CNBC Business News Update - Markets Midday: Powell's Rate Comments Continue To Hit Stocks, CEO Tariff Talk On The Upswing, Walt Disney Hot Streak Rolls On

Episode Date: November 15, 2024

The latest in business, financial, and market news and how it impacts your money - reported by CNBC's Peter Schacknow

I'm Peter Schach, now CNBC. Stocks continue to slump in the wake of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's interest rate comments yesterday. Powell suggested that there was no need to rush interest rate cuts. The Dow falling 324 points at 43,430. The S&P 500 is 1.25% lower, 75 points. The Nasdaq with a 2.1% slump. That's 406 points. The S&P and Nasdaq are seeing their biggest one-day losses since October 31st, and all of the major averages are on track for a losing week. Tariff talk is increasing on Wall Street and was doing so even ahead of the

presidential election. CNBC's Megan Casella says mentions of tariffs and recent third quarter earnings conference calls amounted to more than all of last year. One pattern we found is that when executives are asked how they plan to handle tariffs, there is no shortage of companies saying pretty clearly that they plan to pass the higher costs directly to consumers. Price hikes, of course, aren't the only option for companies. They're also looking at sort of rerouting supply chains and limiting exposure on the front end. But it does show us that while we hear a lot from the pro-tariff crowd about foreign companies paying the price and there not being a consumer impact, it's clearly not what we're seeing reflected here.

Among stocks on the move, semiconductor equipment maker Applied Materials seeing its stock slide 8.5%. The company did report better than expected third quarter results, but issued a cautious outlook. Walt Disney shares are up for a ninth straight day, up another 3.5%. Its recent momentum got a boost yesterday from better than expected quarterly results. General Motors is cutting about 1,000 jobs as the automaker continues to cut costs. That follows a prior round of layoffs, which impacted more than 1,000 workers. Peter Schach now, CNBC.

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