CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Higher, Defending Fed Chair Independence, Cane Sugar & Corn Syrup In Soda 7/17/25

Episode Date: July 17, 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 Wall Street's hired this afternoon. The Dow now up 203 points. Traveler's shares leading it higher. They're up three and a half percent. The S&P 500 index up 31 points. That's a half percent. The NASDAQ is up 170 points, eight tenths of a percent. Nvidia shares are up more than one percent now and they've hit a record high. Other companies

whose shares have hit fresh records today include Caterpillar, Microsoft, Emerson Electric, Broadcom, Oracle, and Palantir. As President Trump calls for Fed Chair Jay Powell to lower interest rates, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren joined CNBC to talk about that. The Fed chair is different from all of the cabinet officials. All the cabinet officials can say, as they have, I will do whatever the president of the United States wants me to do. The Fed chair sits in a different box, and he is supposed to be independent and make those decisions. I disagree with him often in this case about how he's made those decisions. But the independence itself, it's a

value to the United States. It's a value to our markets. If Donald Trump destroys that, then he brings down those markets. He burns something of value to the United States. Archer Daniels Midland shares were lower after President Trump said Coca-Cola will be made with cane sugar. Coke executives told NBC they didn't commit to that. ADM is a food processing company that supplies high fructose corn syrup. Sugar futures were soaring today.

Meantime over at PepsiCo, CNBC's Jim Cramer asked that CEO if Pepsi will replace corn syrup with sugar. If the consumer was the president and he drank Pepsi co and he called you and he said, listen, I really want I want cane sugar. Would you do it? There is a there is there is obviously an opportunity for a sugar cane. I think some consumers like it. Jim, sugar is more expensive in the U.S. than in many parts of the world. So I think there is a conversation with the government probably on how do we make sugar more affordable in the U.S.?

That's PepsiCo CEO Ramon LaGuarda with Mad Money host Jim Cramer. Pepsi out with strong quarterly results. Even as demand in the U.S. has fallen, it's benefiting from the weaker US dollar overseas. Pepsi, meantime, will release naked Doritos and naked Cheetos without artificial colors in the US to see if consumers still buy them. The US is short on housing, needs about seven million new homes to meet demand,

but home builders are still having to cut prices on what they've built. Price cuts at their highest in three years and the way they feel about their business is still low. Home builder sentiment has been negative now for 15 straight months. The builders still cite poor affordability conditions, particularly from elevated interest rates as a major headwind. That's why 38% of builders said they cut prices in July. That's the highest share since any HP began tracking this in 2022. CNBC is Diana Olek retail sales rebounded for a strong June from a week. May the US consumer spent more than expected last month. The open championship is on at Royal Port Rush in Northern Ireland for

golf fans. Jessica Edinger CNBC. Breaking earnings news this week on CNBC and streaming on CNBC+.