Market Close: Stocks Mixed, Treasury Yields Higher, Oil Higher 9/24/26

0:00It's the NBC Business News Update. I'm Jessica Ettinger. Wall Street opens Friday morning after the markets tried to believe a Reuters report that the U.S. and Iran are talking about reopening the Strait of Hormuz, but Treasury yields and oil still moved higher in the end, and we had a mixed finish on Thursday. The Dow was down 161 points, its third straight down day in a row. Walmart shares leading the Dow lower. They were down more than 2%. The S &P 500 index lost a point. The Nasdaq was in the green by three points. Chipmaker shares were mixed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury eyeing 5.2%.

0:43Here's a take from Hightower's Stephanie Link on CNBC. If yields are going higher because growth is better, which is what the main reason I think yields are going higher, that's not a bad thing. It's a nice diversification tool, but you will see some switching for sure with yields above five. But that being said, the economy is humming along. When Treasury yields go higher, that gives stock investors a place to put their money and earn something with a lot less risk. All eyes on the U.S.-China Trump-Xi summit in Washington. President Trump doubling down that he doesn't want any guardrails for AI, and neither does China.

1:21Ahead of a state dinner with top tech CEOs attending Thursday night, here's CNBC's Eamon Javers. The most significant news of the day came on social media as President Trump announced that contrary to a lot of the speculation before this meeting, neither he nor Xi Jinping want to make significant changes to AI policy. He wrote, a big day with President Xi of China. Super intelligence, that's the president's new term for AI, will be a big topic of discussion. But I want to leave it exactly where it is. That is China's position also. Our guardrail is the Department of Justice. In August, the homebuilders sold more homes, many because they lowered their prices.

2:04August, newly built home sales were higher. Here's CNBC's Diana Olick. The important thing to note about these numbers is that new home sales are based on signed contracts, not closing. So that's people out in August shopping for a home when mortgage rates were actually much better than they are today. We're around 6.8 percent really for the entire month of August. But now we're, of course, up at around 7.26 percent. Mortgage rates have hit their highest since the spring of 2025, topping 7.25 percent, according to Mortgage News Daily, the national average for a 30-year fixed home loan. Would-be homebuyers may be put off by rising mortgage rates as they try to pay for gas.

2:43AAA saying the national average for a gallon of regular back up on Thursday to$4.48 a gallon. Diesel fuel about a half cent below its all-time high at$6.52 a gallon. Muse, the number one free app on the Apple app download chart, created by Facebook and Instagram parent Meta. And it helped push MetaShares up 4 % on Thursday. For the month, MetaShares are up 33%. On Friday's watch list, we get Durable Goods Orders numbers. These are things made to last a long time, like washing machines and airplanes. We also get the latest on consumer sentiment, how people are feeling about the economy. New in theaters, A24's Prime Time, DreamWorks animated Forgotten Island, and Paramount's The Heart of the Beast.

3:31Jessica Edinger, CNBC.