CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Flattish, Nvidia Up Almost 1%, Novo Nordisk To Sell Ozempic Direct to Consumers 8/18/25

Episode Date: August 18, 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 Eddinger. CNBC, Wall Street out of the gate, mixed, but just slightly, the Dow is up 20 points, led higher by United Health shares this morning up 2%. The S&P 500 index down a point. The NASDAQ up five points. InVIDIA shares are higher by 1%. CNBC's Mike Santoli says investors want interest rates cut. But it's not a big deal if the Fed holds rates steady at its next meeting. in September. Maybe one thing the market is saying is that a September rate cut is not make a break for stocks of the economy. Now, you'd probably prefer to have it as insurance. The idea of a good news cut is always going to be embraced by the equity market. People say, oh, stocks are at a new high, credit spreads are tight. We got the IPO window up. You have retail traders going nuts. Why are we cutting rates? Well, we're cutting rates because of the basic inputs of what the Fed mandate is.

neutral, at least by their measure. Top economists and Wall Streeters heading to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for the Kansas City Fed Economic Summit this weekend on Friday, Fed Chair J. Powell will speak. It is a big week for investors waiting for quarterly results from big names, like retailers, Walmart, Home Depot, Macy's, Target, and Best Buy. Novo Nordisk shares were popping today after the FDA approved its weight loss drug, Wagovi, as a treatment for serious liver disease, affecting about 5,000. percent of the U.S. population, OZMPIC, the diabetes drug, will be available for people just

to buy. That's another change. Novo is saying that they're going to start selling Ozmpic directly to consumers. So this will expand its NovoCare platform that already carries weight loss shot with Govi. Now, remember, this is a diabetes drug, and OZUMPIC will be available for $499 a month for people paying out of pocket. Novo is also announcing that it's working with good RX to make that $49 cash price for Ozambic and will be available. And we'll be available. And we'll be available, and more than 70,000 pharmacies nationwide, so that's another expansion. And this is all just a part of Novo trying to fight back against the compounders who are selling those knockoff versions of Samagletide. So anything that Novo can do, really, to make this drug more affordable to people

who are willing to pay out of pocket could help them claw back some of that share that they've been losing. CNBC's Angelica Peoples. Bitcoin is pulled back to about 115,000 today as people sell out over macroeconomic worries and comments by the Treasury Secretary that the U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve President Trump established back in March will be confined just to Bitcoin forfeited to the federal government. The government's not buying any. Samsung is taking market share from Apple in the U.S. as foldable phones gain momentum.

Data shows that Samsung is taking market share from Apple in the United States. Smartphone market research firm canalesis shows that shipments from. Samsung to the U.S. surged in the second quarter. The company's market share rising from 23% all the way to 31% while Apple's market share declined from 56% to 49%. CNBC's Becky Quick. Universal says it's releasing the Breakfast Club movie into theaters to market's 40th anniversary. It'll be nationwide two nights, Sunday, September 7th and again on Wednesday, September 10th.

Universal's a sister company to CNBC. Warner Brothers-owned New Line's weapons took the top spot at the weekend box office for the second week in a row. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. Introducing CNBC Plus, the new streaming platform from the number one source in business news. Watch live or on demand. Access any market, any time, anywhere. Start streaming. Go to CNBC.com slash plus now.