CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Lower, S&P 500 Index Slips Back Toward Correction, Risk of Recession Rising in New CNBC Fed Survey 3/18/25

Episode Date: March 18, 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 Edinger CNBC. Wall Street's in the red this afternoon. Major averages all lower. The Dow down 342 points, led lower by shares of IBM, which are down almost 3%. The S&P 500 index down 68 points. That's more than 1%. The NASDAQ falling 302 points.

1.7% this afternoon. Nvidia shares down 2.5%, Tesla shares down about 4%. That's a slight recovery for those shares. Slower economic growth is likely ahead with the risk of a recession rising. That's according to the new CNBC Fed survey. The Fed is in a two-day meeting on interest rates today. It's widely expected to hold them steady when it makes a decision and announces it

tomorrow afternoon. Home builders started construction on more homes in February, possibly pulling forward starts from January, which had some tough building weather. The February housing starts number was still lower than the same month last year though. Now part of this may have been there was a lot of noise in the January numbers about bad weather, exceptionally cold winter. You may have been taking some of those January starts and moving them into February. There's still very lean supply on the existing side and that existing side is very expensive. The spread between new home prices and existing home prices is shrinking dramatically,

which means there's not that much of a premium for new, and the builders may be paying into that because they can buy down mortgage rates. CNBC's Diana Olek. Frontier Airlines taking a swipe at Southwest, which announced no more bags fly free as it tries to squeeze more money out of passengers. Free checked bag, free assigned seats, free ticket change if you need to change your tickets.

Why not make this a permanent move? Why is this only promotional through August? Well, look, the bottom line is, is this a game changer for us? We're going to offer you more for less, but if we don't get the volume, then we're going to come back to just being level playing field. But either way, this is a checkmate situation for Frontier. Everyone can now see, millions of people can see that we're a better total price

because we've seen what's happened and all of the outcry for free bags. We're giving people an opportunity to put their money where their mouth is and come make Frontier the new airline. Very biffle joining us from Frontier's headquarters in Denver. CNBC's Phil LeBeau.

Boeing, Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams, who were supposed to be in space nine days, coming back after more than nine months around 6 p.m. Eastern today on a SpaceX capsule. The splashdown will be on the Florida coast, weather permitting. They're coming back on the SpaceX vehicle that's been up there with them since the fall. So safety has never been compromised. It's a credit to NASA and to the team. You know, you never know, and it could be issues with a SpaceX vehicle someday.

The Soyuz, the Russian spacecraft, which has been a very reliable spacecraft, a couple years ago, Frank Rubio, another astronaut, was on board a Soyuz going to the space station. There was a leak in that Soyuz once they got there. They returned that Soyuz empty, sent up another Soyuz for Frank and his crew. They went from six months to over a year. Their ride changed, but they always had a way to get home. That's NASA astronaut Mike Massimino on CNBC. Jessica Edinger, CNBC.

Tonight, Kramer on the road. From San Francisco, Mad Money out west. Tonight 6 Eastern, CNBC.