TheStreet’s Conway Gittens brings you the biggest news of the day, including what investors are watching and why buying a new car is becoming harder and harder.
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00:00I'm Conway Gaines reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. Here's what we're watching
00:03on the street today. Stocks held on to their gains as voters headed to the polls on Tuesday.
00:08Economic data continues to paint the picture of an economy that's not falling off a cliff
00:13as the Federal Reserve lets the air out of inflation. On the earnings front, Yum! Brands,
00:18the parent company of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC, missed sales and profit forecasts.
00:24It blamed, quote, geopolitical conflicts and challenged consumer sentiment. Earnings succumb
00:29on Wednesday include Novo Nordisk, CVS Health, Qualcomm, AMC and Lyft. In other news, new
00:37car prices have risen so much that now even the wealthy are having to trade down. The
00:43average new car price jumped to $48,205 in 2024. That's up 21 percent from the pre-pandemic
00:51years according to data compiled by Cox Automotive. Meanwhile, car payments have risen 17 percent
00:58between 2020 to 2024, now hitting an average of $767 a month. So what's behind the sticker
01:05shock? Prices originally started speeding up during the pandemic due to global supply
01:11chain hiccups and work stoppages for health reasons. Prices are now higher due to all
01:17the new technology and safety features going into cars. Higher raw material costs automakers
01:23are adding to the sticker price. And then there's the cost of a car loan. The average
01:28interest rate on an auto loan in the second quarter was roughly 7 percent according to
01:33Experian compared to 5.7 percent the same time in 2019. The numbers are even higher
01:40for a used car. That interest rate touched 12 percent before the Federal Reserve cut
01:45rates in September. In order to afford a new car, even Americans with six-figure salaries
01:51are stretching out payments from the traditional five-year loan to a seven-year loan. And when
01:57the math doesn't work on that, drivers of all income levels are turning to the used car market
02:03or keeping their current cars on the road for an average 12.6 years. That's the longest on record.
02:11That'll do it for your daily briefing from the New York Stock Exchange.
02:14I'm Conway Gittins with The Street.
02:21you