Market Midday: Stocks Mixed as Jobs and Inflation Data Beat Forecasts • 9/30/26

0:00CNBC Business News Update. Wednesday afternoon. I'm Jessica Ettinger. Wall Street is mixed. Better than expected inflation and jobs data today. It is the final day of September trading and the final day of the third quarter. The Dow's in the red by 84 points. Sherwin-Williams shares leading the Dow lower. They're down 2 percent. Sherwin-Williams, the paint maker, depends on oil. Oil is higher this afternoon, U.S. crude oil up almost 2 percent, above$91 a barrel. Brent above$103 a barrel. The S &P 500 index is up 34 points. The Nasdaq up 242 points, nine-tenths of a percent. Micron shares up about four-tenths of a percent this afternoon.

0:46It reports quarterly results after the closing bell. Bond yields were ticking lower on the economic data. Lighter than expected inflation numbers in the personal consumption expenditures report. Overall PCE rate of price increases for August 3.4 percent. That was a slower increase than the July 3.7 percent rate. The Fed's target for U.S. inflation is 2 percent. More jobs than expected were created last month in the new ADP payroll report. 90 ,000. Good sector doing well. 31 ,000. Service sector also doing okay. $59 ,000. And then good distribution across business sizes. And then by sector, you know, the same characters keep coming up.

1:30You have education health services surging ahead with $55 ,000. That's more than half of the gains. You're in hospitality picking up the rest of it, but declines in financial activities. CNBC's Steve Leisman. Mortgage rates today at a nearly three-year high, topping 7.5%. The 30-year fixed mortgage hitting 7.58%, which is the highest level since November 13th of 2023. Is there even more pain to come? That's CNBC's Melissa Lee and a take from CNBC's Joe Kernan. We don't need 8 % mortgage rates. AI company executives have signed a non-binding pledge to proceed safely with developing their products at the White House yesterday.

2:10No sign of government regulation. Here's a take on the safety problem from the Paul Volcker Senior Fellow on International Economics at the Council of Foreign Relations and Infinity Machine author Sebastian Malaby on CNBC. It can be solved, but you need time to solve it. And the problem is that the industry is accelerating and building the systems faster than they can think about the safety protocols. And that's precisely why OpenAI had to slow everything down, tell all its best researchers to get on Zoom calls to discuss safety protocols instead. The models accelerated past the safety measures.

2:48And that's what happens in the race dynamic with multiple labs in multiple countries fighting each other to stay ahead. A little less pain at the pump today. The average price for a gallon of regular is down four cents from a week ago, according to AAA, sitting at$4.43 a gallon. Diesel, about 10 cents from its record high, at$6.41 a gallon today. I'm Jessica Ettinger, CNBC. This episode is brought to you by Schwab Market Update, an original podcast from Charles Schwab. Schwab Market Update, an original podcast from Charles Schwab, provides an information-packed daily market preview on stock updates, U.S.

3:27and global economic news, monetary policy decisions, and key results and statistics that may impact your trading. Download the latest episode and subscribe at schwab.com slash marketupdatepodcast, or find Schwab Market Update wherever you get your podcasts.