CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Higher, Layoff Announcements Top 1.1 Million, Discount Retailers Optimistic For Holidays 12/4/25

Episode Date: December 4, 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 and reported by CNBC's Jessica Ettinger. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I'm Jessica Eddinger. CNBC Wall Street has popped and now dropped in morning trading. The Dow is down 54 points. Shears of Boeing leading it lower, they're down one and a half percent this morning. The S&P 500 index down four points. The NASDAQ is now in the red too. It's down 43 points. Shears of Nvidia have pulled back.

They're still in the green up about a half a percent. We are in a positive seasonal period, but there are some hurdles for this. market to continue to get another leg higher. We've got a Fed meeting next week. Let's not forget about that. We do have some volatility we've been seeing in the international bond market. That can spark some volatility. Verdance Capitals Megan Hornman on CNBC. Some investors rattle that the job market might be rolling over layoff announcements this year hit 1.1 million. The most announced job cuts in five years when the pandemic hit. Tracking from outplacement firms, Challenger, Gray, and Christmas shows that employers say they are either restructuring,

responding to economic conditions, or simply closing the business. Fewer people did apply for unemployment benefits last week, 171,000. That's lower than the pre-pandemic weekly average, and it was Thanksgiving week. Morgan Stanley's chief investment officer tells CNBC, the job picture is not likely going to get much better. Jobs are really the linchpin to how we need to think about the economic future. I mean, this is what everybody's going to react to. So the jobs data that's going to come out after the FOMC meeting, when that comes out, I fully expect the jobs data to get worse. Morgan Stanley's Jim Caron on CNBC.

Bids for Warner Brothers Discovery are in. Paramount Skydance wants to buy the media giant that owns a movie studio, HBO Max, and CNN. But so do CNBC parent Comcast, Disney. Netflix. Warner Brothers Discovery executives want to have the sale process wrapped up by the end of this month. It's been made a couple of times by all the parties. There is an expectation now that Paramount, if it wants to win, it's going to have to come back at an even higher price. CNBC's David Faber. Sales Force shares were hired today on a better outlook for the company. Discount retailer five below shares were popping on strong results for the last quarter and high hopes for the

holidays, same for Dollar General. Investors are hopeful that spending will continue. Hormel Foods shares rose on hope for a turnaround after the maker of spam posted disappointing quarterly revenue. No Powerball winner last night, tomorrow night's jackpot. $820 million. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC.