CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Higher, Awaiting Apple Results, DOJ v Google Closing Arguments 5/2/24

Episode Date: May 2, 2024

From Wall Street to Main Street, the latest on the markets and what it means for your money. Updated at the open, midday, and close every weekday featuring CNBC expert analysis and sound from top business newsmakers. Anchored and reported by CNBC's Jessica Ettinger.

I'm Jessica Edinger, CNBC. Wall Street is soaring after Fed Chair Jay Powell took an interest rate increase off the table yesterday. Still no cuts coming, but interest rates are holding steady. The Dow up 173 points. That's a half percent. It's back above 38,000. The S&P 500 index up 30 points, a half percent, and the Nasdaq up 139 points, nine-tenths of one percent. Apple reports quarterly results after the closing bell today. It could be the company's fifth down quarter in the last six. The big number to watch going into Apple earnings today, greater China sales. China has been a sore spot for Apple. Sales have been

plummeting in the country thanks to weak consumer demand and competition from Chinese phone brands like Huawei. So why does this matter? China contributes up to 20 percent of Apple's annual sales, and Apple has yet to find a new market that's growing quickly enough to make up for the downturn there. CNBC's Steve Kovach. The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week held steady, remaining historically low at 208,000. That was the fewest since February. Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy is stepping down and the struggling exercise company is cutting 15 percent of its jobs. That's about 400 people. Wayfair lost money in the last quarter, but a lot less, by $100 million less after it cut jobs. Sales dipped for the retailer, but shares of Wayfair

are surging today. Novo Nordisk beat profit estimates as sales of that weight loss drug Wagovi more than doubled in the last quarter. Insurance rates are blamed for keeping inflation sticky. Companies have raised their premiums and they're paying out less in claims. It's not just car insurance either, though. That gets a lot of attention because it's included in the CPI data. But prices on property more broadly, casualty insurance, those are soaring as well. AIG, its commercial insurance lines in North America saw pricing increase 6 percent and stayed ahead of what the company paid out in claims. And then you've got big car insurer Allstate also reporting earnings that trounced expectations.

What happened? Well, Allstate has been able to collect higher premiums as insurance regulators approved these new hikes. Plus, repair and replacement costs are stabilizing. Traveler CEO was asked on their earnings call, are the rate hikes over? Are we going to start to see auto insurance rates decelerate a bit? And the answer was, not really. CNBC's Contessa Brewer. UnitedHealth's CEO estimates that a third of all Americans could be impacted by the cyber attack at its Change Healthcare division. He was grilled on Capitol Hill yesterday by lawmakers

after the private personal data of millions of consumers was found for sale on the dark web. Google and government lawyers are in closing arguments today. The government suing Google in an antitrust case. Google's attorneys are going to argue that customers choose to use Google because they have the best search engine, not because they have effectively strangled their competition. Now, for its part, the Department of Justice should argue that Google has maintained its monopoly over the years by paying billions of dollars for exclusive agreements with Apple and others to be the default search engine. Microsoft's Satya Nadella said during the trial that such default settings are just about the only things that matter to consumers. CNBC's Eamon Javers. I'm Jessica

Edinger, CNBC. CNBC is your ticket to Omaha, Nebraska for the annual Berkshire Hathaway meeting. Watch live on air, online, or app. Warren Buffett meets with shareholders, plus their questions, his answers. Begins 9 30 Eastern Saturday.