CNBC Business News Update - Market Close: Stocks Mixed, Fewest Job Openings In Five Years, Strong August Car Sales, Gold Hits 29th Record High Of The Year 9/3/25

Episode Date: September 3, 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 at Ingers, CNBC. Wall Street opens Thursday morning after a mixed day for the major averages. The Dow dropped 24 points off its earlier lows. It was led lower by shares of Chevron down more than 2%. The S&P 500 index was in the green on Wednesday, up 32 points. The NASDAQ was up 218 points. That was a full 1%. InVIDIA shares were down about a 10th of a percent on Wednesday. who shares at fresh all-time highs include Google Parent Alphabet, Ticketmaster Parent, Live Nation, and American Express. Job openings in the U.S. in July hit the lowest in five years in the new job opportunities and labor turnover report. Here's CNBC, Sarah Eisen, and Solace Alternative Assets, Dan Greenhouse on CNBC. Job openings fall to $7.2 million in July, so it's more evidence that we're in the cooling direction.

Six, seven million is perfectly in line with what the economy was doing pre-COVID. It has meaningfully slowed down. We know that there have been job losses among Hispanic-oriented industries like leisure and hospitality, and a couple of companies, Wingstop, raw stores, a couple of others have noted to slow down in that portion of the economy. So there are things going on under the hood that you have to pay attention to. Fewer people applied from mortgages to buy homes last week, as would-be homebuyers pull back. Holiday spending expected to drop this year. could be the worst pullback there since the pandemic and a new projection from consulting firm,

PWC. They're calling for a 5% spending drop highlighting the struggle Americans are facing, trying to pay their current bills and handle rising inflation. Somebody is spending, though, because a lot of people bought a lot of new cars in August. Strong numbers for the month of August, whether it is Hyundai, Toyota, Ford, all up year over year, Honda, the one outlier down 4.2%. What's driving all of this strength? Not all of it, but a good chunk of it. Strong demand for electric vehicles last month. Remember, the EV tax credit. It goes away at the end of September. That's $7,500 from the federal government. That won't be available come October. And as a result, the market share for EVs in August, likely to be 12% of sales. CNBC's Phil LeBoe. Chipotle on Thursday, we'll have Carney Asada in restaurants for a limited time. Here's CNBC's Kate Rogers. with CNBC anchor Brian Sullivan. Karnay Asada apparently is coming back to Chipoli,

but cattle futures are at record high prices. The price of steak is at record highs. Is now the time to bring back Carnayasada because steak is really, really, really expensive. So this is a hugely popular menu item. You know, you can get in most parts of the country an entree at Chipotle for about $10 before taxes and fees. So depending on where you are, that is the price tag.

did also hear from Chipotle executives this previous quarter that you did see some trade down to chicken entrees, for example, from a beef. Gold hit another new record high Wednesday. It's 29th record of the year. People sometimes buy gold as a hedge when they're uncertain about everything else. It closed at $3,635 an ounce. If you had bought a one ounce bar of gold at Costco last year, it'd be worth 32% more today. NBC. is already sold out of commercial time for next February's Super Bowl as the season begins Thursday night. NBC is a sister network to CNBC. Also on Thursday's watch list, we get earnings from Broadcom and Lulu Lemon. The ADP employment report will be out and we also find out how many

people applied for unemployment benefits. The NFL season does begin Thursday night. Eagles host the Cowboys. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. CNBC is the network for ambitious. people.