CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Lower, Fed Meets On Interest Rates, Prices At The Pump Plunge 6/4/24

Episode Date: June 4, 2024

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.

I'm Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. Major averages in the red, but off their earlier lows out of the gate, the Dow down 15 points, the S&P 500 index down 12 points, the Nasdaq is down 48 points. The Fed starting a two-day meeting on interest rates today. With the announcement coming tomorrow, it's widely expected to hold rates steady. U.S. crude oil now down to $72 a barrel, its lowest since the beginning of February. AAA says gas prices in the U.S. have plunged 15 cents a gallon in just the past month. Tesla shareholders, a little worried after CNBC reported that emails circulated inside AI chipmaker NVIDIA and seen by CNBC, show that Elon Musk told NVIDIA and seen by CNBC show that Elon Musk told NVIDIA to prioritize chip deliveries to Twitter, now called X, as well as Musk's AI company, XAI, instead of Tesla.

Raises those questions about Musk. He's the CEO of Tesla, but obviously controls completely privately held X and XAI. If you sort of deny a benefit for one company and conferred on your private company, you know, is the board signed off on that? I don't know. All of this coming, of course, as there is a vote coming as well on his compensation package that was originally granted to him in 2018, but is being re-voted on. You know, we've got NVIDIA declining to comment, Musk and representatives for X and Tesla, apparently, according to the story, not responding to requests for comment. CNBC's David Faber.

The Fortune 500 ranking is out for 2024. The top company, and it's based on revenue, is Walmart. 440 are run by white men, as diversity suffers at the top. There's still 52 women running Fortune 500 companies. The last two years have been the first two years where there's ever been more than 10% of companies run by women. And then for black CEOs, it's dismal. It's only eight. Fortune's editor-in-chief, Alison Chantel, on CNBC. The Small Business Administration's unveiling new credit lines of up to $5 million to fund small businesses. The new

capital program's designed to make it easier for business owners to get money at lower interest rates than those quick cash commercial lenders. The Epoch Times chief financial officer charged in a multi-million dollar global money laundering scheme. The conservative news outlet executive was arrested, has pleaded not guilty, and was released on bond with travel restrictions. Ford is selling a lot of hybrid vehicles in the U.S., trying to catch up to Jeep and Toyota. We're going to see strong hybrid sales numbers when the company reports its results for the month of May. They made the pivot last year, started rolling out things like the hybrid Maverick, the hybrid F-150. They've done well with that. Sales up 41% year-to-date all the way through April.

It's about 9% of Ford sales. But in terms of Ford versus the competition in hybrid sales here in the U.S., this is still Toyota's market, and they dominate it, selling more than half of all of the hybrids. CNBC's Phil LeBeau. Instagram is testing non-skippable ads. You can't scroll past them until after they finish playing. TechCrunch says the video ads are common on platforms like YouTube.

Tonight's Mega Millions jackpot, more than a half billion at $560 million. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. I just love this game. So excited to share with the world. The Olympics from Paris starts July 26th on NBC and Peacock.