CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Higher, S&P 500 Index And Nasdaq Hit Intraday Highs, Southwest Starts Selling Assigned Seats Jan 27 2026 7/21/25

Episode Date: July 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 by CNBC's Jessica Ettinger.

I'm Jessica Ettinger, CNBC, Wall Street in the Green this afternoon. We've got some record highs both for the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 index. Look at that Dow up 241 points, a half percent. Verizon shares leading the way. Verizon's up almost 5% this afternoon. The S&P 500 index up 34 points. The Nasdaq up 126 points, a half percent for both of those indexes. Nvidia shares have slipped negative again. They're down a 10th of a percent. Companies who shares have hit fresh all time highs today include Southern Company, Fastenal, Coach Parent,

Tapestry and Broadcom. Southwest Airlines says tickets with seat assignments will go on sale one week from tomorrow. With its hallmark open seating policy ending on January 27th of next year. That's when the airline will start boarding passengers by groups. And there will be eight boarding groups for Southwest. Verizon out with better than expected quarterly results. That's why it's leading the Dow higher. Its customer base is holding up except for all the Doge employees who lost their jobs and their phones.

We have a very good market share in the public sector. So of course where we have now seen efficiency work happening in the government. So we had the outpour of customers there this quarter and even the first quarter. Probably going to continue a little bit into the second half. Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg on CNBC. Investors keeping an eye on the back and forth concerning whether President Trump tries to make a change at the top of the Fed by replacing Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The Treasury Secretary told CNBC this morning he'd like to see a review of the entire Federal Reserve.

What we need to do is examine the entire Federal Reserve institution and whether they have been successful. We should think has the organization succeeded in its mission? You know, if this were the FAA and we were having this many mistakes, we would go back and look at why has this happened? Treasury Secretary Scott Besant on CNBC. The U.S. playing hardball on tariffs as the deadline approaches and the European Union's reportedly battling for a deal.

Over the weekend, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick warned, the deadline for a baseline 30% tariff of August 1st will not change. Warner Brothers Superman won the weekend box office for the second weekend in a row, now surpassing $400 million globally. Jessica Edinger, CNBC. Wednesday, August 6thdinger CNBC.