CNBC Business News Update - Market Close: Stocks Higher, S&P 500 Very Near Its Record High, Oil Lower, Amazon Deal For Satellite Service 4/14/26

Episode Date: April 14, 2026

CNBC Business News Update with Jessica Ettinger - market numbers and news featuring CNBC expert analysis and sound from top business names. Visit https://www.cnbc.com/ for more. 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. It was a winning Tuesday on Wall Street. Major averages all higher on hope for peace talks between the U.S. and Iran. The S&P 500 Index now just about 10 points from its all-time high. Oil prices pulled back Tuesday. The major averages, the Dow up 317 points, a half percent. It was led higher by shares of Amazon, which were up almost 4%. The S&P 500 index up 81 points, more than 1%.

The NASDAQ soared up 455 points. That was almost 2%. The major averages all in the green now for the month and for the year. State Streets Michael Errone answered the question. Everybody's been asking. Here done so by CNBC's Brian Sullivan. Make it make sense. We're at war.

Energy prices soaring. And yet the S&P is positive on the year. I don't understand it. So the economic data continues to be pretty solid. It's certainly not dismal yet. And we have fiscal stimulus, the potential for monetary stimulus. Overwhelmingly, the biggest fuel to the rally is earnings. Earnings results are outstanding and are expected to continue to be outstanding.

Bitcoin at its highest in more than two months. It hits $76,000, its highest level since February 4th. Prices at the pump. Down a little from last week, AAA says the national leverage for a gallon of regular $4.11 cents. American and United Airlines shares were higher on reports that United CEO Scott Kirby pitched a merger with American during a meeting with President Trump. The thing to keep in mind here is the wording behind the report that first came out from Bloomberg yesterday and then Reuters did a similar match later in the day saying that CEO Scott Kirby

has quote unquote floated the idea of a merger or United buying American Airlines. key word there is float. Apparently, he's discussed this with people in the administration. To my knowledge, there's been no discussions between United and American. Nothing official at this point. By the way, we reached out to both airlines. Neither have any comment on these reports of a potential deal. CNBC's Phil LeBoe. Amazon closed at its highest since last November. It's building a satellite internet service with the purchase of the company called Global Star. This is a roughly $11 billion a deal really meant to help Amazon beef up its satellite internet business known as Leo and then to help connect consumer smartphones and devices with those satellites. Amazon has been trying to make a dent into Elon Musk and SpaceX's dominance with Starlink.

CNBC's Kate Rooney. Wholesale inflation rose in March, but much less than expected, considering the war has pushed energy prices higher. Consumer confidence is sitting at a record low, but Americans went out in. bought stuff in March even at higher prices. CNBC senior economics reporter Steve Leesman has the latest in the CNBC NRF Retail Monitor with the National Retail Federation. Take a look at the year over year. The monitor shows some gathering strength actually for retail was spending up more than 7% compared to a year ago. Now some of that's going to be inflation, a point or two, higher from the higher inflation rate. But a bigger chunk is going to be real spending increases.

These numbers could look different next month when the bill for gasoline prices rise, possibly taking away from discretion items. The question will be how much remains out there from the bigger tax refunds to offset this. On Wednesday's watch list, earnings are coming from Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, J.B. Hunt Transport and Progressive. And Wednesday is IRS tax deadline day. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. ambitiously.