CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Lower, MSFT & META Disappoint, Comcast Considers Spinning Off Cable Business, Inflation At Lowest In 3 1/2 Years 10/31/24

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

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 Edinger, CNBC. Red on the screen this afternoon on this Halloween and final trading day of October. Facebook parent Meta and Microsoft each out with disappointing quarterly results. The Dow down 313 points, three quarters of a percent being led lower by Microsoft. Its shares are down five and a half percent this afternoon. The S&P 500 index down 85 points, 1.5%. The NASDAQ falling 433 points, down 2.3%. The major averages are all in the red and on pace to finish October lower.

Companies whose shares have hit fresh all-time highs today, in the green today, include Hilton,ilip morris mastercard and visa comcast the parent company of nbc universal and of cnbc out with strong results and looking at whether to spin its cable business into a separate company talking of course about our own company cnbc but also msnbc usa bra Oxygen, even the Golf Channel. NBC, the broadcast network, is not a part of this potential plan, nor is NBC News. High cash flow, low growth, or really no growth. Of course, we're all quite familiar with the continued shrinkage of the cable universe. Cord cutting continues. You wonder, what would this thing trade at? What would the sponsorship look like in the stock market? Would there really be a shareholder base for it?

All unclear. But perhaps there would be more freedom to try to figure out new strategies to grow. CNBC's David Faber. Inflation fell again, this time to its lowest in three and a half years in the Personal Consumption Expenditures Index, the Federal Reserve's favorite measure of inflation. Year-over-year price index, exactly 2.1, which was expected. One-tenth smaller than our last look at 2.2. CNBC's Rick Santelli. Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week, 216,000, as job cuts remain at historically healthy levels. It's below the pre-pandemic average. Supermicro's $50 billion stock collapse underscores the risk of AI hype since being added to the S&P 500 in March. Supermicro's lost about two-thirds of its value and now faces the

risk of an NASDAQ delisting. New Starbucks CEO Brian Nichols says he'll fundamentally change the chain's strategy. As sales fell for a third straight quarter. Wait times for drinks have to come down. The menu has to be simplified. Sharpies are coming back so baristas and customers can connect. We are. We're going to get back to doing that. We're tracking down the Sharpies and we're going to get back to, you know, writing little notes on the cups. It may not be everybody's name because, you know, but we will definitely be getting back to writing on cups again here in the not too distant future.

Starbucks CEO Brian Nickell on CNBC. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. This campaign is all about business and money. Live from the New York Stock Exchange. If you were going to watch this election happen, you'd want to watch it through the eyes of CNBC. November 5th, CNBC.