CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Mixed, Trump Media Shares Down 13%, Amazon Ditches Plastic Air Pillow Packaging 6/20/24

Episode Date: June 20, 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 Ehringer, CNBC, the S&P 500 index, the Nasdaq opened this morning at fresh record highs. And we have mixed markets this afternoon. The Dow is still higher, up 84 points. The S&P 500 index up a point, but very flat in midday trading. And the Nasdaq has slipped into the red. It's down 19 points this afternoon. NVIDIA shares up 1%. Companies whose shares have hit fresh all-time highs today include Booking Holdings, Hilton, Colgate, Palmolive, Walmart, Eli Lilly, Oracle, and NVIDIA, which was extending its gains from Tuesday when it surpassed Microsoft to become the most valuable public company in the world.

$3 trillion is real money no matter how you slice it, three plus trillion. Multiple things can be true at once. I think it can be mostly fundamentally based. It can be mostly following earnings momentum. It can be about this story that's obviously getting to the bottom line of NVIDIA faster than anywhere else. And it can also be about pure momentum and an overshoot and a complete kind of blow-off type action. So no way to know where one stops and the other begins. CNBC's Mike Santoli. Fewer people than expected applied for unemployment benefits last week, but the number was more than the pre-pandemic weekly average. Initial jobless claims, 238,000. That's from a slightly revised 243,000.

We'll call it down 5,000, shall we? CNBC's Rick Santelli. The homebuilders started the fewest single-family homes last month since June of 2020. Fewer than expected. Why wouldn't they build more homes if the U.S. is dramatically undersupplied? CNBC's Diana Olick knows. It was a big surprise to the downsides, but frankly, I'm not sure why the estimates were as high as they were. Mortgage rates really shot up dramatically in April.

And in May, they came back a little bit, but not a lot. Still over 7% on the 30-year fix. The builders do have a lot more supply that they need to unload. And you're seeing a lot more supply coming onto the existing home market. We're still low. I'm not saying we're not lean, but with more supply on existing home and the builders having more supply, it shouldn't be surprising that we're seeing this drop. Mortgage demand flattened last week,

even when mortgage rates hit their lowest level since March at 6.94%. Mortgage applications to buy a home, 12% lower than the same week a year ago. On a 30-year fixed home loan today, at 7%. Accenture shares were jumping, even though it missed earnings and revenue expectations in its latest quarter. The information technology company posted nearly a billion dollars in new generative AI bookings. AT&T raising prices for customers who are on the old unlimited data plans that have been retired. Starting in August, people with single line plans at AT&T are going to pay $10 more. People with multiple lines, $20 more. AT&T's current unlimited plans range from $66 to $86 a month for a single line.

It is the longest day of the year. Summer arrives this afternoon. Kroger, the biggest pure grocery store chain in the U.S., will hand out pints of ice cream, sort of. Customers can sign up for a voucher at FreeKrogerIceCream.com. The giveaway is restricted in some states and at some of the chains that Kroger owns. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. The Olympic Games are coming.

But first, the best American athletes have to make Team USA. The U.S. Olympic Team Trials on NBC and Peacock.