CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Mixed, Trump Will Demand Interest Rates To "Drop Immediately," "Emila Perez" Tops Oscar Noms 1/23/25

Episode Date: January 23, 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 is mixed this afternoon. The Dow up 250 points now, led higher by shares of Caterpillar, which were up 2.5%. The S&P 500 index in the green this afternoon, up 8 points now after nearly touching an intraday record high yesterday. It's not back there yet. The Nasdaq down 37 points this afternoon. Shares of Nvidia are lower. They're down three quarters of one percent. The S&P 500 index up three and a half percent so far this month, and that's the best start to a year since 2019. The S&P hitting an intraday high yesterday. NASDAQ 1% from its high. Optimism is high. Valuations are quite high on the stock market. And so I think the market is going to be prone to change. I think it's going to be inconsistent as we see how new policies from the administration play out over time versus the expectations of what we thought the policies

were going to be at the election. So a lot of volatility, at least for the first half of the year. Crossmarks, Victoria Fernandez on CNBC. Although the Federal Reserve is independent from the White House, President Trump made a demand in a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos today. I'll demand that interest rates drop immediately, and likewise, they should be dropping all over the world. The comments are an initial strike at Fed officials. Lower interest rates are good for business and good for profits. A crack in the job market. More Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week and the total number of people collecting checks hit its highest in three years,

hinting it is taking people longer to find their next job. Saudi Arabia planning to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S. We're getting breaking details on this massive investment from Saudi Arabia into the United States. $600 billion over four years. It is a sizable investment from the largest economy in the Middle East. These investment dollars could perhaps mobilize what could be a defense treaty between the United States and Saudi Arabia. It's something that's been spoken about under the Trump administration, and now we're seeing more signs that that could actually be coming to fruition. CNBC's Dan Murphy in Davos, Switzerland. Netflix may have its best chance to

finally win Best Picture at the Academy Awards this year with amelia perez the film leads the pack with 13 total nominations a24 is the brutalist and universal's wicked each had 10 nominations universal is a sister company to cnbc by studio netflix leads with 16 total nominations. A24 has 14. Universal has 13. Focus Features has 12. And Searchlight has 10. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. CNBC's Big January continues with the World Economic Forum in Davos. Plus, Fast Money live from Miami.

And the first Fed decision of the year. Start the year ahead of the game. CNBC.