CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Higher, S&P 500 Index Hits New Record High, Apple And Microsoft Hit $4 Trillion Market Cap 10/28/25

Episode Date: October 28, 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. 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. Out-of-the-gate, stocks are higher and out-of-the-gate, Apple and Microsoft each cross the $4 trillion market cap mark. The Dow is up 198 points, almost a half percent. The S&P 500 index up nine, the NASDAQ up 114 points. The Fed beginning a two-day meeting on interest rates this morning. An announcement comes tomorrow afternoon. ARC Invest CEO, Kathy Wood, flagging a correction risk in the financial markets, saying her firm thinks there will be a reality check. OpenAI has finished restructuring its solidified Microsoft as a major shareholder.

One of the most important companies in the world, frankly, is Open AI, but it's a private company. It has been a not-for-profit and has been in the midst of a recapitalization to change that, essentially, to become essentially a for-profit corporation, as well as then having the Open AI Foundation hold a significant amount of its equity. Microsoft was the early and most important supporter of OpenAI. CNBC's David Faber, Amazon firing tens of thousands of workers. It's going to lay off about 14,000 corporate employees

as it restructures for the AI era, marking the latest move in a multi-year effort to streamline operations, and shift resources toward its biggest bets, including generative AI. The company has about 350,000 corporate employees, meaning that the confirmed cuts affect roughly 4% of that workforce. But what I will say is that those layoffs are expected to become the largest corporate job cuts in Amazon's history. Reuters reporting the total could go as high as 30,000. And the company did signal that more layoffs are likely in the year ahead.

CNBC's McKenzie Sigalos, Chegg, the online education company firing. almost half its staff. 388 people blaming the new realities of AI. Private sector businesses added an average of 14,250 jobs per week over the last four weeks. This is from a new preliminary data set being released by payroll company ADP. It is a slight turnaround from the negative September numbers. PayPal shares surging. It has a deal with Open AI to become the first payments wallet inside chat GPT. UPS shares popped on strong quarterly results, as did Sherwin Williams shares. Wayfair also hired a day on better than expected earnings in the last quarter. When a cruise line misses expectations, it may mean Americans are pulling back on

that travel spending, and Royal Caribbean shares tumbled on disappointing quarterly results and a weaker full-year outlook. Meantime, cruise lines in the Caribbean have changed itineraries as Hurricane Melissa, a rare and dangerous category five, is now battering the island of Jamaica. Jamaica's prime minister says there's no infrastructure on the island that can withstand a cap five storm. The question will be the speed of recovery. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. This December, CNBC opens its doors for an exclusive in-person experience at the iconic NASDAQ market site in New York City. Fast Money Live, Trading the Holidays.

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