CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Mixed, Tame Jobless Claims, Apple iPhone 16 Demand Worries 10/3/24

Episode Date: October 3, 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 by CNBC's Jessica Ettinger.

I'm Jessica Edinger, CNBC. Mixed markets on Wall Street this afternoon. Bond yields were rising. We've got the Dow down 146 points. That's three-tenths of a percent being led lower now by shares of Merck, down more than 1%. The S&P 500 index down three points. The Nasdaq in positive territory. It's up 23 points now. Companies whose shares have hit record highs today include T-Mobile, Aflac, financial technology company Fiserv, payroll company ADP, and elevator company Otis. Investors are monitoring what's happening in the Middle East. They're also waiting for the big September jobs report, which comes tomorrow morning from the Labor Department. That nonfarm payrolls report has been the biggest kind of macro catalyst for the last several months because of the implications for the Fed. You know, it was probably the thing

that sparked the Fed pivot in the first place, pushed them towards that jumbo size cut. So it's nonfarm payrolls that investors need to be watching tomorrow. Baird's Ross Mayfield on CNBC. Other investors warn that volatility is likely to stick around for a while. The war in the Middle East, the election. We had the vice presidential debate this week. We expect to see some more short-term volatility, especially over the course of the next 35 days. We've got the pork strike, all of those things. Pivotal's Tiffany McGee on CNBC. The Biden administration can move forward

with a student loan forgiveness plan for now as a federal judge will let a temporary restraining order against the plan expire. The new program could deliver relief to tens of millions of Americans, many of whom were lured into loans without understanding what they were signing. The port strike is now in day three. President Biden so far saying he will not intervene. Manufacturers and retailers have been urging the president to invoke a 1947 law to suspend the strike by 45,000 dock workers that shut down 36 U.S. ports from Maine to Texas. President George W. Bush invoked Taft-Hartley in 2002 after 29 West Coast ports locked out members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in a standoff back then. The two sides ended up breaching a contract.

Slightly more people than expected applied for unemployment benefits last week. The four-week moving average of initial claims hit its lowest level since June 1st, though. The number came in right at the pre-pandemic weekly average as the labor market normalizes. 225,000. Pretty darn close to expectations. Overall, the economy's pretty solid and the labor market may be slowing, but it's certainly not slow. CNBC's Rick Santelli. Apple's iPhone 16 with AI, what Apple calls Apple Intelligence, may not be that big a deal for buyers, according to a new survey. Perhaps Apple Intelligence isn't as exciting as the bulls in the street have thought. J.P. Morgan had a really interesting survey out this week, and it shows that AI is actually the last thing customers who are upgrading to the iPhone 16 care about.

That's behind features like the speed of the device, 5G, design, or that really cool camera. The street has been trying to figure out for weeks what iPhone 16 demand actually looks like. And so far, the signals are not that great. Analysts have been looking at the ship times for online orders. And the iPhone 16 Pro, that's the most important and expensive model Apple sells. That appears to be selling worse than they were last year and the year before that. CNBC's Steve Kovach. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. September jobs report, another crucial report for Wall Street and the Fed. Will further signs of weakness in the payroll report lead to another big Fed rate cut in November? Numbers and analysis. Squawk Box, tomorrow at 8.30 a.m. Eastern, CNBC.