CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Lower, President Trump On Iran's Gift, Baseball Is At A Crossroads 3/26/26

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

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. A seesaw day for stocks. The major average is lower in this last hour of trading. Oil prices are higher. President Trump said in a cabinet meeting today that Iran is begging to make a deal. More U.S. Marines are heading to the Middle East. And the Dow is down 380 points, 8 tenths of a percent. It's being led lower by shares of NVIDIA this afternoon, which are down 3.5 percent.

The S&P 500 index now down 91 points. That's almost 1.5%. The NASDAQ falling 428 points, almost 2%. Investors are very confused because we hear so many conflicting reports about, you know, progress of the war and who's communicating and really the state of the Iranian regime. But, you know, hopefully we're through the worst of it. It's hard to tell. That's Fundstraz, Tom Lee on CNBC. U.S. crude oil up 4% today, back above 9%.

$90 a barrel, Brent crude, is just below $107 a barrel. For the first time since the U.S. attack on Iran, prices at the pump in the U.S. did not go up overnight on average. AAA says the national average for a gallon of regulars $3.98. 12 states in Washington, D.C., now average $4 a gallon gas. Maryland is extremely close at two one hundredths of a cent under. One investor tells CNBC, there is a U.S. plan with Iran, and oil prices are going to go up as that plan is fulfilled. We're going to leave with that uranium. We know where it is, we think. But again, because it's highly enriched, it's not going to be that difficult for us to find. Just from, you can measure it

from a radiation. And again, we follow it very closely. But that's one of the objectives, you know, there was no easy button on the oil side. You know, it takes 25 to 28 days for seaborne oil to make its way to Asia from the straight. That's about now. I think you're going to see Brent at 150. Rochefort Ventures CEO Kyle Bass on CNBC. The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week came in as expected. 210,000, and how does that stack up?

Well, our last look was 205,000, no revision yet. And do keep in mind, these numbers are historically low. CNBC's Rick Santelli. continuing claims the number of people still collecting unemployment checks week after week that fell to the lowest level in nearly two years last week suggesting more people are finding their next job major league baseball not so profitable and a showdown is coming cnbc's alex sherman has the story at the end of this year the collective bargaining agreement expires the owners want a salary cap major league baseball is the only one of the four major u.s sports not to have a salary cap, but it has spoken to the strength of the Players Association that they've been able to successfully push back against this concept. If you take a look at the earnings margins of baseball teams versus the other three sports, they're a lot lower. Yes, valuations of teams are rising. Yes, TV ratings are up. Yes, attendance is up. But because the spending is so high

on baseball relative, the profit margin is not up. I'm Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. Money doesn't make the world go around. Information does. And CNBC is the great economic equalizer because we provide that information so you can make the decisions that are right for you.