CNBC Business News Update - Market Close: Stocks Mixed, Fed Chair Raises Doubts About More Rate Cuts This Year, Alphabet Quarterly Revenue Tops $100 Billion 10/29/25

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

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I'm Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. Wall Street opens Thursday morning after a whipsaw Wednesday for stocks. The major averages hit fresh intraday record highs. But then the Dow fell when Fed Chair J. Powell raised doubts about any more interest rate cuts coming this year. The Fed did cut Wednesday by a quarter percentage point. The Dow was down 74 points in the end. Boeing shares dragged it lower. They were down 4%. The S&P 500 index. unchanged, the NASDAQ was up 130 points. That was a half percent. As expected, the Fed cut the overnight bank lending rate by a quarter point. You will pay slightly less in interest on any credit card balances you are carrying and other adjustable debt you might have. But investors want more cuts from the Fed. So after we got that, you know, admonition from Chair Powell that,

hey, don't count on a December rate cut, whether in fact we take that and run with it or not, You see homebuilders down 3%. You've got regional banks down 2% on the day. And you have extreme negative breadth in the overall market, even as the S&P 500 is slightly green. That's CNBC's Mike Santoli. Google parent alphabet shares were higher in after hours trading. It reported some strong revenue in the last quarter.

Facebook parent meta shares were lower on its results after hours. Microsoft also reported Wednesday after the bell shares fell, even though results beat estimates. They literally have so much AI demand. They cannot meet it. They're actually turning away customers. Now, CFO, Amy Hood, originally predicted they'd catch up to that demand this year. That's now being pushed into 2026.

CNBC's Steve Kovac. Companies keep announcing job cuts over the past few weeks. It's been adding up into the hundreds of thousands. Amazon, UPS, Facebook, Target. And then on Wednesday, General Motors. announced 1,700 people would be fired. 350 at CarMax. One investor says there could be a tipping point.

When people lose a job, they stop spending. That's not good for the American economy, which is a consumer economy. If you commit to AI as a company and you show some increased productivity from it, you're going to get a halo effect from AI. So that's very positive right now. The question is, when does it turn negative?

because you're displacing buyers of consumer goods, meaning white collar, as we saw with Amazon, 14,000 of them. When does the tradeoff happen? Well, productivity of those companies and increased earnings offset massive, and I do believe, massive unemployment. Short Hills Capital, Steve Weiss on CNBC. On Wednesday, Nvidia became the first trillion-dollar company ever. It is a stunning number.

If you think about the growth that Nvidia has seen this year, close to 50% growth, on the back of this continuing exploding AI infrastructure buildout. The U.S. allowing NVIDIA to start selling that Blackwell chip into China where there would be insatiable demand for it. And so the president even winking about it, you know, it makes sense to me after that happened that we're seeing NVIDIA now exceed that $5 trillion, wild to say it, $5 trillion market gap. Big technologies, Alex Cantrowitz on CNBC.

More people applied for mortgages last week as interest rates hit their lowest in a year. The average rate on a 30-year fixed home loan as of Wednesday, 6.1 percent, according to Mortgage News Daily. On Thursday's watch list, more earnings coming from big names like Amazon and Apple. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. This December, CNBC opens its doors for an exclusive in-person experience at the iconic NASDAQ market site in New York City. Fast Money Live, Trading the Holidays. December 11th. Get your tickets now.

at CNBC Events.com slash fast money.