• Stocks resumed their tumble as new exemptions to Trump's tariffs failed to quell investors' fears.
• Walgreens is ending its nearly 100-year run as a public company.
• The Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its nonfarm payrolls report for February at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:

1. Return of the sell-off

Stocks resumed their tumble Thursday as new exemptions to President Donald Trump's tariffs failed to quell investors' fears. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 427.51 points, or 0.99%, while the Nasdaq Composite officially entered correction territory, closing down 2.61%. The S&P 500 fell 1.78%. All three major indexes are on pace for their worst week since September 2024. Asked whether the new tariff concessions were due to the stock market's negative reaction, Trump said the decision had "nothing to do with the market." "I'm not even looking at the market, because long term the United States will be very strong with what is happening here," he said Thursday. Follow live market updates.

2. On again, off again

Imports from Mexico and Canada that comply with the North American trade agreement will be exempt from Trump's tariffs until April 2, the president announced Thursday. The trilateral trade deal, known as the USMCA, covers about 50% of Mexican imports and 38% of Canadian imports, a White House official told CNBC. The partial reversal of Trump's broad 25% tariffs on the two countries — which went into effect Tuesday — comes a day after the president paused tariffs for automakers in compliance with the USMCA.

3. Going private

Walgreens is ending its nearly 100-year run as a public company. The struggling drugstore chain announced Thursday that it reached a roughly $10 billion deal with private equity firm Sycamore Partners that will take the company off the public market. "While we are making progress against our ambitious turnaround strategy, meaningful value creation will take time, focus and change that is better managed as a private company," Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth said in a statement. Shares of Walgreens have fallen 70% over the last three years as the company faced a slew of challenges.

4. Stocking up

Cryptocurrencies fell Thursday evening after President Trump signed an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile. White House Crypto and AI Czar David Sacks said in a post on X that the reserve will be funded with bitcoin seized in criminal and civil forfeiture cases. "This means it will not cost taxpayers a dime," Sacks wrote. The stockpile, he added, will hold other non-bitcoin confiscated cryptocurrencies. The news came ahead of the White House's first-ever Crypto Summit, set to take place Friday.

5. Jobs watch

Amid fears about the potential effect of tariffs on inflation and growth, all eyes are on Friday's jobs report for a key look into the health of the labor market. The Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release its nonfarm payrolls report for February at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect a growth of 170,000 jobs and for the unemployment rate to hold steady at 4%. Layoff announcements in February soared to their highest level since July 2020, according to a report Thursday by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. More than one-third of the layoffs were federal job cuts.

— CNBC's Alex Harring, Brian Evans, Pia Singh, Jesse Pound, Yun Li, Kevin Breuninger, Annika Kim Constantino, Tanaya Macheel, MacKenzie Sigalos and Jeff Cox contributed to this report.