CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Lower, Wholesale Inflation Came In Hot, Gasoline Prices Rose Again Overnight 3/18/26

Episode Date: March 18, 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, Wall Street's in the red this afternoon ahead of a Fed announcement on interest rates. And another hot read on inflation. Plus, there was another attack on a natural gas field in Iran, which pushed up U.S. crude above $98 a barrel today. This afternoon, the Dow is down 400 points. 3M shares leading it lower. They're down 2.5%. The S&P 500 index down 34. The NASDAQ down 111 points. Shears of Invidia up 3 tenths of 1%. Companies who shares at fresh all-time highs today include energy names Valero and Marathon Petroleum. Prices at the pump went up another 5 cents a gallon for regular overnight. The biggest thing to anchor on is $4 at the retail gasoline pump. Think about 2020 and then you think about 2008. Once you went to $4, it was the thing that changed the psychology of the consumer and led to both an economic slowdown and a market turn down. Evercores Julian Emanuel on CNBC. Some states have hit $4 average gas, Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington State.

Florida and Illinois are very close. The producer price index for last month popped up 7 tenths of a percent. That was a lot more than expected. That's a measure of inflation at the whole. sale level. Producers are paying higher prices for inputs. These can often get passed down to retailers and ultimately to consumers. Here's CNBC's Rick Santelli. Hoseale side of inflation, the producer price index. Headline number expected to be up 3 tenths of a percent comes in hot, up 7 tenths of a percent. That would be the highest level since July of 25. Food prices rose 2.4

percent last month. Within food, the index of fresh and dry vegetables soared 48%. BNI economist Vincent Reinhart says there's some more tough news for consumers inside those PPI numbers. Trade margins went up. That suggests that tariffs had been absorbed last year along the production and sale process and businesses are clawed some of that back, i.e. consumers will be paying a little bit more of the tariff burden. By 2030, in less than four years, women will control about 45% of global wealth. Women are not only earning their own money, men have shorter lifespans and women stand to inherit. Many women need to step up. A lot of women are like, I don't feel, I feel,

I feel some toward to talk about money for myself. Actually, you need to get really comfortable talking about money for yourself. That's MS Now's Mika Brzeinsky on CNBC and a new HSBC report finds that while women know more about money than ever before, many are not financially fluent. The bank is targeting women for wealth management. Refies last week fell the most since December as mortgage rates were up close to 6.5% last week. Didn't make any sense for many homeowners to refinance their loans. On Thursday's watch list, earnings are coming from Accenture, Olive Garden Parent Darden restaurants, Lans End, and Signet Jewelers.

We find out how many people applied for unemployment benefits last week, and it'll be round one for the NCAA men's college basketball tournament. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. CNBC Cures Defying Rare Disease, premieres Thursday, 7 Eastern.