CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Lower, US Crude Oil Higher, Hot Wholesale Inflation For February 3/18/26

Episode Date: March 18, 2026

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I'm Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. Wall Street pulling back this morning on another hot read on inflation and a new attack on a natural gas field in southern Iran, which pushed up U.S. crude again above $98 a barrel. The Dow down 164 points, 3 tenths of a percent. Procter and Gamble shares leading it lower. They're down 1.5%. The S&P 500 index is down 14.

The NASDAQ down 33 points out of the gate. this morning shares of Invidia down a quarter percent. Look, I mean, this morning at 3 a.m., the futures look like it's going to be the greatest day in history. You know, a big follow-through. Right. And then you come in when you see this attack, but then you look at the PPI. That's CNBC Mad Money host, Jim Kramer. The producer price index for last month popped up seven-tenths of a percent, much more than expected.

That's a measure of inflation at the wholesale level. As producers pay higher prices for their inputs and then, That often gets passed down to the retailers and ultimately to consumers. Here's CNBC's Rick Santelli. Hostsale side of inflation, the producer price index. Headline number expected to be up 3 tenths of a percent comes in hot, up 7 tenths of a percent. That would be the highest level since July of 25. Food prices rose 2.4 percent, and within food,

the index for fresh and dry vegetables soared 48 percent last month. Former St. Louis Fed President James Bullard tells CNBC the Fed's going to have a hard time cutting interest rates. The announcement comes this afternoon. It may have to throw out the idea that it wants to see inflation back at 2%. That's been its target. Pre-pandemic in 2019, inflation was hanging around 1.7%. This was a hot report, you know, a disturbing trend toward somewhat higher inflation where the committee has been arguing that if you're patient enough and you look past one-time effects that you'd eventually get back to 2% inflation.

But now you've got this report and core PCE inflation, which is the committee's favorite measure on an annual basis running over 3%. So I think it's a moment where the committee has to reaffirm that they really do want to get inflation back to 2%. Gold pulled back below $5,000 announced on inflation fears. Macy's shares were popping today on better than expected quarterly results. struggling Lulu Lemon, its shares fell on weak forecasts for sales and earnings this year. The Senate passed a bill to limit homes being bought by investors. It's different than a House bill. The two would have to be reconciled, but Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley told CNBC that

average people just can't compete against businesses and investors who buy homes with cash. The competition of fast closing all cash is very significant to a seller of. of a home. They know it's going to go through, it's going to go through fast, there's not going to be contingencies. Wow, that's an easy sell. And so then the real estate agent is saying, hey, if you want to compete with that, you're going to have to offer 30 or 40,000 above the asking price. And so it's been a factor in driving up homes. And certainly in markets like Atlanta and Phoenix, where they've been buying 30 to 40 percent of the new homes that are built, it really is a piece of the crushing of the vision of middle class owning home.

Disney has a new CEO this morning, Josh DeMorrow, the former head of the Parks and Experiences part of the company, and that includes the cruise line. It is a bracket Wednesday, Americans starting to make their picks for the NCAA men's and women's college basketball tournaments. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. CNBC Cures Defying Rare Disease, Premers Thursday, 7 Eastern.