CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Higher, Small Businesses Shed Jobs, Natural Gas Prices At 3 Year High 12/3/25

Episode Date: December 3, 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, Wall Street's back in the green this afternoon. The Dow now up 338 points. 3 quarters percent. United Health shares are leading the Dow higher. They're up 4%. The S&P 500 index up 18 points. The NASDAX up 28 points. Shares of NVIDIA are still lower. They're down three quarters of a percent. Markets are watching new weak job data from ADP. Private employers shed jobs again in November as the labor market slowdown continues. Payrolls fell 32,000 led by steep small business job cuts. This is a mom and pop story because if you look at where the losses came in, it was for firms with headcount under 50.

They are going to have a hiring freeze. They may not hire a teenager or two in the bakery over the holiday season. They're going to make these small changes that add up to a lot because 44% of U.S. workers, workers work in these mom and pop firms. ADP chief economist Neela Richardson on CNBC, people who are staying in their current jobs also are getting smaller raises in the new data. Silver with a fresh intraday record high today, natural gas at a three-year high, which can hit consumers who heat their homes or run their stoves or dryers with it, and it's because

of cold weather and AI. You know, we are entering the highest demand time of the year for natural gas. gas. And so we have seen gas prices, you know, get to $5 per MNVTU. We do see the winter, you know, colder than maybe normal. Yeah, demand is strong. I mean, we have ramped natural gas. We've grown demand in the United States by 60 percent over the last 15 years. That's a lot of demand growth. And now we see AI and the race for build out of data centers and data center capacity. It's going to have to largely lean on natural gas. That's William's CEO, Chad Zammerin on CNBC. Dealers are really down on their business.

With new car prices now at record highs, CNBC's Phil LeBoe has the latest from Cox Automotive. Dealer sentiment for the third quarter, it's not good. In fact, they are seeing slowing traffic. It is the lowest dealer sentiment on consumers buying new vehicles since 2020. That's CNBC's Phil LeBoe. You think dealers want to tell you that if you want a new car, you'll have to take a seven-year loan to make the payment work in your budget? A seven-year loan is 84 months now.

might need an eight-year car loan. Well, we have definitely seen growth in the 84-month loans, and we continue to see some growth in loans that are above 84 months, you know, 85 plus, even loans above 96 months. However, it's a very small percentage. I mean, we're talking less than a quarter of a percentage of all loans are going to be over 96. But the 84-month loan continues to grow. That's experienced Melinda Zabritsky on CNBC. Powerball jackpot tonight. eighth largest in the history of the game at $775 million. The Rockefeller Center tree lighting ceremony is tonight in New York. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC.

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