CNBC Business News Update - Market Close: Stocks Lower, Budget Bill Causes Fear Of Higher Interest Rates, Subaru Increases Prices 5/20/25

Episode Date: May 20, 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 Wednesday morning after a losing day for the major averages. The Dow was down 114 points, let lower by shares of American Express down 1%. The S&P 500 index down 23. The NASDAQ was down 72 points. Nvidia shares were down almost 1%. Companies who shares hit fresh all- time highs on Tuesday include TJ Maxx and Marshall's parent TJX companies Monster Beverage, Cardinal Health, Quest Diagnostics, McKesson, IBM and Uber. The S&P 500 index just 3% away from its record high. It's perfectly okay to have a flat market, given the trauma that we've lived through over the last, I don't know, six weeks or so. It's perfectly OK for us to stall at some point. I guess the big concern here would be, are we experiencing a bull trap?

Did we rally all the way back just to have the stool kicked out from under us? I hope that's not the case. Ritholtz-Welts, Josh Brown on CNBC. Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaking on CNBC Tuesday. He's back at the Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, where he says robo-taxis will be on local roads next month. And he spoke with CNBC about the future of the company. Well, really the only things that matter in the long term are autonomy and optimists. Well, really the only things that matter in the long term are autonomy and optimists. Those overwhelmingly dominate the future financial success of the company.

Musk says he will commit to running Tesla for the next five years. Meantime, more Tesla owners are switching to Cadillac electric vehicles. General Motors says nearly eight of every 10 customers buying a Cadillac EV are new to the brand and about 10% of those people are trading in their Teslas for it. President Trump told Republicans on Capitol Hill to stop messing around, don't touch Medicaid and get the budget bill done. Well, so the bill does have about $715 billion of Medicaid cuts in it right now. I think

the president's message in this meeting was to tell the conservative hardliners not to push for further cuts to Medicaid. You know, if you fully extend the expiring provisions in this bill, which I think is a reasonable expectation, it's about $3.7 trillion in addition to the deficit relative to current law. You know, the fiscal situation's bad and getting worse, and we're seeing that in the long end of the curve. Wolf Research head of policy and politics Tobin Marcus on CNBC. Meantime, the president again touted major tax cuts in the budget bill, and they will increase the deficit, which is high. And that's why Moody's downgraded the U.S. credit rating last weekend.

Jim, his comments about tax cuts kind of collide with what we heard from Moody's, what, 48 hours ago? It does. And I think everybody wants tax cuts. It's kind of universal. But we've seen interest rates every time we hear those discussions go up. This is one that's in our face. The idea that you at this very moment want to say, largest tax cut, that's our job, is to say, look, this is going to make it so rates can go up, which makes it so there's a lot of bad things that happen in the economy. CNBC Mad Money host Jim Cramer

and CNBC's Carl Quintanilla. Subaru raising prices on several models, passing along the Trump tariffs earlier this month. Ford did the same thing. Levi Strauss selling dockers to Authentic Brands Group, which controls Reebok and Nautica. On Wednesday's watch list earnings are coming from a biggie Target plus TJ Maxx and Marshall's parent TJX companies and urban outfitters. Jessica Ertinger CNBC.

You come to my show and you learn how to do stocks. Mad Money, weeknight 6 Eastern CNBC.