I think clearly the timing is not coincidental.

[05:10:01]

Ukraine very likely I think sending a message here that it still does, in the words of the U.S. president, have cards to play in this conflict, and going into peace talks.

SOLOMON: Okay, Clare Sebastian watching it all for us from London -- Clare, thank you.

X, the social media site owned by Trump loyalist Elon Musk, suffered a wave of outages on Monday. The issues began in the early morning and tapered off through the afternoon. Musk claims that the outages were caused by a cyberattack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ELON MUSK, TECH BILLIONAIRE: We're not sure exactly what happened, but there was a massive cyber attack to try to bring down the ecosystem with the IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Now, since Elon Musk bought the platform, it has experienced a series of glitches and disruptions.

Still ahead for us, fear of a possible economic slowdown is gripping Wall Street and the uncertainty spreading to global markets as well. We are live in Beijing straight ahead.

Plus, Greenland is holding a general election today and despite Trump's constant threats to annex the territory. Apparently, that is not top of mind for many voters. But we'll tell you what is.

And later in the hour, a look at Michelle Obama's new podcast, who is co-hosting with her, and what they'll talk about a little later in the show.

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[05:15:42]

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

And we continue to keep a close eye on the markets this hour. Right now, this is where U.S. futures stand. Still in the green, it's early though. This is just one day after Wall Street saw that major sell off as uncertainty and fear continue to rattle investors and markets across Asia, while also saw turbulent trading day.

Taking a look at how markets closed there, the Shanghai Composite closed up about 4/10 of a percent. The Nikkei closing worst among them about, let's call it, two thirds of 1 percent.

Let's get to CNN's Marc Stewart, who has the view from Beijing.

Marc, good morning to you or good afternoon there. What are you watching?

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Rahel. Good afternoon, as it's just past 5:15 in the afternoon here in China. Look, whether you are in Beijing or whether you are in New York, investors around the world are looking for any kind of morsel of good news amid all of this economic uncertainty.

If we look back at the day here in Asia, we saw some gains in the markets, we saw some losses. Nothing, though, nearly as extreme as what we saw yesterday in the United States.

I want to point out to you an aspect of CNN.com. We know as the fear and greed index. It's a way to measure the mood of the markets. There's a formula involved. It looks at some of the different aspects of the markets. Right now, it's at a level of extreme fear. One week ago, it was at a level of extreme fear. Compare that to a

year ago, it was at greed. So it's an indication some context that market sentiments can change depending on what's going on in the news, and that markets can be very fickle.

Also, before we go, I want to point out an issue that we're watching very closely here in China -- deflation, not inflation, where prices go up of different household products. We're talking about when prices go down, deflation right now, many prices on many products are extremely low.

It's concerning because it reveals that consumers here in China don't want to spend money. There are a number of economic challenges here right now, a high unemployment, the housing market is still a bit unstable. This is very concerning to economists.

So, as the U.S. deals with challenges, so too is China. But, Rahel, I think regardless of where you live in the world, the remarks that we're going to hear from the president later today, they're going to be very important. Investors here are going to digest those words as well.

SOLOMON: Yeah, those remarks expected in less than 12 hours time. Certainly a lot of people will be watching here at home and around the world.

Marc Stewart in Beijing, Marc, thank you.

And just moments ago, delegations from the U.S. and Ukraine met in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as part of a new effort to find an off ramp for the war in Ukraine. Top American diplomat Marco Rubio, who you see there, has said that he wants to know what concessions that Ukraine would be willing to make.

Now these talks -- well, they come less than two weeks after the last U.S. Ukraine meeting at the White House devolved into a shouting match. Wait to see perhaps what concrete deliverables come from this. But we have seen U.S. officials try to lower expectations heading into these meetings. We will watch this space for you.

All right. The Vatican says that Pope Francis is improving as he spent another peaceful night in the hospital. A Vatican source says that the pontiff is not considered to be in, quote, imminent danger from double pneumonia in his lungs, although that same source says that the pope's condition remains complex and that he is not entirely out of danger, and that there is no timeline yet for his release from the hospital. The 88-year-old pontiff has been hospitalized since February 14th.

Voters in Greenland are heading to the polls today for a general election. And just last week, you might remember this is what Donald Trump had to say about Greenland.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We need Greenland for national security and even international security, and we're working with everybody involved to try and get it. But we need it really for international world security. And I think we're going to get it. One way or the other, we're going to get it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Now, Greenland is a territory of Denmark, and despite Trump's offers of money and jobs, its residents appear more interested in their own self-determination.

Greenland's prime minister told the Danish public broadcaster that the territory deserves to be, quote, treated with respect, and he says that Mr. Trump has not done that.

[05:20:06]

And while independence is not on the ballot in this election, it is an issue on voters' minds.

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MUTE EGEDE, GREENLAND'S PRIME MINISTER: We don't want to be Danes. We don't want to be Americans. We want to be Greenlandic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: All right. Coming up for us here, the Trump administration hits a roadblock as it attempts to deport illegal U.S. resident over his anti-Gaza war activism.

And later, students from Chicago to Nairobi are making their voices heard on this ninth annual My Freedom Day. We'll be right back.

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(PROTESTERS CHANTING)

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[05:25:11]

SOLOMON: Protesters in New York are demanding the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil. Khalil is a Columbia university graduate and Palestinian activist who was arrested by U.S. immigration officials on Saturday night. The legal U.S. resident is being targeted for deportation by the White House for his prominent role in anti-Gaza war protests at the university, but Khalil has not been charged with or accused of any crime.

On Monday, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from removing him from the U.S. and set a hearing for Wednesday. The U.S. president posted on social media, quote, this is the first arrest of many to come.

Well, today marks CNN's ninth annual My Freedom Day. It's a global celebration of freedom with young people around the world calling for an end to modern day slavery. This year's theme is freedom to learn.

Let's go live to CNN's Victoria Rubadiri, who is with students in Nairobi, Kenya -- Victoria.

VICTORIA RUBADIRI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. So you've caught us in the middle of a skit. One of the many activities here at Mbagathi Road Primary School illustrating the theme of freedom to learn.

So what they're talking about, of course, is child labor and how much of a challenge and a barrier that is for many children to access education, to go to school. We've seen a fashion show puppet show as well, just keeping up with that same theme from the day, but also some art displays showcasing challenges like sexual violence.

And what do we have here? What's your name?

STUDENT: My name is Chanel Ann (ph).

RUBADIRI: And what can you tell us about your picture today?

STUDENT: Today I'm talking about this picture. We can see that our child is working -- a child is working and others are going to school.

So children should go to school, not to work like an adult. Working is for an adult or people who don't have money. Not for children.

Children should be in school learning like other children. So doing work is not for children and we don't allow children to work like this job. Children should be in school learning like other children.

RUBADIRI: And that's what today has been all about. Amplifying their voices, making them aware of the challenges other students -- other children are facing when it comes to accessing education. It's important to note that most of the students had come to school here are actually from the informal settlement. Kibera, which is the largest slum in Kenya, actually East Africa, so they know full well -- they understand the challenges when it comes to accessing school.

This is a place that is beyond a place of learning. It's a safe place, but also a place where they come for consistent meals. So it's further reiterating the importance of today's theme, freedom to freedom to --

STUDENTS: Learn.

RUBADIRI: Freedom to --

STUDENTS: Learn.

SOLOMON: Beautiful and great message and important reminder that obviously this is still a very serious issue and relevant issue even today.

Victoria Rubadiri in Nairobi, Victoria -- thank you.

And our international coverage of My Freedom Day -- well, it continues throughout today. Send us your thoughts on freedom to learn using the #myfreedomday on social media. You can also visit CNN.com/myfreedomday for more information.

And still ahead, a fiery collision in the North Sea after two large vessels crashed, one loaded with jet fuel, the other carrying a highly toxic chemical.

Plus, it's a case that captivated the world for decades. Now, the Menendez brothers' fight for freedom -- well, it hit its biggest obstacle yet. We'll have those details later this hour.

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