CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Mixed, More Newly Built Homes Sold In July Than Expected, Debate Over US Taking A Stake In Intel 8/25/25

Episode Date: August 25, 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 Jessica Ettinger.

I'm Jessica Eddinger. CNBC, Wall Street Mixed this afternoon. The Dow pulling back from the record high it opened with. It's down 222 points, about a half a percent now, led lower by shares of Merck, which are down more than 2 percent this afternoon. The S&P 500 index is on the flat line, down two points at this moment. NASTAC in the green, up 63 points. InVIDIA shares are higher. They're now up a solid 2%. Nvidia earnings come on Wednesday after the closing bell, and that's what a lot of investors are looking forward to. Companies whose shares have hit fresh all-time highs today on Wall Street include Google Parent Alphabet United Rentals, Seagate, and the retail chain Dillards. The home builders sold more newly constructed homes than expected in July, and they were cheaper

overall than the same month last year. This is based on signed contracts during. the month of July, so people out shopping, inking their deals. And that's when mortgage rates were still on the higher level, above 6.75% on the 30-year fix. They have since come down, but that didn't happen until the first week of August. So that's not represented in these numbers. Now, the median price of a new home sold was $403,800. That is down 5.9% year over year. So you see the builders lowering prices. Of course, we know the builders, the big publics have been buying down mortgage rates. Intel now co-owned by the U.S. government, the Trump administration took a 10% stake in the struggling chipmaker.

Here's the National Economic Council of the U.S. Director Kevin Hassett with CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin. We have been exporting the idea of a free market around the world for as long as I can remember, and this is a major shift. Do you not agree? No, I think this is a very special case of, you know, President Trump and Howard Lutnik weren't very clear that they wanted to continue to. let the money go out because their hurdles were being crossed. This is a very, very special circumstance because of the massive amount of Chips Act spending that was coming in Tell's way. But the president has made it clear all the way back to the campaign that he thinks that in the end it would be great if the U.S. could start to build up a sovereign wealth fund. And so I'm sure that at some point there'll be more transactions, if not in this industry

and other industries. Cambridge economist Mohamed Alarion had this to say to CNBC. The only thing I like about this intel transaction is a message to the private sector. There is no free lunch. If you're going to take money from the government, don't think it comes free. However, I worry about two things. I worry about this spreading and I worry about the lack of respect in this critical difference between ownership and control. Ownership is fine. Starting to impact business decision is really problematic.

And I just would be very nervous if suddenly we go into a world in which the government starts. impacting lots of business decisions. Corrig, Dr. Pepper, buying Dutch coffee company J.D.E. Peets. It's an $18 billion deal, and it's going to result in two separate companies. Kyrig says the merged company plans to separate its coffee and other beverage units, and the two companies will be listed in the United States and led by Kureg's current CFO and CEO, respectively, according to a press release from Kureg, the deal is expected to create the world's largest pure play coffee company.

Dr. Pepper was created in 2018 through the merger of Curie Green Mountain and Dr. Pepper Snapple. CNBC's Leslie Picker, meantime coffee, the commodity. Prices there have hit their highest since mid-May. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. The club is really about empowerment. What I like about Jim is he makes it easy for someone like me to understand how to invest my money properly. Who yeah, Jim? Get invested.

Join the club today. Go to CNBC.com slash join Jim. Thank you.