CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Higher, Questions About Better Than Expected Inflation Report, No Powerball Winner 12/18/25

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

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I'm Jessica Edinger, CNBC, Wall Street in the green this afternoon. Investors are cheering cooler than expected inflation for November. They're hoping that if the Fed doesn't worry about inflation and then turns its attention to the weakening job market, it could keep cutting interest rates, and investors would love that. Major average is all in the green this afternoon, but stocks were off their earlier highs. The Dow is up 285 points. it had been up 400 points. Amazon shares leading the way up 2.5% this afternoon.

The S&P 500 index up 80 points, that's 1%. The NASDAQ up 413 points, 1.8%. Shares of NVIDIA this afternoon are up 2.5%. Companies who shares have hit fresh all-time highs today include Hilton and Marriott, Ralph Lauren, the New York Times Company too. Micron shares up 15% as AI memory demand soars. Micron says profits are going to fly as chips sell out. The delayed CPI Consumer Price Index showed inflation rose again last month, but not as drastically as feared.

Oh, maybe coming in a little bit better than expected. 2.7%, a little light here, year over year, 27, X Food and Energy Core 26, so 4 tenths off. That is a very good number here. CNBC senior economics reporter Steve Leesman. But here with CNBC's Carl Cantonia, there's talk about the accuracy of this new CPI report. Some questions now being raised about how much we might trust to this print. Are Steve Leesman's looking into that? I've seen the Buccellus response this morning.

Dude, that was one flawed report. Stocks loving this cooler than expected inflation report. The bond market and economists highly skeptical with many saying, changes to the data gathering process. They started gathering data mid-month, distorted the numbers. RSM saying, as Carl just quoted, dude, that was one flawed report. Morgan Stanley, a little more perhaps politics, saying this was a noisy print, making it difficult to draw strong conclusions. The bond market, they were not impressed here. Stocks, maybe they're looking for a reason to rally. And one economist tells CNBC, the devil appears to be in the details in this November report.

It's frustrating because they haven't even posted the information that I would need to parse all of this, given the confusing way they've displayed the information. But the important number is the year-over-year change in the prices of core goods. And that was 1.4%. And that may not sound like a lot, but this is a category that in normal times has negative inflation all the time. And this is where we're seeing tariffs. Brookings institutions Wendy Edelberg on CNBC. Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week, remaining in the same range as the past few years. Continuing claims, though, rose to 1.9 million again.

The number of people still collecting benefits week after week. That's a hint that it's taking people longer to find the next job. Chipotle launching a new protein-focused menu, including meat in a cup. Eli Lilly says it's working on an obesity pill that helps patients to maintain their weight loss. after they come off Zepbound or Novo Nordisk's similar shot called Wagovi. The pill is in late-stage trial. It has to be taken every day. The powerball jackpot up again.

No winner last night. Saturday night's drawing will be $1.5 billion. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. Become a smarter investor with CNBC Pro, 24-7 access to market-moving news and interviews with three global live streams. Subscriber-only content plus exclusive. live events. This is my first time at the stock exchange and it's been awesome. To be on the floor, I just can't believe I'm here. Become a CNBC pro. Go to cnbc.com slash get pro now.