CNBC Business News Update - Market Close: Stocks Higher, S&P 500 Index At Fresh All Time High, FTC & 7 States Sue Ticketmaster Parent Live Nation 9/18/25

Episode Date: September 18, 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I'm Jessica Eddinger. CNBC, Wall Street opens Friday morning after another all-time high for the S&P 500 index and a winning day for stocks. The Dow Thursday up 124 points led higher by shares of Caterpillar up 3.5%. The S&P 500 index was up 31 points, a half percent. The NASDAQ up 209 points, almost 1%. NVIDIA shares were up 3.5% on Thursday. Companies who shares at fresh all-time highs include Google Parent Alphabet, Take 2 Interactive, American Express, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Caterpillar, Lamb Research, Micron, Seagate, and Western Digital. The Fed cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point on Wednesday sees two more cuts this year, one for next year. Some investors are cautious about the whole thing. The Fed came out with a dot plot that did surprise everyone, suggesting three cuts. And here's the rub, is that their outlook on the economy was that it's much weaker than they were previously telegraphing.

That was the surprise. And that sets up sort of a good news, bad news. Good news, we could get more cuts, bad news. The economy could go much weaker, and we could see that reflect in earnings. Chantico Global's Gina Sanchez on CNBC. Pastor Parent Live Nation shares were down Thursday 2%. The attorneys general of seven states and the Federal Trade Commission are suing the company. The BOTS Act passed in 2016, better online ticket sales.

And as part of that act, there was a limit placed on automated like bots, literally, buying up huge amounts of tickets and then reselling them. What the FTC and these seven states are saying is that Live Nation and Ticketmaster didn't do a good enough. job monitoring whether or not these types of automated buys and cells were taking place on the platform and they're alleging that the company is allowing it to happen because they're making more money from it. The company hasn't responded yet. Ritt Holtz-Welts, Josh Brown on CNBC. Eli Lilly's Zepbound versus Novo Nordisk's Wagovi. It's the battle of the weight loss drugs. With the injections, Lilly's Zepbound found to have more efficacy and both companies working furiously to develop daily pills for people who don't want to take weekly shots.

Well, Novo is now out with trial results that are better than expected for its pill. Wagovi and a pill, as Novo is now calling it, produced weight loss of more than 16% at the highest dose. And that is important because Lily's pill is showing about 12% weight loss. And now you have Novo out here saying, look, our pill is just as good as our weekly shot. And so now we have a viable competitor here. For so long, people thought that Lily would just naturally dominate. You can already see this change in posture from Novo that they're putting in their press release. This is Wagovi in a pill.

CNBC's Angelica Peebles. Intel shares flew higher by 22% on Thursday. Invidia is investing $5 billion in the chip maker to co-develop data center and PC chips. $900 a year for a charge card for your wallet. The newly refreshed American Express Platinum card goes up from a $700 a year fee as it fights the Chase Sapphire Reserve and the Capital One Venture X cards for space in wealthy consumers' wallets. Amex says its customers can now tap into more than $3,000 worth of benefits. On Friday's watch list, Apple's iPhone 17 is available to buy new in theaters.

Sony's a big, bold, beautiful journey, and Universal's Him, is a sister company to CNBC. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. CNBC is the network for ambitious people.