Market Close: Stocks Struggle as Bond Yields Rise, No AI/SI Regulation • 9/29/26

0:00See NBC Business News Update. I'm Jessica Ettinger. Wall Street opens Wednesday morning after modest losses for stocks. Treasury yields rose again. The 10-year note hit a high of 5.289 percent, its highest level since June of 2007. The Dow down 131 points, led lower by shares of Apple down 2.5 percent. The S &P 500 index down 12 points. The Nasdaq fell 22 points. No regulation and no outside oversight for AI, artificial intelligence, which President Trump has renamed SI, super intelligence. Here's CNBC's Eamon Javers in Washington. Mark Zuckerberg there called that historic, and I think that's right.

0:46We've really never seen anything like that. The president of the United States on the north lawn of the White House briefing reporters alongside the top tech CEOs in the world. You know, you had Mark Zuckerberg there, Elon Musk, Jensen Wang, Dario Amodi. They signed something, a document which agreed to some sort of voluntary self-policing organization in which they would check each other's models and verify in some way that they weren't dangerous. Meantime, data centers, which power AI, are getting pushback around the U.S. The president spoke with reporters. Mr. President, are you concerned at all that your continued support of data centers could hurt Republicans in the midterms?

1:25I just have to do what you're asking. All I can tell you is that these big, powerful, very rich, very smart companies are going to be making massive contributions to communities. OpenAI hosted its annual Developer Day on Tuesday after it canceled the release of its latest AI model for safety reasons. We asked OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about that. AI has to be built for people. It has to be good for people. Part of that is it has to be safe. It has to be always under human control. It has to do what people want. And you want to be able to use it and be confident that nothing bad is going to happen.

2:00Meantime, at OpenAI Developer Day, a lot of people were talking about a rival. Anthropic. Here's CNBC's Kate Rooney. Anthropic, which is set to go public, Reuters obtained a copy of the IPO prospectus. Some of the risk factors, they warn investors that some of the advanced AI models could pose what the company calls catastrophic or existential risks to humanity. Investors bracing for the latest inflation data coming Wednesday, the PCE, personal consumption expenditure numbers. It's forecast to come in hot at 3.7 percent for August. The Fed's target is 2 percent. Meantime, consumer confidence tanking.

2:39The latest consumer confidence reading from the conference board came in at a more than 12-year low. Carnival shares soared up 13 percent on blowout quarterly results for the cruise line company. Here's Carnival CEO Josh Weinstein on CNBC. We're half booked for 2027 already, and that's at record prices. People pick and choose what they want to spend their hard-earned money on, and what they've decided is vacations or sacrosanct. Alaska Airlines expanding its premium offerings, new live flat seats, and future lucrative international routes. And CNBC's Phil LeBeau asked Alaska CEO Ben Minacucci about higher airfares.

3:19The consumer, are they pulling back at all as you're raising those fares? You know, even with this high fuel environment, demand is strong fill. All these products are designed for that upper part of the K-shaped economy, but we are very mindful about the level of fares, and so we want to be attractive to people on the lower part of the K, which is why we have a great main cabin, a great saver fare. We're extremely mindful of fares. On Wednesday's watch list, it's the last trading day of the third quarter. Earnings are coming from Micron. We also find out how many private sector jobs were created in September from payroll firm ADP.

3:51That's ahead of Friday's big September jobs report. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change. Your receipt did. The sausage McMuffin with egg extra value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just$5. Only at McDonald's for a limited time. Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.