CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Higher, Inflation Ticked Lower In February, Oil Lower On Growth Concerns And Not New Drilling 3/12/25

Episode Date: March 12, 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 trying to rebound this morning after two days of plunging markets. A softer read on inflation is helping even with retaliatory tariffs announced by Europe. The Dow in the green up 113 points this morning. That's a third of a percent. It's being led higher by shares of Nvidia, which are popping almost 7 percent. The S&P 500 index up 59 points, 1%. The Nasdaq is up 343 points, up almost 2%.

Shares of Tesla soaring up 8% this morning. And so are shares of Carvana, they're up 8.5%. Inflation came in lighter than expected for last month in the new CPI report for the consumer price index for February. Inflation ticked lower after four straight months of inflation gains. February read consumer price index expected up three tenths comes in a tenth light up two tenths of a percent up two tenths equals where we were in October to

find a lower number. You're back to July of last year. CNBC's Rick Santelli, and here's CNBC senior economics reporter Steve Leesman. Yeah, there was a concern we would come in on the high side. Everybody said they were looking for upside surprise, so it's really good to come in below here. You got some help from Food Up Just Zero 2, Meat meat poultry fish and eggs up 1.6% after 1.9 the month before. Dairy products were down. Energy was well behaved. You got a decline in airline fares down 4%. We don't know if that's a demand thing or that's just an energy thing being passed through. Weekly

mortgage demand surged last week. Interest rates had dropped. Applications for a mortgage to buy a home rose 7% last week and were higher than the same week a year ago. The average rate on a 30-year fixed home loan today is 6 3⁄4%, according to Mortgage News Daily. Oil prices have been swinging, but crude oil has fallen to its lowest

in nearly four years recently, below $66 a barrel, before popping up to $67 today. The soft price isn't because the U.S. is drilling more. And we have so much supply. It's because people are scared of a slowing economy. The main reason why prices are down is concerns about the global economy, obviously everything that's going on with tariffs, what that does for global growth.

Drill, baby, drill is purely rhetoric. It hasn't led to any increase in U.S. production. We actually don't think it's going to lead to any increase in production. So this is really about global growth concerns rather than supplies. Energy aspects, Amrita Sen on CNBC. Airlines say travel demand is waning. At least in the short term, American Airlines and Delta Airlines have each lowered their forecasts in this current quarter, citing a weaker economic environment.

A SpaceX Crew-10 rocket launches tonight to bring back two U.S. astronauts stuck on the International Space Station since last June. It'll actually take four astronauts up to the ISS and bring four back. The two stuck there went up on a Boeing rocket, a 10 day mission that turned into nine months. The Boeing capsule returned empty because of safety concerns. NASA's Bush Wilmore and Sunni Williams could be back on Earth as soon as Sunday. Jessica Edinger, CNBC. CNBC.