Market Open: Stocks Higher, Oil and Yields Lower, Homebuilding Slows • 9/17/26

0:00See NBC Business News Update Market Open. I'm Jessica Ettinger. Wall Street rebounding from yesterday's Fed hike. Sell-off. Investors more at ease after the interest rate increase of a quarter percentage point. Treasury yields were easing this morning. Major averages all in the green. The Dow up 280 points, a half a percent. Caterpillar shares leading the Dow higher. They're up two and a half percent. Amazon shares are up two percent this morning. The S &P 500 index now up 70 points. That's almost 1%. The Nasdaq adding 325 points, one and a quarter percent. Chipmaker shares mostly in the green.

0:41You always have the unwind trade. Very often, as we always say and said yesterday, you get to rethink the next day. Most of today, though, the rally, I would say half of it is oil going down. That's CNBC's Mike Santoli. Yes, U.S. crude oil pulling back below$100 a barrel on more robust supplies. Plus, Saudi Arabia is offering ship-to-ship transfers to move oil globally and to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and other bottlenecks in the U.S. war with Iran. U.S. drivers, though, not feeling that pullback in oil price today yet. In fact, they're feeling more pain at the pump. Overnight, the national average for a gallon of regular gas popped up another$0.07.

1:21U.S. drivers now paying an average$4.44 a gallon. Diesel fuel popped up$0.09 a gallon overnight to a fresh record high of$6.40 a gallon. Diesel powers trains, trucks, ships, and agriculture equipment. Diesel fuel prices can trickle into consumer prices down the line, pushing inflation even higher. Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week. Here's CNBC senior economics reporter Steve Leisman. 196 ,000 on jobless claims, and it fell from 206. I mean, the bottom line is we just don't have a big deal here when it comes to jobless claims, and it really speaks to a stronger job market.

2:04The home builders started fewer new construction homes last month. They got fewer permits to start working on more, too. Mortgage rates are now back over 7 % for a 30-year fixed home loan. The slow housing market is poised to slow down even more. Here's CNBC's Rick Santelli with the numbers. On the start side, 1.275 million. You're basically looking at some of the lowest levels since about May. And when it comes to permits, 1.39, also lowest since June. They've already had their damage done for the most part. And with these interest rates kind of toying with 7%, affordability and interest rates are an issue.

2:42But over time, those locked in mortgages are going to slowly start to creep out. The Securities and Exchange Commission has cleared the path for tokenized stocks. Now, this is going to bring stock markets closer to 24-7 trading. Right now, the crypto markets never close. And the stock markets, the major indexes, want to compete. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney saying Canada will decide its own partnerships after President Trump called the EU proposal laughable. The EU has invited Canada to become its first associate member of the European Union to facilitate more trade, and the EU has been working also to consider Iceland, Norway, and the UK associate members as well.

3:26Watch Generac shares today the generator maker soared 33%. It struck a deal with Amazon to supply backup power generators for Amazon's data. centers. A little later this morning, we get pending home sales numbers. Jessica Edinger, CNBC.

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