The Trump administration’s push for a huge increase in tariffs on imports last week sent financial markets into a tailspin — and a host of new viewers to the cable channels who cover those markets.
The tariffs, announced by President Donald Trump at a White House event on April 2, triggered big sell-offs in markets worldwide over the next few days. In the United States, the S&P 500 index has declined by almost 11 percent in the days since the tariff announcement; the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite have fallen by similar amounts.
A couple of lines, however, are going up: those representing the audiences on CNBC and Fox Business Network. Both saw their ratings jump in the days after the announcement.
From Wednesday to Friday (April 2-4), CNBC averaged 293,000 viewers during market hours (9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. ET), 36 percent more than the previous four weeks. For its full daytime programming slate, running from 6 a.m.-7 p.m. ET, the NBCUniversal-owned network averaged 250,000 viewers, an increase of 40 percent over recent weeks.
Fox Business had similar gains: The network drew 234,000 viewers from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday to Friday, up 15 percent from its March average. From the opening bell at 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET — inclusive of its most-watched show, Kudlow — Fox Business pulled in an average of 251,000 viewers. That’s a 22 percent gain vs. a week earlier.
CNBC brought in more viewers in the key news demographic of adults 25-54 during market hours last week. From Wednesday to Friday, it averaged 72,000 such viewers to FBN’s 17,000 from 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.
CNBC also says it had a big traffic surge online, with 83 percent more pageviews from Wednesday to Friday than the weekday average for the first quarter across its website, mobile app and Google Amp. New subscriptions to its direct-to-consumer offerings grew by 34 percent compared to the first quarter average.
Stock indexes continued their downward trend, though not as steeply, on Monday and Tuesday, and in response to the Trump administration further jacking up tariffs on Chinese imports, China is reportedly considering reducing or banning U.S. films from the country.
The chaos in the markets has been reflected behind the scenes the business channels’ programming as well. “We are happiest when we tear up the show five minutes before the top of the hour. However, we’ve been tearing up the show in middle of the broadcast,” FBN anchor Liz Claman told The Hollywood Reporter on Monday. “Oh, my God. We’ve been moving things around like a chess board on steroids.”