CNBC Business News Update - Market Close: Stocks Higher, Fed Meeting Minutes Indicate Interest Rate Cut "Likely," Pumpkin Spice Latte At Starbucks Thursday 8/21/24

Episode Date: August 21, 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 and reported by CNBC's Jessica Ettinger.

I'm Jessica Edinger, CNBC. Wall Street opens Thursday morning after some modest gains for the major averages. Once the minutes from the last Fed meeting came out and pointed to a likely interest rate cut coming at the September meeting. The Dow was up 55 points. The S&P 500 index was up 23 points. The Nasdaq was up more than 100 points. 102 points. That was more than a half

percent. We are up 8 percent from the lows and the expectations for the Fed to be very dovish really is prevalent. And I think it is positive for the long term. And if we do see a pullback, I'm all over it. I'll buy it. But we've had such a nice bounce since just two and a half weeks ago. Hightower's Stephanie Link on CNBC. And here's BMO's Brian Belsky on CNBC. We like to remind investors that September is the worst month of the year. We think that the likelihood of some sort of weakness in September actually could be quite positive from our longer term perspective. We think stocks are at higher levels than they are today by year-end, and the bull market continues, but we think we're going to see some volatility first. Investors learned that the economy added more than 800,000 fewer jobs

over the 12-month period ending in March than first thought, as the Labor Department revised its numbers. Job growth originally more than 200,000 new jobs a month revised down to 174,000. It's a sigh of relief to most economists that that number came down because 200 plus, 240, 250,000 a month average is way too hot for the normal economy that's slowing down to a more steady state pace. Closer to normal is actually not just 175, but closer maybe to 100 to 125. The Milken Institute's Bill Lee on CNBC. Ford will delay its new EV plant and cancel the three-row all-electric SUV as it changes up its electric vehicle plans. The company is shifting its EV strategy as it tries to be more nimble about producing lower cost EVs. It will be coming out with an all-electric commercial van with production starting in 2026.

An electric truck will be coming in the second half of 2027. They're going to be dropping their plans to build an all-electric three-row SUV. The market's just not there right now. Bottom line is this, guys. They realize they have to lower costs and they are moving as quickly as possible. CNBC's Phil LeBeau. Target, with better than expected quarterly results, saying sales were up for the first time in a year in the last quarter. But Target gave a cautious outlook. We reduced prices on over 5,000 items. We continue to see an incredibly resilient consumer. Now, they've been facing the pressure of inflation and rising interest rates.

They're continuing to look for value. But we've seen a pretty steady consumer environment. I think part of it is we still have a very strong labor market. Target CEO Brian Cornell on CNBC. Starbucks, with its popular pumpkin spice lattes back in stores Thursday, the earliest in the 21-year history of the drink that signals fall to many. The new fall menu includes iced apple crisp non-dairy cream chai, raccoon cake pops, and baked apple croissants. On Thursday's watch list, we get earnings from BJ's Wholesale, Advance Auto Parts, Ross Dress for Less, Kava, and Workday. We find out how many people applied for unemployment benefits last week. We get the PMIs, the Purchasing Managers

Indexes for Manufacturing and Services. We also get a look at existing home sales numbers for July and the Jackson Hole Economic Summit begins. Full coverage on CNBC and CNBC.com. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. For me, Squawk Box is breakfast with the most interesting people in the world. Squawk Box, weekday mornings, 6 a.m. Eastern, CNBC.