CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Higher, Fed Official Says Interest Rate Cut On The Table, Consumer Sentiment Near Record Low 11/21/25

Episode Date: November 21, 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 and reported by CNBC's Jessica Ettinger. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I'm Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. We've got a rally on Wall Street this afternoon. The Dow now up 650 points, almost one and a half percent. A market rebound, although the major averages are on pace for a losing week. The S&P right now up 78 points, more than 1%. The NASDAQ up 235 points. That's a little more than 1%. Eli Lilly, its shares were higher, and it hit a one-trade. trillion market value today, the drug maker of Zepbound and Manjaro. The one trillion dollar market cap is a first for a health care company. Investors today like that the New York Fed President John Williams said there is room for an interest rate cut at the Fed's next meeting, which is next month. The government canceled inflation data, though, for October and the November CPI, the Consumer Price Index. That's going to be out after the Fed meeting. So it is expected to show rising prices, but the Fed will be blind in making its decision on December 10th. Williams comes on and then suddenly everything's fine. I don't think so. You don't think

everything's fine. No, there's a lot of people have to get out. Let them get out. This is not what suddenly they wave a magic wand. We always have real issues. We have issues with the building out the data center unlimited. We have issues with a lot of people, you know, the strategies, the micro strategies. CNBC's David Faber with mad money host Jim Kramer. Bitcoin down around 83,000 this afternoon, losing about a third of its value just this month. More than $2 billion in leverage crypto bets were wiped out in the past 24 hours.

And the big institutional buyers, at least so far, have not been stepping in. And this isn't just a knock-on effect from macro headwinds and concerns that we won't get a Fed rate cut next month. The sell-off actually traces back to a flash crash in early October, on U.S.-China trade tensions. CNBC's McKenzie Seagalos. American consumers still feeling pretty rotten in the new consumer sentiment data. Not necessarily good news here.

These are University of Michigan November final reads and close to the all-time low, which was 50. And this comes in at 51.0. So still quite weak in the grand scheme of history. Now if you look at current, that moved down from 52.3 to 51.1. and that is a new low. CNBC's Rick Santelli.

Gap shares were pumping today on better than expected quarterly results, not counting the pandemic, same store sales growth, the fastest in eight years. Gap's third quarter results beating forecast, same store sales jumping by 5%. That's the strongest growth since back in 2017, thanks in part to the viral Better and Denham ad campaign with Grow Group Katzai.

Our strategies are working. It's working across the board. It's clear. We're showing momentum, and it's not just Old Navy, although I want to talk about it. Old Navy up six, Gap up seven, banana up four, gross margin, exceeding expectations. Gap CEO telling CNBC, the holiday season, it's off to a great start, and the company has not had to use as many promotions or discounts. CNBC's Frank Holland. New in theaters, searchlights, rental family, and Universal's Wicked for Good. Universal's a sister company to CNBC. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. Join the club with Jim's best deal of the year at CNBC.com slash Club Black Friday. Terms and restrictions apply.