CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Lower, US Crude Tops $100/Barrel, Gold On Pace For It's Biggest Weekly Pullback Since 1983, 7 States Now In The "4 Dollar Gas Club" 3/19/26

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

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I'm Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. Wall Street's in the red this afternoon. Oil prices are higher. The Dow, however, off its earlier low, it's down 262 points. That's a half percent. Boeing shares leading it lower, down 3%. The S&P 500 index down 28 points. The NASDAX down 114 points. That's a half percent. Shears of Invidia are down eight-tenths of one percent. As of noon eastern time, the price of U.S. crude oil WTI topped $100 a barrel. As the tit for tat strikes on different energy assets increase, there is a more material risk that we could be looking at a prolonged increase in energy prices. All of this is certainly a headwind to the market.

We're probably likely to see if this continues earnings, he revised down somewhat. Wilmington Trust's Megan Shoe on CNBC. Gold is down about 10% so far this week. weekly pullback since 1983 after a month's long run-up. Silver is pacing for its worst week since January. Prices at the pump went up again overnight by another four cents. AAA says the national average for a gallon of regular is $3.88. Drivers are paying 96 cents more for each gallon of gas today than they were a month ago. Overnight, another state entered the $4 gas club. Illinois, according to AAA, that's on average, and that makes seven states at $4 gas.

Economists see that as a psychological milestone for consumers. Idaho, Florida, and Michigan are getting very close. And if oil prices stay high, one economist tells CNBC he's worried about the economy really tanking. You know, my sense is if we stay here for any length of time, a couple, three, four months, we're going to be talking about recession. Moody's analytics, Mark Zandi on CNBC, and he notes that the U.S. is a consumer. consumer economy and consumers really get hit by gas prices. The impact of higher gasoline prices, higher diesel prices, which translates into higher grocery

prices, anything you get delivered at your doorstep from Amazon is going to cost a more. That has a very significant effect on the collective psyche. Nothing is more pernicious on people's perceptions of their own finances and the economy's performance than cost of a gallon regular unlighted. Home builders sold far fewer homes. than expected in January. A huge miss on January new home sales, 587,000 seasonally adjusted annualized rate. Street was looking for 719,000. The home price was $400,000. These contracts were signed in January, so it's people out shopping when mortgage rates were actually lower than they are today.

So it would not have been a mortgage rate issue. Mortgage rates are now much higher because of the war with Iran. So this drop in January, you could blame some of it on the weather, but that's just a huge. We don't see that kind of 17 and a half percent drop month to month for new home sales. CNBC's Diana Oleg. I'm Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. CNBC Cures Defying Rare Disease, premieres Thursday, 7 Eastern.