CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Higher, PCE Inflation Comes In As Expected, Costco Raises Hourly Pay 1/31/25

Episode Date: January 31, 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 wraps up January trading today. So far, the major averages are in the green. Out of the gate this morning, the Dow up 62 points, being led higher by shares of Amazon up 1.8%. The S&P 500 index is up 28 points. That's a half a percent. And the Nasdaq's up 183 points.

That's almost a full 1%. Shares of NVIDIA are lower. They're down a half percent this morning. Google parent alphabet shares are up more than 1%. Inflation was higher in the new PCE report, personal consumption expenditures, its biggest increase month to month and year over year since last spring. But when you take out food and energy, inflation came in at an expected 2.8 percent in December. That is well above the Fed's target rate of 2 percent. The last time inflation was at 2 percent was almost exactly three years ago. And then when you take out volatile housing prices, things look even better. Price index X food, energy and housing plus zero one compared to zero one in November. That's something that Fed Chair Powell has looked very carefully at. X energy, housing and food.

And that's a good number. That's a very good number. The numbers are pretty good. We don't have a flagging economy. We've got a decent economy. CNBC senior economics reporter Steve Leisman. Americans are making more money, though. The same report shows income was up four-tenths of a percent in December, although spending came in higher than expected. American Airlines shares

were ticking higher today after one of its regional jets crashed midair with a military helicopter Wednesday night in Washington, D.C., killing nearly 70. They now have the black boxes. The NTSB recovered those from the American Airlines regional jet. Remember that after the collision midair was broken into three pieces that then ended up in the Potomac River. Those black boxes have been recovered. Air traffic control tower staffing deemed not normal. That simply means that instead of two separate controllers communicating, one with helicopters, one with airplanes, as is usually the case, they can be combined under one person. That's what was happening when the incident took

place, but it's not deemed unsafe under FAA guidelines. CNBC's Phil LeBeau. The auto industry bracing as President Trump's sweeping tariffs are set to take effect tomorrow. On goods coming in from Mexico and Canada, nearly every major automaker operating in the U.S. has at least one plant in Mexico accounting for 70% of U.S. sales last year. Apple shares are higher even with weak sales, offset by stronger services revenue. People paying for Apple TV, Apple Music, and more. The best news I felt was that where they have their Apple intelligence, their AI, sales are up. And people felt that the big issue would be the forecast cut. There was no forecast cut.

This installed base, 1.38 billion users. This is what everyone knows is their ace in the hole. The hedge funds keep thinking, what's the next iteration of the phone doing? And Tim Cook is thinking, we have a lot of people who will buy more of our things, whether it be service or whether it be Mac earbuds. The watch is crushing it. CNBC Mad Money host Jim Cramer. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. The watch is crushing it.