CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Stocks Modestly Higher, Consumer Confidence Tanks Again, Prices At The Pump Lowest In 4 Years 12/23/25

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

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I'm Jessica Eddinger, CNBC, Wall Street's in the Green this afternoon, modest gains. Investors will have a half day of trading tomorrow for Christmas Eve. The markets, of course, will be closed on Thursday for Christmas. Right now, the Dow is up 64 points, shares of Invidia leading it higher. Invidia shares up more than 2% this afternoon. The S&P 500 index up 20. The NASDAQ now up 101 points, 4 tenths of a percent. gold at another intraday record high today on pace for its 53rd record high close of the year.

Consumer confidence tanked again, sinking to the lowest level since President Trump rolled out his tariffs back in April. December consumer confidence from the conference board expected to come in around 91 as a disappointment comes in at 89.1. If we look at the present situation, it comes in at 116.1. This is a huge miss. Huge miss. 116.8 would be the weakest since Feb of 21. CNBC's Rick Santelli. The U.S. economy grew at a 4.3% pace in the third quarter.

That was much stronger than expected. I think this is a very, very impressive GDP report. 8% essentially nominal GDP growth. Consumer spending really beat expectations. This is pretty unusual. Bank of America's Aditya above on CNBC. And here's Aditya with CNBC's senior economics reporter, Steve Leesman. This number, 4.3% GDP growth in what has been tallied as the worst quarter for employment growth since 2019. Yep.

Suggests productivity growth is off the charts. Off the charts productivity growth. Yep. Americans are on the road for Christmas with prices at the pump at four-year lows. Great news for consumers. Not the best news for oil giants. Oil is sitting around $58 a barrel. ExxonMobil.

Chevron and Occidental are the biggest shale oil producers in the U.S. They need WTI, which is West Texas Intermediate Oil, to be at least in the low 50s per barrel to make the 15% return they want to run their businesses and pay investors. While consumers are getting a big break for their budgets right now. It's definitely a very attractive price for. the U.S. consumer. We think the current oil price level is a pretty attractive oil price level for the U.S. economy as a whole. That said, U.S. show producers, prices are getting a little bit too low. Goldman's Dan Stroeven on CNBC. Visa, the credit card company, its data show. The consumer's

doing okay this holiday season, even though people are sick and tired of inflation and higher prices they are still spending. Visa economist Michael Brown tells CNBC this kind of surprised The resilience of consumers. We have seen much softer consumer sentiment and consumer confidence measures relative to this same time last season, yet consumer spending held up. The number one Christmas gift this year again in the numerator holiday survey is gift cards. Clothing is second. Toys and Games, the third most purchased holiday gift. Today is the seventh biggest shopping day of the year. No Powerball winner last night. Christmas Eve jackpot for tomorrow night has grown to $1.7 billion. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. Become a smarter investor with CNBC Pro. 24-7 access to market-moving news and interviews with three global live streams,

subscriber-only content, plus exclusive live events. This is my first time at the stock exchange, and it's been awesome. To be on the floor, I just can't believe I'm here. Become a CNBC pro. Go to CNBC.com slash get pro now.