CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Mixed, AI Returns in Question, Wholesale Inflation Surges • 10/15/26

Episode Date: October 15, 2026

CNBC Business News Update with Jessica Ettinger - Markets & Business News With Expert Analysis From Top Business Names. Visit CNBC.com For More. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

CNBC Business News Update Market Open. I'm Jessica Eddinger. Wall Street's mixed this morning out of the gate as bond yields dramatically fall. The rate on the 10-year note down to 5.05% this morning from over 5.3 earlier this week. Investors are starting to talk about AI delivering results not quite so quickly. And the narrative of less demand for a buildout may be helping to ease rates. The Dow is up 222 points. morning. An upgrade for Walmart. It's leading the Dow higher, up 4%. The S&P 500 index is down 35 points, almost a half percent. The NASDAQ falling 317 points, more than 1 percent this morning. Most of the chipmakers

in the red. Tech shares have been selling off again after the sell-off continued overnight overseas. Some investors fleeing to the safety of bonds helping to send yields lower. Here's CNBC's Mike Santoli. Anything that consumes capital and that has a distant payoff is coming under fire today. I think the big question is if we can still assume that these are almost two independent channels of the economy, whereas the AI economy now perhaps has a lot more scrutiny about the payback. And the underlying, you know, real economy still remains pretty steady. More inflation data today, wholesale prices soaring in September for their biggest jump in four years. here's CNBC Senior Economics Reporter, Steve Leesman.

Yeah, coming a little hot on the PPI here. I've got month over month, PPI final demand, up 1.3. The consensus was 0.5. PPI measures input costs for producers. These can hint at how much prices will eventually go up for consumers down the line. September retail sales numbers also out today. Here's more from Leesman. Retail sales coming in hotter.

Retail sales, 0.0. point eight consensus was 0.4. But Leesman reports that soaring gas prices are a big part of the retail sales number for September. Retail sales, ex-autos gas, up just 0.1%. That tells us that this whole consumer spending beat, this retail sales beat, was all gas, which was up 6.4%, which tells us that the consumer, we've been waiting to see if this happens, is making some choices here. meantime, as I mentioned, got an upgrade today to a buy from Deutsche Bank for investors picking stocks. Deutsche says as inflation hits more U.S. consumers, Walmart is poised to do well, as I mentioned, Walmart leading the Dow higher. Apollo's Tourston-Slock tells CNBC the latest inflation and retail

sales data point to early signs of consumer weakness as they pay more for purchases and for home and car loans. Leasing a car has become very expensive. buying a house mortgage rates were 2.7 during the pandemic. Now they are basically more than seven. So the conclusion is consumers are beginning to show some early signs of weakness because of higher rates. Investors are closely watching a report on the U.S. war with Iran, as the U.S. reportedly considers the use of the mother of all bombs. The GBU 43B Massive Ordinance Air Blast Bomb,

which CNN is reporting is being considered, citing U.S. officials CNBC is not independently confirmed this report. Iran strikes on ships in the Hormuz have increased to the most since the start of the war. President Trump said on October 8th he would not resume strikes on Iran until after the November 3rd midterm elections. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. From gas prices to housing prices, from government spending to consumer spending, from the AI boom to the data center backlash. How will this election hit your pocketbook and your portfolio? Continuing coverage. The economy election. DC.