CNBC Business News Update - Market Close: Stocks Higher, Nvidia Up 4%, Record Number Making Only Minimum Credit Card Payments 1/22/25

Episode Date: January 22, 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.

I'm Jessica Edinger, CNBC. Wall Street opens Thursday morning with the S&P 500 index having touched an intraday record high on Wednesday on strong earnings reports from companies like Netflix, United Airlines, and Procter & Gamble. On Wednesday, the Dow was up 130 points. The S&P 500 index up 37 points, more than a half percent. The NASDAQ back above 20,000, up 252 points, one and a quarter percent. Companies whose shares hit fresh all-time highs on Wednesday include Netflix, Amazon, Ralph Lauren, American Express, Capital One,

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Visa, Delta Airlines, and United Airlines. Tech shares had a great day and AI darling NVIDIA was up 4%. The way you get to the old record highs in the S&P is to have the AI trade just kick back in again. The market seems back in gear. We did have a good downward reset in optimism that I think can be rebuilt or is being rebuilt from here. CNBC's Mike Santoli. A warning about the U.S. consumer. Consumer spending makes up two-thirds of the U.S. economy and a record number of people are only making the minimum payment on their credit cards. A new Philly Fed

report finds that delinquencies are rising too. That's when you're more than 30 days past due on a payment. But that rate is still about half the record high that was set in the great financial crisis. Netflix just raised prices again after it raised them last October. One analyst tells CNBC that ad-free customers who don't want to pay more will just downgrade to sitting through commercials.

He predicts that Netflix will keep raising prices too because subscribers spend so much time watching every day. Two hours a day per household and a price point that is still well below that benchmark that is the bundle. We think they still have pricing power. The introduction of advertising is a way for consumers to compensate and we think that they will continue to have pricing power. Right now, it's going to be about digesting these price increases that they just announced. Guggenheim's Michael Morris on CNBC. The cheapest tier now is the one with ads, and it goes up to $8 a month.

United Airlines shares popped on strong quarterly results. The CEO tells CNBC that people really want to fly and plane tickets, yes, cost more because United is passing through its higher costs to passengers. Most of the increases in our ticket prices are being driven by cost. And, you know, my favorite example now is airport cost. And it now costs $48 on average per customer just for airport fees at the three major New York airports. And we have that kind of escalation in cost. And we have a couple of billion dollars we estimate in cost last year from air traffic control delays. Those are costs that wind up as pass-throughs. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby on CNBC. On Thursday's watch list, we get more earnings from GE Aerospace, American Airlines, Union Pacific, Alaska Air,

CSX, and Texas Instruments. We find out how many people applied for unemployment benefits last week. The Sundance Film Festival begins. And the Academy Award nominations will be announced Thursday morning after several delays because of the Los Angeles wildfires. I'm Jessica Ettinger, CNBC.