CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Mixed, Target Disappoints With Earnings, Mortgage Applications Tank 5/21/25

Episode Date: May 21, 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 Edinger, CNBC. Wall Street mixed this afternoon. The Dow is still plunging 346 points, eight-tenths of a percent, led lower by shares of United Health, which are down 4 percent. The S&P 500 index down 9. It's the Nasdaq that turned higher today, up 77 points as Nvidia is higher up 2% this afternoon. Companies whose shares have hit fresh all time highs today include Monster Beverage and Netflix. The S&P 500 index in the NASDAQ still on pace for their best month since November of 2023. We came into this week and we were supposed to be pausing or pulling back. That's where the market was poised because of how overbought we got, right, with 23%

up in six weeks in the S&P 500. It's back up to around neutral. CNBC's Mike Santoli. Target out with quarterly results today. It had a tough quarter. The retailer blaming backlash to its DEI rollback, which sent shoppers to other stores. It looks like a pretty disappointing performance from Target for the first quarter.

Now on a media call, Target CEO Brian Cornell wouldn't say definitively if the retailer had raised prices due to tariffs or would in the future. He did say Target has many levers and mitigation strategies it would employ first, raising prices as a quote, last resort. Cornell called out quote, ongoing pressure from five consecutive months of declining consumer confidence, tariff uncertainty and the reaction to its upgraded DEI program. CNBC's Courtney

Reagan. Mortgages popped to their highest rate since February last week back above 7% mortgage applications tanked. Lowe's sticking by its full year forecast. The chain is counting on sales to home professionals to boost its business past what the tariffs are going to cost it. Tesla Robo taxis should be on roads in Austin, Texas next month. This is what CEO Elon Musk said on CNBC. Toyota has redesigned America's top selling SUV, the RAV4, to become exclusively a hybrid. Beginning in 2026, it will eliminate the gas only engine option. Last year, the company sold more than 475,000 RAV4s. About half of them were hybrids.

Toyota didn't disclose pricing, but the current RAV4 hybrid starts at about 37,000. CNBC's Joe Kernan. Fortnite, back on the Apple App Store after the game maker won a five-year court battle over in-app purchase fees. Jessica Edinger, CNBC. CNBC Plus, the new streaming platform from the number one source in business news. Start streaming.

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