CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Higher, Nvidia Takes Stake In Nokia, Amazon And UPS Cutting Tens Of Thousands Of Jobs 10/28/25

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

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I'm Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. Wall Street's in the green this afternoon, a record-setting day today. Investors are hopeful that President Trump's promise to announce a trade deal with China on Thursday happens. The Dow is up 181 points, three-tenths of a percent. The S&P 500 index still in the green, up five points. The NASDAQ is up 97 points, almost a half percent. The S&P 500 index hit a fresh record high today, Apple and Microsoft, each topped $4 trillion in market cap. Companies whose shares hit fresh all-time highs today include Google Parent Alphabet, Morgan Stanley, Apple, CrowdStrike, IBM, Palo Alto Networks, and AMD, to name a few.

Invidia says it's taking a $1 billion stake in Nokia. The markets may be soaring, but consumer confidence is false. It fell in October to its lowest level since April in the new report from the conference board. Inflation is higher, and next year's Social Security cost of living increase was announced at just 2.8%. That starts January 1st. Beneficiaries could start the new year underwater, not keeping up with the current inflation rate. Silver Crests, Robert Teeter, isn't worried about the tariff impact on the economy, even with inflation steadily rising since April. back then it was 2.3 percent. Now it's at 3 percent for September. I think we hit peak uncertainty on tariffs back in April. While the uncertainty is still there, the picture is becoming clearer by the

day. As deals get struck and as exemptions get made, we're better able to calculate and estimate what the effects are on the overall economy. And they've been far less than advertised in terms of the expectations that people had back in April. So I agree that it's still a very big and important issue, but it's one that's mostly in the rearview mirror in terms of drag on the economy. Amazon firing tens of thousands of workers. It's going to lay off about 14,000 corporate employees as it restructures for the AI era, marking the latest move in a multi-year effort to streamline operations and shift resources toward its biggest bets, including generative AI. The company has about 350,000 corporate employees, meaning that the confirmed cuts affect

roughly 4% of that workforce. But what I will say is that the Those layoffs are expected to become the largest corporate job cuts in Amazon's history. Reuters reporting the total could go as high as 30,000. And the company did signal that more layoffs are likely in the year ahead. CNBC's McKenzie Seagallos. UPS reported better than expected quarterly results. Its solution to the tariff costs and automation is to fire tens of thousands of workers, nearly 50,000. Plans to cut 14,000 corporate jobs and 34,000 operational jobs.

I spoke with some executives from the company. They said this total of 48,000 was partly due to phasing out Amazon volumes and also nearing a deal to return its lower cost shipping option back to the post office. So, of course, that leaves the question, today I play a part in this workforce reduction. Now, the company officials I spoke with said it was a factor, but they pointed more to automation and facilities. CNBC's Frank Holland, and here's Citigroup's Ari Rosa on CNBC with his take on UPS. Look, the tariff impacts are very clearly flowing through into UPS, right? And so UPS is one of the largest unionized companies in the country.

It absolutely is the bellwether of the economy. Paramount Skydance cutting a thousand jobs. Reports say it's the first round after the merger of Paramount and Skydance. Paramount owns CBS TV, CBS News, cable channels like MTV and more. Gold has pulled back below $4,000 announced, but central banks around the world now hold more gold than they hold U.S. for the first time in 30 years. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. We're celebrating our 30th anniversary.

I think the investing market is all tailwind, except it can't possibly be. Celebrating 30 years of Squackbox and streaming on CNBC Plus.