CNBC Business News Update - Market Close: Stocks Lower, The S&P 500 Index Is On A 5 Day Losing Streak, ESPN Streaming Service Launches 8/21/25

Episode Date: August 21, 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 Ettinger. CNBC, Wall Street opens Friday morning after a down day for stocks. The S&P 500 index riding a five-day losing streak now. The Dow was down 152 points led lower by shares of Walmart down almost four and a half percent on disappointing quarterly results. The S&P 500 index down 25. The NASDAQ was down 72 points. InVIDIA shares were down a quarter percent. Data show investors are bed. on an interest rate cut by the Fed next month, but markets may be pulling back because not everybody thinks that's locked in. Maybe it's not 80% after all as the odds of a Fed rate cut. If I had to put my own probability on it, it's under 50%. I'll give you 40%. Yardini researchers Ed Yardinney on CNBC. Some would-be-home buyers have been holding off waiting for mortgage rates to fall, thinking that a Fed cut will mean lower mortgage rates. But last year, When the Fed cut interest rates, mortgage rates shot up. Well, I just think long-term interest rates are going to remain elevated.

Just as we saw after the Fed cut 100 basis points at the end of 2024, long rates went straight up and have been around those levels since. Those looking to buy a home should not necessarily bet that they're going to get rate relief with the cut in short-term interest rates. One point BFG wealth partners, chief investment officer Peter Bookfar on CNBC. Investors will pay close attention to what Fed Chair J. Powell says about a possible rate cut when he speaks Friday at the Jackson Hole Summit. Existing home sales rose 2% in July. Better than expected, more than a third of all home sales were all cash deals. And sellers are having to cut prices because homes have been sitting on the market longer. The median price of a home sold in July was $422,400, an increase of just 0.2% from July of last year. prices have been up annually for just over two years.

This may be a turning point, given that very, very slight increase. CNBC's Diana Oleg. Walmart, the latest retailer to show how President Trump's tariffs are hitting U.S. businesses. It had its first earnings miss in three years in the last quarter. Jeffries Corey Tarlow told CNBC that while Walmart is known for low prices and it beat Target on price for back to school, prices overall at Walmart are higher. What we've seen in our data is that their pricing basket versus Target because we did a back-to-school survey is about 8% cheaper at Walmart than what you find at Target.

On a like-for-like basis, though, across their entire box in the U.S., pricing's up about 3%. And here's CNBC's Melissa Repco. As they raise prices for some of those tariff-impacted areas, CEO Doug McMillan mentioned on the call that with lower and middle-income consumers, they're seeing some switching to other categories, some pullback. So perhaps some early signs of what's to come. Disney's new ESPN streaming service has launched. For $30 a month, you get ESPN, Disney Plus, and Hulu bundled together.

I wanted to go to pricing because $29.99 is where you're starting. Bob, you and I sat together, I think it was the fall of 2019. I might have it wrong in terms of exactly when you launched Disney Plus, and it was $6.99. And now it's $15.99 for no ads. So I do wonder, what kind of trajectory on pricing do you see here for this product? We don't really know, David, it's too early. We think what we're going out with Disney Plus and with Hulu for $299.99 is just an incredible value to consumers. We really haven't predicted or projected what the pricing will be or what the pricing can be.

On Friday's watch list, Fed Chair J. Powell will speak at the Jackson Hole Economics Symposium. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC.