CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Mixed, DOJ Drops Probe Into Fed Chair Powell, Consumer Confidence Ticks Slightly Up 4/24/26

Episode Date: April 24, 2026

CNBC Business News Update with Jessica Ettinger - market numbers and news featuring CNBC expert analysis and sound from top business names. Visit https://www.cnbc.com/ for more. 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. We've got mixed markets this afternoon on Wall Street. The Dow's been in the red all morning, but it's off its earlier lows. The Department of Justice dropping its investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, allowing President Trump's pick for that job to be confirmed. The Dow down only 72 points this afternoon. IBM shares leading it lower. They're down almost 2.5% now. The S&P 500, index is up 53 points, the NASDAQ, up 361 points. That's one and a half percent. Shares of NVIDIA are up almost 5 percent this afternoon. Companies who shares have hit fresh all-time highs today include Norfolk Southern, Texas Instruments, and Amazon.com. The DOJ clearing its case against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, which Republican Senator Tom Tillis called bogus. President Trump had pressured Powell repeatedly to lower interest rates. Powell's term is up May 15th. Now, Tillis threatened to block confirmation of the president's pick for the new chair. Kevin Warsh, until the DOJ made this move. It's a big move. We've all been waiting to see if this would come down, and it looks like they have made the decision to drop the Powell probe just in time.

we were really running out of time on the Senate clock for Kevin Warsh to be able to get confirmed. Now that we're done well ahead of Chair Powell's May 15th end of his term, it looks like Kevin Warsh will likely sail through. So we're waiting to hear from Senator Tillis if he is actually going to block, drop his objections. But it's progress for Warsh. CNBC Senior Economics writer Matt Peterson. Warsh said in his Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing this week, He's not going to be President Trump's sock puppet and would take economic conditions into effect before lowering interest rates.

Consumer confidence ticked slightly higher in the final April numbers, but still very close to the lowest level ever as Americans are inflation weary. Here's CNBC's Rick Santelli. 47.6 was our mid-month read on headline. Some shocking news within there, some historic close. That was the lowest ever going back to the 70s, which my database does. It rises to 49.8, but it's only the best since March the month before these numbers were released. Intel shares up more than 20% on strong quarterly results as the chipmaker shows signs of growth. Job cuts piling up, Nike cutting 1,400 people in the second round of cuts there this year. Facebook and Instagram parent Meta announced thousands of cuts.

reportedly eyeing volunteer buyouts to let people leave before it has to cut thousands. Spirit Airlines could become a government-owned airline. As President Trump says he's thinking about having the U.S. buy it, Spirit is in bankruptcy and close to liquidation. New in theaters this weekend, A24's thriller, Mother Mary, IFC's thriller Over Your Dead Body, and Lions Gates' Michael Jackson's story, Michael. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC.

Breaking earnings news, General Motors, Coca-Cola, Alphabet, Amazon, all next week on CNBC and streaming on CNBC Plus.