CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Higher, Oil Higher, Delta Airlines Is Raising Airfares 3/17/26

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

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 Ettinger, CNBC. Rally out of the gate this morning on Wall Street, the Dow, up 447 points. Goldman Sachs shares leading the Dow higher right now. They're up almost 3%. American Express up 2.5. The S&P 500 index up 45 points. That's a half percent. The NASDAQ up 150 points, little more than a half a percent.

Shares of Nvidia are up a half percent this morning. oil prices are higher after Iran's fresh attack on a gas field in the UAE, crude oil, up about 3%. But stock investors are shaking that off right now. Morgan Stanley's Seth Carpenter tells CNBC, consumers are going to take a hit from $100 oil, but it's livable, even if it stays that high for a long time. Oil staying around $100 a barrel for the U.S., it's not great, but it's probably not a disaster. So the U.S. has become less oil dependent over the past several decades. The U.S. is an energy exporter on net. We import a lot.

We export a lot. There's a hit, though, to consumers with gasoline prices and other energy prices being high. So it's going to be negative for growth. Push up inflation. It's clearly going to be some effect on airline prices, things like that. Gasoline prices are up again. AAA says gas stations raise them overnight, again, by another $0.8. per gallon last night on an average.

The national average for a gallon. The gallon of regular is now sitting at $3.79. Since the U.S. first attacked Iran 18 days ago, American drivers are facing a more than 80 cent per gallon increase. This is about an additional $14 to fill up the average SUV in America with an 18-gallon tank. The U.S. economy is still through this fundamentally strong. We had the Business Roundtable CEOs in town in Washington about a week ago. And everybody was talking about how solid things look.

Iran's strategy appeared to be that they could hurt the U.S. economy, and then that would make President Trump slow down. In fact, they're not hurting the U.S. economy very much at all. While gas prices are higher, the economy as a whole is sound. And there's no way that President Trump's going to back down until he sees us through to the end. That's the Trump administration's National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett on CNBC. Delta Airlines has been raising airfares for the last couple of weeks, but people are paying. First of all, jet fuel prices have almost doubled just since the start of the quarter, and that's a fairly significant hit for us. That said, the demand strength has been really,

really great. Our consumer is really healthy. We live at the top end of that K that people talk about, the premium end of the K, and that's where over 90% of our revenue is sourced from. That group of folks wanted to travel, we've seen eight of the top 10 sales days in our history this quarter, and five of those just within the last two weeks. Even with fuel prices, even with the war going on. Delta CEO Ed Bastion on CNBC. Companies may soon only report their numbers to the public every six months instead of every three months. The Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the Wall Street Journal,

is preparing a proposal to eliminate quarterly reporting. Companies might like it because it will save the money. Critics say less transparency is never good for investors. The Fed begins a two-day meeting on interest rates this morning. it's widely expected to hold them steady. The announcement will come tomorrow afternoon. Disney CEO Bob Iger spending his final day in the job today. And on this St. Patrick's Day, the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange will be rung by executives from London-based beverage giant Diageo, which owns Guinness. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC.