CNBC Business News Update - Market Close: Stocks Higher, Investors Hit "Peak Uncertainty," Consumer Confidence Tanks and Consumers' View Of Their Financial Futures Hits 12 Year Low 3/25/25

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

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.

Jessica Ebinger, CNBC. Wall Street opens Wednesday morning after modest gains on Tuesday for the major averages. Investors are hanging on to every report on tariffs and the Russia-Ukraine ceasefire at sea. Well, that may have helped turn the markets around at the close at least a little bit. The Dow eking out a win. It was up four points led higher by shares of Disney. They were up 1.4 percent. The S&P 500 index was up nine points. The NASDAQ up 83 points. That was a half percent. Nvidia shares were in the red on Tuesday, down a half a percent. One investor says peak uncertainty may have been achieved. You've probably seen peak uncertainty on a range of policy outcomes, but I think there's still uncertainty, right? So market clearly has gotten more comfortable with the narrowness of the tariffs. However, next week we're going to have an announcement and I think there is probably some headline risk that in a negotiating approach, the administration may put a very big number

out there to then work its way back as it's done as it's done in the past. Newburger Berman's Joseph Amato on CNBC. Consumer confidence sliding as Americans view of their financial futures slumps to a 12 year low. Anxiety over tariffs and inflation is rising. Consumer confidence for March we're expecting a number around 94, 92.9 weakest since Jan of 21. Present situation if you look at expectations 65.2 weakest since July of 22. CNBC's Rick Santelli some investors say that's just survey data they want to see more hard data proving that consumers are pulling back their spending before they worry too much about that.

Newly built home sales came in below expectations for February. It's a slight gain, but it's a weak gain. Mortgage rates came down during February pretty sharply. So you might've expected a little better prices though, down 1.5% to $414,500. That's the median price of a home sold in February. But I want to touch on consumer confidence, because we did get KB Home earnings,

and they were a big miss. CEO Jeff Metzger pointed to economic uncertainty and cooling buyer confidence, saying demand at the start of this spring selling season was more muted than what we've seen historically. It's a very difficult spring ahead. CNBC's Diana Olek. For the first time in nearly 10 years,

a Berkshire Hathaway employee claimed Warren Buffett's million dollar grand prize for the company's NCAA bracket challenge. Berkshire is a conglomerate. It owns companies like Geico Insurance and Benjamin Moore, Paint, Fruit of the Loom, Dairy Queen, and many more. Buffett had relaxed the rules multiple times since the contest's inception in 2016. This year, the rules were changed so that anyone who picked the winners of at least

30 of the tournament's 32 first round games would be eligible to win that prize. Well, it turns out 12 Berkshire employees guessed 31 of the 32 games correctly. The $1 million prize went to the employee who picked 29 games consecutively before a loss. That employee works at aviation training company Flight Safety International which is a subsidiary of Berkshire. That's CNBC's Becky Quick. On Wednesday's watch list we get earnings from Dollar Tree and Chewy. We also get the latest on durable goods orders. Those are things made to last a long time like washing machines and airplanes.

Jessica Edinger, CNBC.