CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Mixed, Retail Sales Tick Up In February, PepsiCo To Buy Poppi 3/17/25

Episode Date: March 17, 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 Jessica Ettinger.

I'm Jessica Edinger CNBC. We've got some green on the screen this morning on Wall Street out of the gate. The Dow is higher up 107 points a quarter percent being led higher by shares of Nike, which are up more than 2% this morning. The S&P 500 index up 11 points. The Nasdaq is up 15 points. We've got some mixed retail sales numbers for February. Not immediately apparent that U.S. consumers are pulling back their spending. Our February read retail sales up two-tenths on headline. That's a real disappointment up two-tenths. Many were expecting a better bounce and if we look at X auto hold on hold on minus nine-tenths now becomes minus 1.2, which equals where we were in November of 22 to

find a bigger negative month-over-month change here in July of 21. CNBC's Rick Santelli. Here's CNBC's senior economics reporter Steve Leesman. Let's start off with the most important piece, which is gas station sales down 1 percent. Discretionary items like sporting goods and hobbies down 4 tenths, department stores down 1.7, clothing down 6 tenths. Those do not speak to being very robust in terms of the consumer. And experts say to zoom out.

Look, we ended the year with the economy in solid shape, with the consumer in really good shape, but things are going to slow down this year. This is just a lot of noise month to month. We're just going to be slower this year than we were last year. That's Morgan Stanley economist Seth Carpenter on CNBC. The Trump tariff agenda is starting to hurt American businesses. More Canadians are buying goods made in their country as by Canadian sweeps that population and

Airlines are starting to reduce flights to the u.s. From Canada as demand drops gold holding around that record $3,000 an ounce level today it hit that Friday People are trying to figure out how to sell their own gold jewelry and other items around the house over the weekend ETF buyers have now come into the space and that has been driven by many of these macro factors. The geopolitical risks, the uncertainty around tariffs, what that might mean for inflation and global growth. And all of these factors have come together to really boost gold and hit that 3,000 level.

Standard charter, Suki Cooper on CNBC. PepsiCo buying soda brand Poppy for $1.6 billion. Teen fashion retailer Forever 21 is filed for bankruptcy. The chain has struggled against bigger rivals like H&M and online rivals like Temu and Sheehan. Swedish buy-now-pay-later company Klarna plucked a lucrative partnership with Walmart away from a firm.

On Friday, Klarna filed to go public in the U.S. Klarna shares are popping today while a firm has been sliding. Norwegian Cruise Line, founded in Norway but incorporated in the Bahamas and headquartered in Miami. It's been upgraded by J.P. Morgan. Norwegian says there have been no changes in booking rates or cancellations, And investors like that. Hollywood, still a bit worried.

Five new movies and theaters over the weekend, and it's likely going to be the lowest grossing weekend of the year for theaters when all the box office numbers come in today. Paramount's Novacaine looks like it led a very slow pack. Butch and Sunni, back on Earth around dinner time Eastern tomorrow. The U.S. astronauts whose 10-day mission in a Boeing capsule turned into a nearly nine-month stay on the ISS will splash down in the Atlantic tomorrow just before 6 Eastern. Jessica Edinger, CNBC.