CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Higher, White House Looks For The Fed To Cut Interest Rates, Intel Cutting More Jobs 7/25/25

Episode Date: July 25, 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. The S&P 500 index in the NASDAQ opened at fresh record highs this morning and the indexes are building on those. The Dow is up today 54 points. It was dragged lower yesterday by shares of IBM. The S&P 500 index up nine and the NASDAQ up seven points. Nvidia shares down about a quarter percent this morning. The major averages are on pace for a winning week. President Trump visited the Fed yesterday in a move seen possibly to pressure Fed chair, Jay Powell to lower interest rates. The last time the Fed lowered rates last September, other rates went up, including mortgage rates.

Man, there's a guy that's getting kicked around a little bit right now. It's, um, you know, the position he's in is almost a no win right now, right? Because I think the Fed honestly is trying to do the right thing. They're looking at ongoing inflation pressures, they're looking at an economy that's growing between two and 3%.

They're looking at equities at the highs, volatility at the lowest, credit spreads at record tights, and saying to themselves, you know, are rates really that restrictive, you know, in this environment? And yet they have the administration Pounding on them to just to cut rates cut rates JP Morgan's Bill Eichmann on CNBC as the EU Struggles to reach a trade deal with the US many companies are taking some massive tariff hits like Europe's automakers president Trump imposed

25% tariffs on foreign-made vehicles and car parts back in April. And that is slamming Jeep, parent Stellantis, Volkswagen and Volvo to name a few. The FCC said yes to the Paramount merger with the entertainment group Skydance and it's worth about $8 billion. Once this deal closes, we're going to see some pretty significant moves, whether that means a move to sell off the cable networks of Paramount Global, whether that means they move to sell off the cable networks of Paramount Global, whether that means dramatic cost cutting. It could be the merger of Paramount Plus and Pluto, their free streamer. It could be some new deals. They're doing a big film deal with Will Smith. There's going to be a lot of very quick moves, I think, to kind of establish

because they've had a year to sit on this plan. Pucks, Matt Bellany on CNBC. Intel is cutting expenses and about 25,000 workers as the CEO tries to revive the fortunes of this struggling chip maker, which helped launch Silicon Valley but has fallen behind rivals like Nvidia and AMD. Margins were a little bit weaker and guidance for EPS came in below consensus driven by higher costs. Management also acknowledged a likely pull forward in demand ahead of

tariffs something we saw last quarter too meaning they may have borrowed sales from future quarters. Rosenblatt called this a meh quarter with a slow turnaround underway. Staying disciplined on costs. More layoffs are coming. Projects in Germany and Poland are getting scrapped. A plant in Costa Rica is being consolidated. The list continues. CNBC's Christina Parts in Evelus.

Consumers who loved the Target price match perk will no longer be able to get a refund for the difference if they find the item priced lower at Amazon or Walmart. The target price match will now be limited to include only if you find that product price lower at another target store or on target.com. Midsummer barbecues are getting expensive. Americans are paying up for beef. The average price of a pound of ground beef rose to $6 and 12 cents last month, up nearly 12% from the same month a year ago. Uncooked beef like steaks up 8%. Now an average of $11.49 a pound according to the government. New in theaters tonight, Disney's reboot of Marvel's The Fantastic

Four. Jessica Edinger, CNBC.