CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Mixed, Nvidia Shares Top 1k, Jobless Claims Lower, DOJ Prepares Antitrust Lawsuit Against Live Nation 5/23/24

Episode Date: May 23, 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. Markets are mixed on Wall Street, but it's already a record-setting day for stocks as Nvidia shares pop on strong quarterly results. The Dow is in the red, down 190 points, 1.3%. The S&P 500 index hit a fresh intraday record high this morning. It's up 11 points, the Nasdaq up 116 points, more than a half percent. All three major averages are on pace for their best month since last November. AI chip maker NVIDIA showing no signs of a slowdown for the technology,

sales up more than 260 percent in the last quarter. Company revenue more than tripled in Q1, and its data center business grew by more than 400 percent over a year earlier, sending shares above $1,000 for the first time. The demand for GPUs in all the data centers is incredible. We're racing every single day. chat gpt and gpt 4.0 and now it's going to be multi-modality and um gemini and it's rampant anthropic and uh you know all all of the work that's being done at all the csps are consuming every gpu that's out there jensen wong on the call last night nvidia's ceo and cnbc's carl quintanilla nvidia announced a 10 for 1 stock split coming next month as shares are above $1,000 a piece now. And the split will make them around $100 a piece if it

happened today. It's not happening till next month. But that's far more affordable for regular people and employees. And this is something CNBC Mad Money host Jim Cramer talked to the CEO about in March. They all also want something that I know is pedestrian and doesn't add value. They want a stock split. Yeah, we've done stock splits in the past. One of the things that I really like about stock splits, by the way, is that it makes the stock purchase for our employees and others. Yes. That's what Walmart says too. Yeah, it's a good thing. Now, Jensen knew that I was asking for something that doesn't create value. At the same time, he recognizes that everyone should have a ability to be able to buy it.

This is an example of the remarkable nature of this man. NVIDIA's 10-for-1 stock split happens after market close on June 7th. Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week as job cuts remain historically low, below the pre-pandemic weekly average. Initial claims comes in on the light side, 215,000. That is the lightest since the last week in April. CNBC's Rick Santelli.

Live Nation shares under pressure today on reports the Department of Justice and a group of states are filing a lawsuit against the company for antitrust violations related to Ticketmaster's domination and accused monopoly of concert ticket sales. This is sort of the textbook definition of a rapacious monopoly and the United States government allowed them to merge in 2012 or so and Live Nation and Ticket, and that ended up being a big mistake. At the time, they said that, don't worry, we're not going to use our monopolistic forces to punish any venues who don't use us or to cause ticket prices to go up.

Has that been the case? You know, a lot of this is confidential, but I think there's been reporting suggesting and a lot of anecdotal evidence that they have just used their power over ticketing and booking to control the industry. And they have over 70, 80 percent of major venues. I mean, have you ever tried to buy something outside of Ticketmaster that's a major? Well, you can only do it on the secondhand market after they do it and sell it back through. CNBC's Becky Quick with Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu. NOAA announcing its 2024 Atlantic hurricane season outlook today.

Insurance companies will be listening. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. CNBC. Live ambitiously.