Market Close: Stocks Rise, Nasdaq at Record High, Meta Jumps 11% • 9/21/26

0:01CNBC Business News Update. Market close on Monday. I'm Jessica Ettinger. Wall Street will open Tuesday morning after a rally for stocks to start the week. Treasury yields ticked lower, crude oil ticked lower, and stocks were higher. The Dow finished Monday up 366 points. That was seven-tenths of a percent. It was led higher by shares of NVIDIA, which were up more than two percent. The S &P 500 index adding 114 points, 1.5%. The Nasdaq up 599 points, 2.25%. The Nasdaq had its first record high Monday since last June. And look at Facebook and Instagram parent Meta with its Muse AI Personal Agent app hitting number one on the free app download chart on Apple.

0:52It is a tremendous move for a$2 trillion company, basically, to add more than$80 billion in market cap in a single day. There's so much expectation surrounding news at this point, with it being top in the Apple App Store. That's CNBC's Melissa Lee. Bitcoin had a bounce, its highest since last January, crossing 86 ,000. The yield on the 10-year Treasury back below 5%, and mortgage rates pulled back ever so slightly Monday. The average rate on a 30-year home loan, 7.19 percent, according to Mortgage News Daily. U.S. crude oil down below$96 a barrel. But it's not about that. Here's Energy Aspects and Rita Sen on CNBC.

1:34Diesel prices continue to remain at record highs, and I think that's been our big thing, right? We don't really look at crude, and we shouldn't be looking at crude when it is really the product prices that are causing the challenges in the economy, which both central banks and governments will have to deal with. Paramount Skydance reportedly closed to an antitrust settlement with the state of California. Here's Wells Fargo's Steve Cahill on CNBC. Weeks and months had gone by where it didn't seem like the company and the attorney general in California were really having constructive conversations.

2:06It certainly looks like that's changed and it's not over till it's over, right? So this is a very politically charged situation, I think, for David Ellison and all the Paramount and Warner Brothers shareholders. So the complexity of this cannot be understated. The company really wants to get this deal done. And I assume that the state of California has a lot of vested interest in this deal being successful as well in terms of job creation and investment. So no reason that the two sides can't come together and make this work. Wall Street waiting for the meeting between President Trump and China's President Xi in Washington on Wednesday.

2:42But one expert tells CNBC, keep your expectations low. In February and March, there was an idea that the Chinese would pressure the Iranians into capitulating. That, of course, didn't happen. And back in 2022, when people were hoping that the Russia-Ukraine conflict would be quick rather than the protracted mass it ended up being, that perhaps the Chinese could get involved to pressure the Russians to trim their sails. And it didn't happen that either. That's Wolf Research's Tobin Marcus on CNBC. Google's Gemini AI, the latest criminal AI acting without human direction. And a part of the AI safety debate now.

3:15Here's CNBC's Mackenzie Sigalos. Gemini was supposed to target fake companies, but because of a flaw in that test, the model was able to get onto the open Internet and then ended up breaking into the systems of three real companies. Alphabet Sundar Pichai will be in Washington this week as that safety conversation moves into bilateral talks between the U.S. and China. They are looking at a mutual notification system for out-of-control AI agents. On Tuesday's watch list, we get earnings from AutoZone, Thor Industries and home builder KB Home. Fall arrives Tuesday night. Jessica Edinger, CNBC. Hey, Fidelity.

3:54Jessica Ettinger: What's it cost to invest with the Fidelity app? Start with as little as$1 with no account fees or trade commissions on U.S. stocks and ETFs. Hmm, that's music to my ears. I can only talk. Investing involves risk, including risk of loss. Zero account fees apply to retail brokerage accounts only. Zero dollar commission does not apply to customers designated by Fidelity as a professional equity trader. A limited number of ETFs are subject to a service fee of$100. See details at Fidelity.com slash commissions. Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC, member NYSE SIPC.