CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Lower, Investors Taking Tech Profits, Japan's SoftBank To Buy DigitalBridge

Episode Date: December 29, 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 Jill Schneider. 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 Jill Schneider, CNBC. Stocks are lower as we kick off the last week of trading for 2025. Investors are taking profits in tech stocks after the S&P 500 climbed to new record levels, set to wrap up a strong year. The Dow is down 66 points. The S&P 500 is lower by 29. The NASDAQ is down 185. Wisdom-tree chief economist Jeremy Siegel says his outlook for 2026 is positive,

but he says there are a few hurdles we need to get through first. Most notably, another potential government shut down. The Supreme Court's decision on President Trump's tariffs and the decision of who will be named the chairman of the Federal Reserve. These are very important issues to get through, you know, in addition to what is GDP and what are earnings and what are margins. And we might all get those in January. So it might, you know, certainly one of them,

the shutdown has to be either solved or, or extended in that month, and the other two look like they're likely to be announced. So we need to get through some bumps, as I say, but if we can get through those successfully, it still looks like a positive year for me. The AI trade came under a bit of pressure in early trading. Invidia shares slipped more than a percent, as did Micron and Oracle. Shares of Digital Bridge up 10 percent after Japan's softbanks, as it has agreed to buy the data center investment firm for $4 billion.

as part of its AI pushed. Investors will get one more read into the Federal Reserve's mindset heading into 2026. The Central Bank's minutes from its December meeting are due for release on Wednesday. General Motors is on pace to be the top U.S. traded automaker stock of 2025. Shares of the Detroit automaker are having their best year since the company's reemergence from bankruptcy in 2009. GM stock up about 55 percent so far this year. Jill Schneider, CNBC. The CNBC Sport Universe is growing. We're covering the intersection of sports and business, unlike anyone else in the game. For all of our latest stories, videos, and more, go to CNBC.com slash sport.