Markus Andrews

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump dances after speaking following early results from the 2024 U.S. presidential election in Palm Beach County Convention Center, in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., November 6, 2024.
Carlos Barria | Reuters

Shares in former President Donald Trump’s media company pushed higher in early trading as NBC News results projected him winning the contentious presidential election.
Trump Media & Technology Group were last up about 30%, paring gains from earlier in the premarket session that pushed shares up about 50% and above $51 a share.

The stock extended its run overnight as Trump gained a solid Electoral College lead, and narrowed the path to victory for Vice President Kamala Harris.
The stock, seen as a market proxy for the former president, rallied despite a surprise earnings statement after the bell that showed the company lost $19.2 million in the third quarter. The operator of Truth Social is majority owned by Trump.
Shares have been volatile during the election season, rising and falling as Trump’s fortunes swirled during his neck-and-neck race with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
The shares were down more than 34% over the past five trading sessions as Harris seemingly picked up momentum in the race’s final days. However, the stock, with ticker DJT after the Republican’s initials, has soared more than 105% over the past month.
In Tuesday’s session, as the candidates made their closing push, the stock burst more than 18% at its session high, only to close down 1.2%.

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Trump Media & Technology Group shares

In the earnings release, the company reported revenue of just over $1 million.
“This has been an extraordinary quarter for the Company, for Truth Social users, and for our legion of retail investors who support our mission to serve as a beachhead for free speech on the Internet,” Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes said in a statement.
Nunes is a former congressman from California.
To be sure, the stock is not necessarily a perfect play on whether Trump wins. The stock could be influenced by other factors such as profit-taking, given its hefty gains already this year. More

Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo advanced in premarket trading.
The move comes as Donald Trump secured victory in the presidential election.

Omar Marques | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Shares of major banks climbed on Wednesday as investors look toward Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election and bet it will lead to less regulation for the sector.
Citigroup jumped about 8% in premarket trading. Bank of America added 8%, while Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs each popped 8% and 7%.

Former President Donald Trump gained a solid lead over Vice President Kamala Harris into the early hours of Wednesday and solidified his second term with a win in the swing state of Wisconsin, per NBC News’ projection.
Bank stocks are expected to benefit under GOP control given the party’s posture toward deregulation. TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg noted a pullback on Consumer Financial Protection Bureau oversight can particularly benefit finance names.
“Donald Trump is the candidate where you ignore what he says and focus on what you expect him to do,” Seiberg wrote in a note to clients recently. “It is why he offers the promise of deregulation for financials as his regulators are likely to roll back much of the CFPB enforcement agenda and rethink safety and soundness changes for big banks.”
Seiberg said trading banks can specifically gain given the likelihood of lower capital requirements, credit card late fee policies remaining and help on crypto regulations. But he warned that there’s downside risk tied to Trump’s plans for tariffs and deportations, which can said could be inflationary. More

Solar stocks are selling off as clean energy investors digest Donald Trump’s forthcoming second White House term.
Traders are worried that Trump could repeal the Inflation Reduction Act if Republicans manage to secure unified control of government.
The Invesco Solar ETF was off by 7% in premarket trading.

Copper Mountain Solar in El Dorado Valley, pictured on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Boulder City, Nevada. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Bizuayehu Tesfaye | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

Solar stocks sold off premarket after Donald Trump secured a second trip to the White House.
Solar stocks are falling on fears that Trump’s second term would spell trouble for the Inflation Reduction Act, which has fueled a clean energy boom in the U.S. through tax credits to expand solar energy.

NBC News projected that Trump had gained a sizable Electoral College lead to win the presidency early Wednesday morning.
The benchmark Invesco Solar ETF was down more than 11% in premarket trading. The solar panel manufacturer First Solar tumbled 14%. Residential solar stocks Sunrun and Sunnova fell 18% and 21%, respectively. Inverter manufacturer Enphase tumbled 12% and Nextracker was down nearly 12%.
Trump’s campaign platform calls for the termination of the IRA, which he refers to as the “Socialist Green New Deal.” The IRA is one of President Joe Biden’s signature achievements. The law passed on party-line vote in 2022 without any Republican support.
The future of the IRA, however, will depend not only on whether Trump wins the White House, but whether Republicans also secure control of Congress.
Kamala Harris’ campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon told staff in an email Tuesday that the clearest path to victory for the vice president was in the so-called Blue Wall states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. However, Trump secured his second trip to the White House by penetrating the Democratic stronghold with a win in Wisconsin. More

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. 

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Here’s what CNBC TV’s producers were watching as Wall Street awaited the results of the U.S. election, and what’s on the radar for the next session.
On this election night, here’s where we stand

The S&P 500 is up 21.2% year to date, closing at 5,782.76 on Tuesday. It stands 1.63% from the 52-week high.
The Nasdaq Composite is up 22.8% year to date, ending the day at 18,439.17. The index is 1.84% from the high.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 12% year to date, and closed at 42,221.88. It’s 2.55% from the high.
The Russell 2000 is up 11.5% year to date. The index is 1.7% from the high.

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S&P 500 in 2024

Trump Media & Technology Group

Former President Donald Trump’s social media company reported a loss of $19.2 million dollars in the third quarter.
Trump Media shares were volatile in trading Tuesday and finished down nearly 1.2%. Shares are higher in extended trading on election night, however.

Bonds

Bitcoin

At around 7:10 p.m. on the East Coast, bitcoin is trading at about $69,700.
It is up about 65% so far in 2024.

Here are some key earnings due Wednesday

CVS Health is down 4.3% in the past three months. The latest quarterly numbers come out before the bell. The stock is 33% from the January high.
Toyota Motors is up 3.8% in three months. The stock is 31.5% from the March high.
Honda is up 4.4% in the past three months. The stock is 20% from the March high.
Macerich is a real estate investment trust that owns shopping centers. The stock is up 32% in three months, just off the high hit last week.    
Owens Corning is up 11% in three months. Shares are 4.6% from the 52-week high. 

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Owens Corning in the past three months

In the afternoon

Qualcomm is slated to report. The stock is up 5% over the past three months. Qualcomm is 28% from the June high.
Arm Holdings is up 27% in three months. Shares are 25.5% from the July high. More

In 2024, the median first-time homebuyer was 38 years old, according to the National Association of Realtors’ 2024 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers report. 
Factors including low inventory, wealthy competitors and high rent costs make it harder to buy a home for the first time, experts say.

Courtneyk | E+ | Getty Images

First-time homebuyers in the U.S. are getting older.
The median first-time homebuyer has reached an all-time high age of 38 years old, three years older than in July 2023, according to the National Association of Realtors’ 2024 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers report. This summer, the NAR polled 5,390 buyers who purchased a primary residence between July 2023 and June 2024.

In the 1980s, the typical first-time buyer was in their late 20s.
“The first-time homebuyer who can enter into today’s market is older, has a higher income [and] is wealthier,” said Jessica Lautz, deputy chief economist at NAR, pointing out that higher home prices require bigger down payments.
Additionally, the share of first-time homebuyers on the market decreased over the past year from 32% to 24%, the lowest since NAR began collecting data in 1981.
Factors including the nationwide housing shortage, competition against wealthier buyers and high rent prices make it more difficult for younger adults to buy their first home, according to experts.

‘The biggest issue of housing today’

The housing shortage in the U.S. is “the biggest issue of housing today,” said Orphe Divounguy, senior economist at Zillow.

As of mid-2023, there is a housing shortage of four million homes, according to the NAR. Construction of new homes has been slow in recent years, and more buyers are competing for available homes, pushing up prices.
“We do need affordable housing,” said Jonathan Scott, co-host of the HGTV series “Property Brothers.” “It’s going to affect all of us if we don’t start acting now.”
During a recent CNBC Your Money event, Scott said a sustained housing shortage could dramatically influence first-time buyers over the long run. “Give it another 20 years and literally no young person will be able to afford to purchase a home, period,” Scott said.

Building activity has somewhat improved. Single-family housing starts in the U.S., a measure of new homes that began construction, grew to 1,027,000 in September, according to U.S. Census data. That is a 2.7% jump from August.
Yet, “we are still in a very, very constrained market,” said Selma Hepp, chief economist at CoreLogic. “Because of fewer homes on the market, you have more pressure on home prices.”
In August, the cost of a typical starter home was $250,000, up from $240,000 a year prior, according to Redfin.

‘The winners in today’s housing market’

The housing market is dominated by repeat homebuyers and sellers, or those who have owned and sold homes more than once. Prior homeownership gives them access to home equity to tap, in some cases enough to buy homes outright.
About a quarter, or 26%, of homebuyers paid cash for their home, an all-time high for cash buyers, the NAR found.
U.S. homeowners with mortgages have a net homeowner equity of more than $17.6 trillion in the second quarter of 2024, according to CoreLogic. Home equity increased in the second quarter of this year by $1.3 trillion, an 8.0% growth from a year prior.
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Baby boomers and retirees are “the winners in today’s housing market,” said Lautz. The typical repeat homebuyer is now 61 years old, and sellers are typically 63, per the NAR report.
“When we look at the average homebuyer, for older buyers, they have about $300,000 in home equity versus younger millennial buyers,” Hepp said.

‘We’re seeing renters staying renters for longer’

Other factors such as high rent costs and elevated debt-to-income ratios make it hard for would-be buyers to save for a home, experts say. 
Rent prices increased faster than tenants’ wages during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2022, rent growth peaked at 16% at an annual basis, Divounguy said. That same year, wage growth peaked at 9.3%, according to data from Indeed.
The price jump meant the typical renter spent about 31% of their income on rent. About half of renter households were “cost burdened,” meaning they spent more than 30% of their income on housing.
“We’re seeing renters staying renters for longer because affordability has been so squeezed,” he said.
High rent prices not only affect your ability to save money to buy a home, but it can also affect your ability to pay down any existing debt, Lautz said.

For instance, if a potential buyer has outstanding student loans, their monthly rent cost could make it harder for them to make larger payments toward their debt balance, she said.
That in turn influences your debt-to-income ratio, or how much money you’re paying every month toward debt. That is an important factor when qualifying for a mortgage. Essentially, lenders consider the DTI to see if a borrower can sustain a mortgage payment on top of existing loan obligations.
“All of these things snowball, especially in an inflationary environment,” Lautz said.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO More

About 27% of polled shoppers are “doom spending” — spending cash despite concerns about the economy and foreign affairs — according to a new report by Intuit Credit Karma. 
In some ways, the urge was “born out of the pandemic,” said Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at Bankrate.com.
Here’s what to do if you plan to “doom spend” anyways.

Mario Tama | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Retail therapy is thinly coating voters’ anxieties from the presidential election — and their wallets know it.
About 27% of polled shoppers say they are “doom spending” — that is, spending cash despite concerns about the economy and foreign affairs — according to a new report by Intuit Credit Karma. The habit is more prevalent among younger generations, with 37% of Gen Zers and 39% of millennials saying they do it.

Follow: Election 2024 live updates: Trump and Harris await Presidential election results

More than half, or 60%, of Americans surveyed are concerned with the state of the world and economy, more than they were a year ago. The site polled 1,001 U.S. adults in late October.
Top worries among doom spenders include the cost of living (55%), inflation (43%), and the presidential election (28%), the report found.

More than a third, 36%, of respondents say they can’t rationalize saving money due to feelings of uncertainty about the world and economy, per Intuit Credit Karma. That jumps to 47% of Gen Z and 43% of millennials.

Shoppers want a ‘sense of control’

Shoppers might be looking for “a sense of control, especially in a time period where it feels like so much is out of your control,” said Courtney Alev, consumer financial advocate at Credit Karma. 
“Doom spending” affects young people the most as they happen to be “chronically online,” or spend a large amount of time on the internet and social media, Alev said.

To that point, 70% of Gen Zers and 52% of millennials consider themselves to be “chronically online,” Credit Karma found.
“If you’re already online reading all about the things happening in the world, it’s more likely that you’re going to really stress out and then look for those coping mechanisms,” Alev said.
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Shoppers who report making impulse purchases based on social media spent an average $754 over the course of a year, according to a 2023 Bankrate.com survey. 
In some ways, the urge was “born out of the pandemic,” said Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at Bankrate.
The trend is especially common among younger shoppers who may feel like “the deck is stacked against them,” he said. 
Young adults’ finances may be dragged down by student loan balances, and they are finding it to be increasingly unaffordable to buy a home, let alone rent their own place, Rossman said.

‘It’s a tough cycle to break’

Doom spending can lead to bigger financial woes. Credit card balances reached $1.14 trillion in the second quarter of 2024, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. 
As of June, 50% of cardholders carry a balance every month on their credit cards, a recent Bankrate survey found. 
“The share who pay in full now is actually the lowest in four years,” Rossman said.
Cardholders are also carrying the debt for longer. About six out of every 10 people who have credit card debt have had it for at least a year, Bankrate found.

“It’s a tough cycle to break,” Rossman said, especially as interest rates remain fairly high for everyday cards.
The average annual percentage rate for credit cards is around 20.50%, down from a record high of 20.79% in August, according to Bankrate.com. The average APR for retail credit cards is 30.45%, a high, Bankrate found.
Election-related doom spending also comes just ahead of the busy holiday shopping season. About 20% of Americans plan to go into credit card debt this holiday season to pay for celebrations and obligations, according to Morning Consult.
Credit card balances can be very sticky. About 28% of 2023 holiday shoppers are still paying off debt they took on last year, NerdWallet found after polling 2,079 adults in September.
“Credit card debt is growing at the fastest rate among Gen Z and millennials,” Alev said. 

Credit card balances are up by 66% for Gen Zers and 52% for millennials since March 2022 when the Fed started to hike interest rates, Alev said, citing Credit Karma member data.
The more debt you put on, the harder it will be to save money, she said. 
“We are seeing these two things come together to really negatively affect the lives of many younger consumers,” Alev said.

‘Take the control back’

“Sometimes when people feel the most anxious is when they just don’t have any control,” said Rossman. “You can take the control back by putting a plan together.” 
If you know there’s going to be a temptation to spend money, make space in your budget to such purchases, Rossman said. 
“Set the money aside ahead of time,” he said, “Just take the impulse out of it.” 
Ideally set the money in a separate high yield savings account so you’re getting a better return, said Rossman. More

Americans ages 50 and over are motivated to vote this election season.
Who they choose for president — Republican candidate Donald Trump or Democratic candidate Kamala Harris — comes down to “day-to-day pocketbook issues,” according to the AARP.

A person arrives to vote at a polling station on Election Day, in The Villages, Florida. 
Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo | Afp | Getty Images

In a heated presidential race, there’s one age cohort — voters ages 50 and up — who may help decide the ultimate winner.
“We expect the 50-plus electorate to be the majority of the electorate, and we think at the end of the day they’re going to determine the outcome of the election, particularly in the swing states,” said John Hishta, senior vice president for campaigns at AARP, an interest group focusing on issues related to individuals 50 and up.

About 90% ages 50 and up say they are extremely motivated to vote, AARP has found, versus 75% of voters under age 50.

Follow: Election 2024 live updates: Trump and Harris await Presidential election results

Much of whether individuals in the 50-plus camp choose the Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump, or the Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, comes down to who they perceive to be better for their wallets.
“It’s all related to day-to-day pocketbook issues, and who’s better able to handle those issues moving forward,” Hishta said.
Inflation ranks as a top concern, as well as Social Security due to the high cost of living, he said.
Prescription drug prices, which tend to take up a larger share of household budgets as people age, are also top of mind. Caregiving is another area this cohort is paying attention to, since a substantial portion of people ages 50 and over serve in those roles, he said.

Inflation is still top of mind

To be sure, voters ages 50 and up are not the same. Those ages 50 to 64 tend to lean Republican, while those ages 65 and up are now split about 50/50, Hishta said.
As with voters across the board, there is a gender split. Trump has a “fairly substantial lead” among 50-plus men, Hishta said, while women 50 and up lean toward Harris.
Older Republican women ages 50 and over cite immigration and inflation as their top issues, a KFF survey from earlier this year found. For older Democratic women, threats to Democracy tops their list.
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Kathy Shanks, 74, of Pinellas County, Florida, cites inflation, immigration and overseas spending of taxpayer dollars as the top issues she’s worried about. She cast her ballot early, voting for Trump for president for the third time.
In 2020, President Joe Biden won Pinellas County, while Trump won Florida overall. Consequently, that county on the western coast, which was recently hit by Hurricane Milton, is one to watch this election.
Though Shanks receives Social Security, she still works as a security guard, saying “there’s no way” she could make it on her monthly retirement benefit checks alone.
Even as the pace of inflation has come down from post pandemic highs, Shanks said her cost of living is still high and her car insurance rates recently increased significantly.

Social Security a ‘very important’ issue

Experts are also keeping a close eye on battleground states where support for the Republican and Democratic candidates is particularly close.
Results in eight states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — could decide who wins the White House.

Bill Astle of Oro Valley, Arizona, who is 87, said he voted early for Harris.
Astle, who was previously a faculty member at the Colorado School of Mines, a state university, relies on a pension for income. Though he does not receive Social Security retirement benefits, he worries about the future of the program on behalf of everyone else who relies on it for income.
Most Americans say Social Security is “one of the top” or a “very important” issue in how they will vote this election, a CNBC poll found. The program faces looming trust fund depletion dates as soon as 2033, which may require benefit cuts, unless lawmakers act sooner.
Astle lives a little over 60 miles from the Mexican border, and said the talk of higher crime in the area due to immigration is exaggerated. “It’s one of the safest places in the country,” he said.

‘Very much a purple situation’

While both Shanks and Astle have cast their votes, they lament the lack of communication they have with voters who have opposing political views.
“Our social circle seems to have evolved, and some might say devolved, into largely people who think like we do,” Astle said of he and his wife’s social group.
But local news reports show “it is very much a purple situation,” or a blend of blue Democrats and red Republicans, he said.
Likewise, Shanks said she’d like to hear more from Democratic voters on the reasons why they back Harris.
“People who are voting blue, they won’t tell me why,” Shanks said. More