CNBC Business News Update - Market Close: Stocks Rally, Dow Up 700, Nasdaq Up 460, Inflation Seems To Be "Contained" 1/15/25

Episode Date: January 15, 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 Edinger, CNBC. Stocks had their best performance in more than two months on Wednesday. The markets rallied on strong earnings from big banks like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup. And inflation data that showed consumer inflation seems to be under control and the idea of a Fed rate increase could be off the table. The Dow soared 703 points, more than one and a half percent. Led higher by shares of Goldman Sachs, up six percent. The S&P 500 index up 107 points. That was 1.8 percent. And the Nasdaq flew higher, up 466 points, almost two and a half percent.

Shares of Nvidia were up more than three percent on Wednesday. Companies whose shares hit fresh all-time highs include American Express, Discover, Boston Scientific, Intuitive Surgical, and GE Vrnova, plus NRG Energy. Inflation at the consumer level, the CPI, Consumer Price Index, it rose for the third straight month in December, but the headline year-over-year number came in right as expected. Year-over-year numbers, here we go on the headline year-over-year up 2.9, two-tenths higher than our last look, which was 2.7. CNBC's Rick Santelli. Here's CNBC senior economics reporter Steve Leisman. It's a good number. You can see how concerned the market has

been with this possibility that inflation was going to get out of control. So this now sort of says, all right, the Fed can be on hold, but we don't have to talk about the idea of hiking rates. Mortgage rates ticked lower Wednesday, falling from their highest since last May as bond yields eased after that contained inflation report. The average rate on the 30-year fixed drop to 7.13%, according to Mortgage News Daily. Still not great, but better. Rates had been rising sharply since early December. Now mortgage demand from home buyers still weaker than it was last year, as rates are now higher than they were last year.

CNBC's Diana Olick. Bitcoin back above 100,000 Wednesday. Oil popped on Wednesday above $80 a barrel for WTI, West Texas Intermediate, which means you could see higher prices at the pump down the road. Taxpayers in high tax states like New Jersey are screaming that incoming President Trump is now flip-flopping on a campaign promise to reverse his cap on deductions he put through during his first term. It was called the SALT cap. It took away the full deduction of state and local taxes on federal returns, capping it at $10,000, when many homeowners pay twice that in property taxes alone.

You know, the biggest problem that I have is that Trump is backtracking again. In other words, he's the one that caused this. Then he came here and said, oh, I'm going to get rid of the SALT cap. And now he's saying, well, maybe we'll raise it a little, but not that much. He is backtracking. And I don't like this idea that, you know, maybe we'll raise the cap a little, but not go back to where you were able to deduct the whole thing, which is what was promised during this campaign. New Jersey Congressman Frank Pallone on CNBC. On Thursday's watch list, earnings are coming from UnitedHealth plus Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Taiwan Semi. We find out how many people applied for unemployment benefits last week. NBC airs the SNL 50th anniversary special. NBC is a sister network to CNBC. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC.

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