CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Higher, Oil Lower But Gas Higher, American's Bigger Tax Refunds May Get Eaten By Gas Prices 3/10/26

Episode Date: March 10, 2026

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I'm Jessica Eddinger. CNBC, Wall Street with a nice bounce this afternoon for the major averages as oil prices are lower. The Dow now up 275 points, a half a percent. Cisco shares leading it higher, they're up 3%. The S&P 500 index up 25 points. The NASDAX up 139 points. Invidia shares up 1.5% this afternoon. Oil prices are down.

U.S. crude sitting around $85 a barrel now. Back below 100, but some investors are still on high alert. For as dramatic as the decline has been in crude, what are we up? Like still 35% from where we were at the end of February, which is usually what qualifies as an oil spike. CNBC's Mike Santoli. And even though oils pulled back, prices at the pump are still going up. AAA says the national average for a gallon of regular went up again overnight. Another 4 cents a gallon to a national average of $3.54.

gas at the pump has gone from, you know, 270 up to 350. If we stay up at 350, you're going to see some economic impact, and I think people are going to respond. That's 22V's research as Jordy Visser on CNBC, and that response could be less spending on other things for American families that have to drive and keep the car filled. Higher for longer oil and gas may mean your bigger tax refund this spring, at least partially, may have to go to the gas station. The consumer is still going to get a boost. Tax refunds are meaningful. The question is how much of that is knocked out by, in effect, what we're calling the gasoline tax, the increase in the gasoline price.

If we get this more prolonged war with energy prices, oil prices only coming down to $85 by the end of the year, then we'd see gasoline at $3.55, a whole $0.65 more than we had penciled in before the conflict began. that would take out $68 billion and knockout fully half the tax refund month. That's Evercore ISI's Vice Chairman Krishna Guha on CNBC. Existing home sales rose in February from January. But sales were down from the same exact month last year. It's a sluggish lead-in to the spring home buying season. Tight supply is still pressuring prices.

The median price of a home sold in February $398,000, an increase of 0.3% year over. year. It continues to take longer to sell a home. 47 days up from 42 a year ago. 34% of buyers were first-timers, an increase from 31% a year ago, and 16% of sales were to investors unchanged firm a year ago. CNBC's Diana Oleg. Airline passengers are enduring longer and longer waits to get through security at some airports around the country as TSA workers are unpaid. The Department of Homeland Security unfunded. There's a lot of people aren't showing up to work. I don't think security is going to be sacrificed. Unfortunately, what will be sacrificed will be traveler convenience. So the lines that maybe took 10 minutes,

15 minutes will now take an hour, an hour and a half because TSA can't compromise the security there at that checkpoint. As the shutdown continues to drag on, unfortunately, you're likely going to see continued lines, particularly as we get into the heart of spring break here in March. Former acting Homeland Security Secretary in the first Trump administration, that's Chad Wolf on CNBC. McDonald's debuts its new Crocs Happy Meals Today in a collaboration with the Plastic Shoemaker. On Wednesday's watch list, we get the latest on inflation. The CPI Consumer Price Index will be out. We also get earnings from Campbell's and Petco.

Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. You come to my show and you learn how to do stocks. Mad Money, Weeknight, Six Eastern. CNBC.