CNBC Business News Update - Market Close: Rate Cut Rally for Stocks, Dow And S&P 500 Index Hit All Time Highs, Port of NY/NJ Prepares For Strike 9/19/24

Episode Date: September 19, 2024

From Wall Street to Main Street, the latest on the markets and what it means for your money. Updated regularly on weekdays, featuring CNBC expert analysis and sound from top business newsmakers. Anchored by CNBC's Jessica Ettinger.

I'm Jessica Edinger, CNBC. Wall Street opens Friday morning after a rate cut rally. Investors cheered the half percentage point interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve. With more cuts to come, the Dow soared. It was up 522 points to finish the day, topping 42,000 for the first time, closing at 42,025. It was up one and a quarter percent. The S&P 500 index up 95 points. That was 1.7 percent and the NASDAQ was up 440 points. That was two and a half percent. Both the Dow and the S&P 500 index hit fresh record highs. We've already been on this

big eight-day win streak in the S&P 500. I think you already were kind of pretty well priced for a soft landing. So the question from here is just incrementally how much better it can get. CNBC's Mike Santoli. Some investors say now's not the time to jump in with the market so high. Companies whose shares hit fresh all-time highs on Thursday include Facebook parent Meta, Netflix, home builders Lennar Pe Group, and D.R. Horton, and American Express. Gold closed at another all-time high Thursday, $2,614 an ounce. The United Auto Workers Union, warning of potential strikes at Ford and Jeep parent Stellantis, a year after unprecedented work stoppages at General Motors and other companies. Meantime, the largest port on the U.S. East Coast, the Port of New York, New Jersey, is starting to prepare for what could be

its first union strike since 1977. August home sales dropped more than expected, while prices set a new record high. Tight supply is keeping the pressure on prices. The median price of an existing home sold in August was $416,700. That is up 3.1% year over year. Now part of that is skewed towards what's actually selling because it's a median. So sales are up significantly for homes priced above $750,000, but down for anything priced below half a million. Still it is the highest median price for August ever. CNBC's Diana Olick. The job market is solid. Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week. Jobless claims hit their lowest level in four months. Initial jobless claims 219,000 much less than we were expecting.19 000 would be the smallest month over month initial jobless claim since the third week of may cnbc's rick santelli on friday's watch list it's the

final trading day of summer fall arrives on sunday morning apple's new iphones and other devices will be available to buy including the iphone 16 new New in theaters, Paramount's Transformers 1 and Lionsgate's Never Let Go. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. How did a master cyber criminal and a Russian oligarch with ties to the Kremlin hack into America's financial system, scamming millions? CNBC presents The Crimes of Putin's Traitor. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.