CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Mixed, UnitedHealth Tanks On DOJ Investigation Report, New Tesla Recall 2/21/25

Episode Date: February 21, 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. Wall Street is mixed out of the gate this morning. The Dow down 292 points. That's more than a half percent being dragged lower by shares of United Health, down 8%. The S&P 500 index down 10 points. The Nasdaq's in the green this morning, up 21 points. Checking shares of Nvidia, they're higher. They're up three quarters of a percent.

Gold pulling back after fresh record highs. Gold higher on the week, up eight weeks in a row. It's longest weekly win streak since all the way back in 2020. Remember the pandemic, a lot of uncertainty. The safety play here, having a big week, up one and a half percent. Right now pulling back just a bit, pulling back about a third of a percent. CNBC's Frank Holland. UnitedHealth shares, as we told you, are tanking.

And it's on a Wall Street Journal report that says the Department of Justice is investigating its Medicare billing practices. United is a different animal because they have a provider or a doctor business as well as an insurance business, whereas most of the other companies do not. So the allegations here basically pertain to that doctor network overcharging patients for various procedures they may or may not need, and that's enabling the company to go out there and get more money for the government for those procedures, whatever they may be. But we'll see as more details emerge here. Mizzou host Jared Schultz on CNBC. Coinbase says

the Securities and Exchange Commission has agreed to end an enforcement case against the crypto exchange. Take us behind the scenes about how the SEC and this administration ultimately decided to end the enforcement action. I think what they realized is that they were going to lose badly. And I have to give a lot of credit actually to this new administration that's come in. And I think they're in the process of reforming the SEC and trying to clean up some of these actions where the SEC really painted outside the bounds of the law in the past. I hope that they'll dismiss all the bogus cases, frankly,

and it'll be a domino effect for the rest of the industry. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong with CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin. Bitcoin higher, hovering around $99,000. EV maker Rivian beat Wall Street's fourth quarter expectations but expects lower deliveries in 2025. Still, Rivian made its first ever gross profit in the last quarter. Tesla with another recall, this time for more than 375,000 vehicles because of a power steering issue. A judge siding with the Trump administration ruling against a union effort to block mass federal job cuts. Citigroup, the latest company to drop diversity, equity, and inclusion, citing pressure from the Trump administration.

Wendy's has teamed up with the Girl Scouts to introduce Thin Mint Frosties. They're on menus today. The Grapefruit League season begins this afternoon. Yankees hosting the Rays in Tampa. New in theaters this weekend, Neon's horror film, The Monkey. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. The CNBC Changemakers returns. 50 women innovating and driving change across industries. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC.