CNBC Business News Update - Market Midday: Ugly Selloff For Stocks, Walmart Shares Tank On Disappointing Outlook, CEO Confidence Rises In Latest Survey 2/20/25

Episode Date: February 20, 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. An ugly sell-off for stocks this afternoon on Wall Street. The S&P 500 index falling from the record high it opened with. The Dow is now down more than 600 points, 612, that's almost 1.5%, being led lower by shares of Walmart tanking 6% this afternoon. The S&P 500 index down 45 points. That's three quarters percent. The NASDAQ down 143 points. That's three quarters percent. Nvidia shares still in the green. They're up almost a half percent this afternoon. Companies whose shares hit fresh all-time highs today include Philip Morris, KFC and Taco Bell parent Yum Brands, Capital One, U.S. Foods and Choice Hotels International. Some experts tell CNBC this volatility

will continue for stocks. We're getting closer and closer down this policy resolution path. We're still far away from clarity, but as you see more information coming out of the various congressional committees on top of the ongoing Trump policy platform that's been laid out, as you get to the implementation phase of this, we think that it's going to be a little bit more disconcerting for equity fundamentals in the short term. Cities, Scott Kroener on CNBC. Slightly more Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week than the week before and more than expected. Economists are waiting to see if any of the government firings show up in the big monthly Labor Department employment report as the

Department of Government Efficiency slashes thousands. We obviously won't see it in the next employment report because these layoffs happened very smartly right after the reference week. That's a very clever way to try to keep these things out of those monthly reports we see. As long as people find a job before the next month's reference week, before the week of March 12th that contains the 12th, they won't show up at all. The University of Michigan's Betsy Stevenson on CNBC. Walmart shares are lower but delivered a strong 2024 for sales and profit. With fourth quarter numbers now out, we get a look at the whole year last year, but the outlook for this year full of challenges. Some consumers are pulling back their spending,

and President Trump is pushing a tariff agenda. Inflation has gone higher in the U.S. for four straight months, so wealthier shoppers are now going to Walmart. This is one name, Jim, that's benefiting from inflation, right? And that's part of the enlargement of the audience. Yes, more well-off people are going. CNBC's Jim Cramer with Carl Quintanilla. And with this morning's quarterly results from Walmart,

Amazon has officially passed Walmart for quarterly revenues for the very first time. CEO confidence hit a three-year high in the latest Business Council survey. It shows 73% of CEOs asked to plan to maintain or increase their staff this year. But many of these CEOs also see a lot of trouble ahead. Someone used to say to me, where you stand depends on where you sit. And what industry you're in, I think, drives how you see and feel the outcomes of the Trump administration. You know, when we ask the CEOs what are some of the risks they're worried about, you know, one of them is around tariffs. And so there are lots of businesses that put tariffs down as a risk factor. And the other thing, obviously, is immigration,

which again, you know, is a double-edged sword depending on how you run your company. That's Business Council Vice Chairman Roger Ferguson on CNBC. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. The CNBC Changemakers returns. 50 women innovating and driving change across industries. Meet the new icons. The CNBC Changemakers. Revealed Monday in Squawk Box.