CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Mixed, Gas Prices Poised To Fall Even More, Travel Demand Slowing 8/9/24

Episode Date: August 9, 2024

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.

I'm Jessica Edinger, CNBC. Mixed markets on Wall Street this afternoon. The Dow down 54 points. The And I worry that this is going to continue. And you should expect volatility ahead. Cities, Bietta Manthe on CNBC. Paramount Global reported disappointing revenue in the last quarter. It's cutting 15% of its workforce. It owns the Paramount Movie Studio, CBS Television, BET Showtime, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, and so many more properties. As you've seen sort of all of these, what we call legacy media companies,

they've all told investors they're going to get to profitability in streaming. And they all are. I mean, you mentioned Paramount, Disney announced its first combined profit. Like, they're all improving, but it's how they're improving. They're improving by slashing the amount of programming, cutting back on marketing, and jacking the price on consumers. They're not doing it because consumers are like so in love and willing to pay more and spending so much time. Like it's a pretty depressing way of making money. Light Shed's Rich Greenfield on CNBC. Gas prices have peaked for the summer.

Gas Buddy says there's been a notable drop in demand by drivers, and prices will drop more in about a month or so when refiners can switch to less expensive winter blend gas, and gas stations are allowed to sell it in mid-September. Americans also bought a record number of electric vehicles in the last quarter. Expedia shares popping on its quarterly results, even though the travel booker is warning about slowing travel demand, just like pretty much all of the travel companies. Expedia, just the latest to raise those red flags.

Airbnb and booking holdings, just some of the companies that are warning that consumers are trading down to cheaper options or they're booking trips at the very last minute. Disney flagging weakness in its parks division, while Hilton's CEO says Americans have less disposable income and capacity to do anything, and that includes travel. CNBC's Frank Holland. Investors are watching a broad consumer pullback as the economy settles back to normal after the pandemic recession, followed by excessive spending and revenge travel when things opened back up. Right now, the consumer is really spending way, way higher than the growth in income. And as a result, the consumers are having to deplete their savings. And the only people with savings are really the rich people.

The stock market wealth that they generated with the rise in the stock market has really helped a lot of people, but those tend to be the rich people. And the poor people are having to go to second jobs and third jobs in order to make ends meet and dip into their credit cards. Milken Institute economist Bill Lee on CNBC. New in theaters, Neon's horror thriller Cuckoo. Sony's romance It Ends With Us. And Lionsgate's video game-inspired Borderlands.

Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. I just love this game. So excited to share it with the world. The Olympics from Paris on NBC and Peacock.