CNBC Business News Update - Market Close: Stocks Higher, S&P 500 Index At Record High, Visa Accused of Debit Monopoly By DOJ 9/24/24

Episode Date: September 24, 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 Wednesday morning with the S&P 500 index at yet another record high. The major averages all in the green on Tuesday. The Dow up 83 points. The S&P 500 index up 14 points and the Nasdaq was up 100 points. That was a half percent. Companies whose shares hit fresh all-time highs on Tuesday include Netflix, Booking Holdings, Lowe's, Royal Caribbean, and Caterpillar. I think the reasons for the

buying are fairly obvious. We are now into the Fed loosening cycle, and the tightening cycle hasn't caused anything to blow up. Redholzz-Welts, Josh Brown on CNBC. Investors are waiting for the latest on inflation. That comes Friday morning. It'll be the personal consumption expenditures report. Visa facing an antitrust lawsuit from the Department of Justice over what it calls an illegal monopoly in the debit card business. The complaint alleges that Visa maintains its monopoly position by blocking the growth of existing competitors and preventing other firms from innovating new solutions.

The government says here that more than 60% of debit transactions in the U.S. run on Visa's network, which allows the company to charge more than $7 billion in processing fees every year. And the government says that Visa's agreements with merchants and banks punish its customers who route transactions to other networks or systems. CNBC's Eamon Javers. A Southwest Airlines shareholder meeting is being called by an activist investor group, Elliott. It's pushing Southwest Airlines to get more profitable. It's been forcing some big changes like getting rid of open seating and charging more for the better seats on planes like other airlines. Elliott has threatened to call for a shareholder meeting as they believe that the current management and the current actions by Southwest Airlines are not enough to improve the position of the airline right now.

They are also telling shareholders they're not happy with where Southwest is with the current leadership. And we know that there is a an investor day on Thursday where Southwest will provide greater detail for how it plans to turn around the airline. I don't think that matters to Elliott. Elliott's belief is there's nothing you can tell us right now that convinces us that this is the right path for the airline. CNBC's Phil LeBeau. Novo Nordisk's CEO testified Tuesday at a Senate hearing on why weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy cost so much more for Americans than for people overseas. He partially blamed pharmacy benefit managers as middlemen in the U.S., PBMs. Many of those are owned by insurance companies.

While the current system makes huge profits for large drug companies like Novo Nordisk, huge profits for insurance companies and huge profits for PBMs. The outrageously high cost of Ozempic, Wegovy and other prescription drugs is directly related to the broken, dysfunctional, and cruel health care system in our country. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. PepsiCo's Mountain Dew brand out with this year's Voodoo Mystery flavor. It's a Halloween tradition and everyone on social media is trying to guess what it tastes like. On Wednesday's watch list, we get earnings from Micron, new home sales numbers for August. We also find out how many people applied for mortgages last week. Watching Helene as Florida braces for a hurricane.

Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. The vote. It's as American as apple pie. It's iconic. Patriotic. And this November, we're all chanting, it's your turn. Voter up.