CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Mixed, Nvidia Lower On Report Its Chips Are Banned In China, Fed Rate Cut Expected At 2p ET 9/17/25

Episode Date: September 17, 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. 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 Ettinger. CNBC Wall Street mixed this afternoon. Investors waiting for 2 p.m. Eastern, that's when the Fed will announce if it's cutting interest rates. Investors expect a quarter percentage point cut. The Dow is soaring. It's up almost 300 points. Shares of American Express hitting a record high and leading the way. American Express on the verge of a refresh for its cards and increased annual fees. P-500 index is down this afternoon, eight points. The NASDAQ also in the red, down 113 points a half percent. InVIDIA shares are down almost 3 percent this afternoon. CEO Jensen Wong says he's disappointed about a financial times report that says China has banned Nvidia AI chips in its tech company's products. China's president and President Trump are supposed to have a phone call this Friday. The Fed decision on interest rates coming at two.

p.m. Eastern today, a cut as small as a quarter percentage point, would mean credit card users would pay very slightly less in interest on balances they're carrying. But savers would earn slightly less on money and high yield savings or money market accounts. Quarter point is baked in. To me, it's all about what Powell says and how he telegraphs it. Two cuts, three cuts. Right now the market's been on a nice run. I suspect we're going to get a little bit of a sell-the-news effect as a result of this. Watch, you know, a 3% percent. Hold back. Freedom Capitals, Jay Woods on CNBC. Disappointing housing starts and building permits numbers for August.

The home builders are sitting on so many completed, unsold homes. They're just starting to build fewer new ones. Housing starts for August coming in at $1,307,000. That's a miss. Now on permits, this is a preliminary number. 1,312,000, also amiss by a wide margin. these numbers aren't good. The complexion of single to multifamily,

you're seeing multifamily continue to take a bigger share. Why home builders? Well, there's a lot of inventory there. CNBC's Rick Santelli, with mortgage rates at a three-year low now. Mortgage refinancing is spiking. Last week, mortgage rates were their lowest in one year. And demand popped 60% over the week before, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The average rate now on a 30-year home loan, is 6.1% according to Mortgage News Daily. General Mills shares fell on lackluster quarterly results. Its brands include Betty Crocker cake mixes, annies, mac and cheese, and Czech cereal. Eli Lilly's obesity pill outperformed Novo Nordisk's oral drug in a head-to-head diabetes trial in patients with type 2 diabetes, but so far, the pills have generally shown less efficacy than injections over time. Social Security payments and other federal benefits, will go fully electronic at the end of the month, fueling concerns that people who still want paper checks in the mail

and don't have bank accounts will miss their payments. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. Get exclusive reporting and data on high net worth investors, family offices, and alternative investments from the foremost authority on private wealth, Robert Frank. Get the weekly newsletter and special access to events at CNBC.com slash inside wealth.