CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Mixed, Fed Expected To Cut Interest Rates Today, Home Builders Start Fewer Single Family Homes In August 9/17/25

Episode Date: September 17, 2025

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I'm Jessica Eddinger. CNBC, Wall Street is mixed as investors wait to see if the Fed announces an expected interest rate cut this afternoon, first of the year, of at least a quarter percentage point. The Dow is soaring higher. It's up 274 points a half percent. Shears of American Express leading the way, they're up more than 2%. The S&P 500 index up two points, the NASDAQ in the red this morning, down 51. points in video shares are down more than 2%.

The Fed decision on interest rates coming at 2 p.m. Eastern today, a cut as small as a quarter percentage point, would mean credit card users would pay very slightly less in interest on balances they're carrying. But savers would earn slightly less on money and high-yield savings or money market accounts. Quarter point is baked in. To me, it's all about what Powell says

and how he telegraphs it. Two cuts, three cuts. Right now the market's been on a nice run. I suspect we're going to get a little bit of a sell-the-news, a vet as a result of this. Watch, you know, a 3% pullback. Freedom Capitals, Jay Woods on CNBC. Disappointing housing starts and building permits numbers for August. The home builders are sitting on so many completed, unsold homes.

They're just starting to build fewer new ones. Housing starts for August coming in at 1,307,000. That's a miss. Now on permits, this is a preliminary number. million 312,000, also amissed by a wide margin. These numbers aren't good. The complexion of single to multifamily, you're seeing multifamily continue to take a bigger share. Why home builders, while there's a lot of inventory there. CNBC's Rick Santelli with mortgage rates at a three-year low now. Mortgage refinancing is spiking. Last week, mortgage rates were their lowest in one year.

and demand pops 60% over the week before, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The average rate now on a 30-year home loan is 6.1% according to mortgage news daily. NVIDIA shares down that 2% as we mentioned on an FT report that China has banned its biggest tech companies from buying any NVIDIA chips, the CEO of NVIDIA, saying he's disappointed. Ticket reseller Stubhub, issuing shares to the public for the first time today. Another sign of an IPO market rebound. Stubhub, just priced its offering at 2350 a share. That's right in the middle of its expected range

and the deal valuing the company at $8.6 billion ahead of its first trades. Now Stubhub had to late its debut twice, most recently following President Trump's April 2nd tariff announcement. CNBC's Silvana Hanow. General Mills' shares fell on lackluster quarterly results. its brands include Betty Crocker cake mixes, annies, mac and cheese, and Czech cereal. Eli Lilly's obesity pill outperformed Novo Nordisk's oral drug in a head-to-head diabetes trial in patients with type 2 diabetes. But so far, the pills have generally shown less efficacy than injections over time.

Social security payments and other federal benefits will go fully electronic at the end of the month, fueling concerns that people who still want paper checks in the mail and don't have bank accounts, We'll miss their payments. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. Get exclusive reporting and data on high net worth investors, family offices, and alternative investments from the foremost authority on private wealth, Robert Frank. Get the weekly newsletter and special access to events

at CNBC.com slash inside wealth.