CNBC Business News Update - Market Close: Stocks Modestly Higher, Amazon Hits 2 Trillion Dollar Market Cap, New Car Prices Drop...Again 6/26/24

Episode Date: June 26, 2024

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 and reported by CNBC's Jessica Ettinger.

I'm Jessica Edinger, CNBC. Two trading days left in June, the second quarter in the first half of the year. Wall Street opens Thursday morning after modest gains for the major averages Wednesday. The Dow was up 15 points. It's back above 39,000. The S&P 500 index up 8 points and the Nasdaq was up 87 points, just about a half percent. There's not a lot of kind of macro complications entering the picture just now. I do wonder if PCE is going to provide us a little bit of clarity one way or the other on Friday. CNBC's Mike Santoli. PCE is the Personal Consumption Expenditures Report.

That's a measure of inflation. Companies whose shares hit fresh all-time highs on Wednesday include Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, TJ Maxx and Marshalls parent TJX Companies, and Amazon, which hit a $2 trillion market cap for the first time. NVIDIA shares finished Wednesday slightly higher after pulling back over the past few days. One investor says after NVIDIA topped Microsoft as the biggest company in the world by market value, a drawdown has been a good thing. I think it's a healthy reaction to what has been a parabolic move. You look at the stock up over 100% year to date. I think it's healthy that we're seeing these drawdowns of 10, 15%.

Deepwater assets, Doug Clinton on CNBC. Rivian shares were up 20%. Volkswagen will invest up to five billion dollars in the EV maker. Newly built home sales fell more than 11 percent in May. It was the biggest monthly decline in almost two years. These numbers are based on signed contracts during the month so people out shopping and basing their decision on that mortgage rate at that time. We did see a price drop 1% year over year, so not huge. The builders, of course, have been buying down mortgage rates,

but they're talking more about concessions. We've seen that in the builders' earnings reports. And then supply, we went to a 9.3-month supply from a 9.1-month supply. So supply is building. Basically, the builders have said that people are interested but not signing on the dotted line. And what we're seeing is that the housing market is really stalling this summer. CNBC's Diana Olick. The Biden administration lowering costs for more than 60 drugs using inflation penalties on the drug makers. Cars aren't cheap by any means, but prices, well, they are dropping. Eight straight months where we have seen a year-over-year decline in prices. That's rare. You don't see that very often within new vehicle pricing. A couple of things are happening here.

First of all, you've got new vehicle inventories climbing. Why? Automakers are building more vehicles. And as they are building more vehicles, the dealers have more inventory and incentives are up substantially, on average about $3,200. CNBC's Phil LeBeau. Target joining Walmart and Amazon with big sales next month to move merchandise. Target's Circle Week starts July 7th. Walmart's Deals sale starts July 8th. Amazon has a two-day Prime Day sale July 16th and 17th. On Thursday's watch list, it's all about U.S. economic growth. We get the new GDP, gross domestic product numbers, for the first quarter. Earnings are coming from Spicemaker McCormick, Walgreens, and Nike. We find out how many people applied for unemployment benefits last week.

We get pending home sales numbers. And the presidential debate is set for Thursday night, 9 p.m. Eastern on CNN. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. The Olympic Games are coming. But first, the best American athletes have to make Team USA. The U.S. Olympic Team Trials on NBC and Peacock.