Market Midday: Stocks Fall, 30-Year Yield at 2002 High, OpenAI CEO on Safety • 9/29/26

0:00See NBC Business News Update midday. I'm Jessica Ettinger. Major averages all in the red this afternoon with the Dow down 319 points, more than a half percent. It's Walmart shares leading the Dow lower. They're down two and a half percent. Apple shares down more than two percent. The S &P 500 index is down 23 points. The Nasdaq down 53 points. Most of the chip makers are in the green. Treasury yields are in focus. The yield on the 30-year hit its highest since 2002. The market itself is kind of hanging in. The rule has been yields higher has meant market breadth has been wretched. It's not as bad today, but still a little bit of a pull lower in the average stock.

0:46The debate right now is, are many pockets of the market getting washed out enough? You've seen this pileup of new lows day after day. That's CNBC's Mike Santoli. OpenAI hosting its annual developer day today after it canceled the release of its latest AI model because of safety reasons. We asked OpenAI's 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. Meantime, at OpenAI Developer Day, people are talking about rival Anthropic.

1:26CNBC's Kate Rooney is in San Francisco. Anthropic, which is set to go public, Reuters obtained a copy of the IPO prospectus. This company devotes roughly 80 pages of this more than 200-page prospectus to AI safety. And 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. Company also, according to this report, describes the possibility of models resisting shutdown, concealing information or engaging in manipulative behavior. Reuters has also reported the listing is likely to come in November after the midterm elections.

2:03Major tech CEOs, meantime, are meeting with President Trump today in Washington at the White House for a luncheon. There's full coverage at CNBC, CNBC.com and the CNBC app on your phone. President Trump unveiling a new all-purpose America.gov website. Here's CNBC's Eamon Javers. Unveiling this new website, America.gov, and what the White House says is this is going to be sort of the front porch on the web in terms of citizens accessing the information that their government provides. It's going to be an AI-enabled website, and they're saying it's going to come with a lot of bells and whistles. We'll wait for the official unveiling.

2:40Carnival shares were higher on blowout quarterly results for the Cruise Line Company. Here's CEO Josh Weinstein on CNBC. We're half booked for 2027 already, and that's at record prices. People take and choose what they want to spend their hard-earned money on, and what they've decided is vacations are sacrosanct, and we provide an amazing experience and value for their hard-earned dollars. Alaska Airlines, the latest to lure in wealthier flyers with lie-flat seats and lucrative international flights. Alaska's been pouring money into refurbishing its planes, tearing out coach seats in favor of the higher priced options.

3:21But the new lie-flat product won't roll out until 2028. On this National Coffee Day, there are deals and discounts at national chains today. Many require you to use the chain's app, including McDonald's, Krispy Kreme, Dunkin' and Paris Baguette. I'm Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. Hey, Fidelity. How can I remember to invest every month?

3:45Jessica Ettinger: With the Fidelity app, you can choose a schedule and set up recurring investments in stocks and ETFs. Oh, that sounds easier than I thought. You got this. Yeah, I do. Now, where did I put my keys? You will find them where you left them.