CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Mixed, Investors On Hold For First Fed Rate Cut Wednesday, Boeing Freezes All Hiring 9/16/24

Episode Date: September 16, 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 Ettinger, CNBC. We're in the final week of fall trading and stocks are coming off a solid week. Last week, the S&P 500 index had its best week of the year last week, but markets are mixed this afternoon. We've got the Dow still in the green up 111 points, a quarter of a percent. It had been up 300 points earlier. The S&P 500 index in the red. Now it's down nine points. The Nasdaq down 150 points. That's eight tenths of one percent. September is living up to its reputation as being volatile. I mean, just two weeks ago, we were down four percent. So to recover last week was really encouraging. And I do think it's tied to the fact that we had a couple of good inflation prints last week. The point is we are about to embrace a cutting cycle. And that is positive for the long term, especially since we are growing at 2% to 2.5%. We're not in a recession.

Hightower's Stephanie Link on CNBC. Boeing is freezing all hiring in, sweeping cost cuts at that company as it deals with a factory worker strike. More than 30,000 workers at plants in several states have been on picket lines since Friday. Apple's new operating system, iOS 18, is available for iPhones and Macs today. But investors instead are focusing on an analyst note that's forecasting lower pre-order demand for Apple's new iPhone 16s, which won't have a lot of AI off the bat. The timing on these AI features undoubtedly are going to impact how investors should think about the growth rates, and they are going to take six months to roll out.

The shares of Apple are down on commentary that the rollout for the first few days is muted. There's a lot of talk of AI. There hasn't been much usage. I think when consumers actually get a hold of these features, you're going to see a significant increase in that. Deepwater's Jean Munster on CNBC. Investors waiting to see how much the Fed decides to cut interest rates on Wednesday. It starts a two-day meeting on those tomorrow and has indicated that the rate increases it's done have slowed inflation. So it's time to get interest rates back to a more neutral stance. Cutting interest rates makes money cheaper to borrow

for businesses and for consumers. We get a fresh look at how the U.S. consumer is holding up tomorrow when retail sales numbers for August come out. Inflation has fallen and Bank of America data show people still have more money in the bank on average than they did before the pandemic. So deposits, all the income levels, right, if you make over 50K, 50 to 100K, so all the income levels show that deposit levels in the banks are 33% still above 2019 levels, which means still in not too bad shape. CNBC's Sarah Eisen. Number one at the weekend box office, Warner Brothers Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. FX's Shogun celebrating 18 Emmy Awards last night. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. Analysis that gives you an edge.

Fast Money, 5 p.m. Eastern on CNBC.