CNBC Business News Update - Market Close: Stocks Mixed, 30-Year Mortgages Hit 7.2%, Gas Nears $4.50 • 9/18/26

Episode Date: September 18, 2026

CNBC Business News Update with Jessica Ettinger - Markets & Business News With Expert Analysis From Top Business Names. Visit 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.

CNBC Business News Update. I'm Jessica Eddinger. Wall Street opens Monday morning after a mixed Friday for stocks and a mixed week as well. With only the NASDAQ notching a winning week on Friday, the Dow was down 95 points led lower by shares of IBM. They were down 3%. Disney dropped 2%. The S&P 500 index was in the green up 12. The NASDAQ was up 104 points on Friday. The index is kind of surviving, if not thriving. You know, we're flattish basically on the week. And I think that a lot of that is because just enough of the big names have managed to get revived and support the index. You know, pretty good 5% two-day rally in semiconductors. But of course, they're still as a group 20% off their highs.

It's kind of market we have. It's kind of day-to-day. One thing or the other is working and it hasn't been able to really get up much of a head of steam. That's CNBC's Mike Santoli. It was a week when the Fed raised interest rates, and by Friday afternoon, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was back up over 5%. Mortgage rates ticked higher, too, would be homebuyers outlooking over the weekend, facing the highest mortgage rates in about a year and a half. We've crossed a very real psychological threshold of 7%.

The pressure on the first-time homebuyer at any decision point is affecting everything. That's the XP Realty CEO, Leo Pereja, on CNBC. The average rate on a 30-year fixed home loan sitting at 7.2 percent, according to Mortgage News Daily, back in February, before the U.S. sent missiles into Iran. It was in the fives. It had dropped to 5.99%. Serious concerns about AI safety and the debate rages about rogue agents wiping out humanity, perhaps triggering nuclear weapons or creating bio-weapons or worse, and humans unable to stop this. Microsoft published a code. of conduct to help govern its AI models. Its key message is that people matter more than AI. CNBC asked Microsoft CEO of AI, Mustafa Suleiman, about liability and what happens when an AI model causes damage? I just got an email a couple weeks ago from the manufacturer of my car.

There was a defect with it. I took it back. They repaired it at no cost. That's how it works. is why there's even an issue. Manufacturers are responsible for the quality and the safety of the products they create. We've got an incredible track record as a society of doing that for 100 years. Broadly speaking, airlines are incredibly safe.

Cars are incredibly safe. They enable us to eat healthy food that doesn't poison us. And we shouldn't be reinventing the wheel here. It's another weekend of pain at the pump for American drivers, even with U.S. crude oil trading under $100 a barrel by Friday afternoon, the national average for a gallon of regular, near $4.50. A dozen states, it's higher than that. Diesel, with a fresh record high on Friday, according to AAA.

The market is proving that it has zero tolerance for any refinery problems. There was a refinery problem at the Exxon Mobil plant in Joliet, Illinois. There was a problem at the Valero Refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. subsequently we've seen prices in Chicago, for example, go up by 40 or 50 or 60 cents a gallon. So that's pretty daunting. It's pretty challenging going forward. That's Gulf Oil's Chief Energy Advisor Tom Closa on CNBC. On the coming week's watch list, earnings are coming from Costco, Olive Garden, Parent, Darden restaurants, home builder KB Home, AutoZone and General Mills.

We get newly built home sales numbers. We get the latest on consumer sentiment as consumers watch prices at the pump. And the UN General Assembly is on in New York. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC.