CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Mixed, Holiday Shopping Forecast, Good News For Housing Market

Episode Date: September 29, 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 Jill Schneider. 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 Jill Schneider, CNBC. Stocks are mixed in midday trading with tech stocks moving ahead and the Dow remaining under pressure. The Dow is down 74 points, the S&P 500, up by 12, the NASDAQ up 105. Shares of electronic arts up 5%. The company has agreed to be taken private in a deal worth $55 billion. The video game publisher said today, it will be acquired by a group of investors that includes Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund and a firm managed by President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. If the deal closes as expected in 2027, it would be the biggest buyout of a publicly traded

company in Wall Street history. The National Association of Realtors reported that houses under contract increased 4% for the month, much better than the Dow Jones forecast for no change. While soaring home prices are still making it tough to get into the market, renters are feeling some relief. A new report from real estate platform, Zumper, shows that that across the country, rents are either staying flat or even dropping for the third month in a row. It may seem like summer just ended, but retailers are already looking forward to the holiday season. Michelle Meyer, Mastercard Economics Institute chief economist, recently released a forecast for the holiday season, expecting retail sales to grow by 3.6%.

I do think it will feel different than last year, though, when we look at holiday spend last year, we ended up with 4.1% holiday spend, really driven by volume. There was just a lot. of movement of goods, in part because we had so much disinflation, even deflation, a lot of those categories last year for holiday spend. This year is a little different. There's a lot more pricing. There are a lot more hurdles to work around as a consumer, but we think the consumer will be engaged. Auto dealers across the country have been seeing a surge in sales of electric vehicles in recent weeks. That's because tomorrow the $7,500 federal EV tax credit will expire. Former Tesla President John McNeil says although sales of EVs may slow down initially,

after the expiration, he's confident sales will recover quickly. Demand is continuing to increase around the world. When I land in Tel Aviv, I see a lot of EVs, a lot of Chinese EVs. When I land in Mexico City, I see a lot of EVs and a lot of Chinese EVs. And certainly when you land in China, you see almost every car is an EV, but same thing in Norway. And the reason for that is these cars are a lot less energy cost, a lot less maintenance cost, and they're super fun to drive. McNeil is now CEO of DVX Ventures.

Snapchat will start charging more to store more memories. If you have more than 5 gigabytes, it will cost you $1.99 a month to store up to 100 gigs of your past snaps. Jill Schneider, CNBC. You come to my show and you learn how to do stocks. Mad Money, weeknight, 6 Eastern, CNBC.