Wall Street nudged past yesterday’s record highs in early trading Friday as investors continue to shrug off the U.S. government shutdown, now in its third day.
Futures for S&P 500, Nasdaq and the Dow Jones Industrial Average all added 0.2% before the bell. All three closed at record levels on Thursday, boosted by gains of chipmakers and artificial intelligence companies.
Markets have largely ignored the shutdown of the U.S. government after Democrat and Republican lawmakers failed to reach agreement on funding.
U.S. President Donald Trump and congressional leaders were not expected to meet again soon and the Democrats have held fast to their demands to preserve health care funding, warning of price spikes for millions of Americans nationwide.
The government shutdown means this week’s usual report on jobless claims was delayed. An even more consequential report, the monthly tally of jobs gains and losses that usually comes out the first Friday of every month, will also not arrive as scheduled.
That increases uncertainty when much on Wall Street is riding on investors’ expectation that the job market is slowing by enough to convince the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates, but not by so much that it leads to a recession.
So far, the U.S. stock market has looked past the delays of such data. Shutdowns of the U.S. government have tended not to hurt the economy or stock market much, and the thinking is that this one could be similar, even if Trump has threatened large-scale firings of federal workers this time around.
Excitement around AI and the massive spending underway because of it are a major reason the U.S. stock market has hit record after record, along with hopes for easier interest rates. But AI stocks have become so dominant, and so much money has poured into the industry that worries are rising about a potential bubble that could eventually lead to disappointment for investors.
At midday in Europe, Germany’s DAX ticked down 0.2% and the CAC 40 in Paris fell back 0.1%. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.6%.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed nearly 1.9% higher at 45,769.50 as tech stocks gained despite data showing Japan’s unemployment rate rose 2.6% in August, the highest in 13 months and above the expected 2.4%.
Shares in Hitachi jumped 10.3% after it signed a memorandum of understanding with OpenAI to provide cooling systems for its data centers.
Stock exchanges in China and South Korea were closed Friday for holidays.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng won back some earlier losses, ending 0.5% down to 27,140.92 as traders sold to lock in profits from Thursday’s gains.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added nearly 0.5% to 8,987.40. India’s BSE Sensex rose less than 0.1%, while Taiwan’s Taiex edged 0.9% higher.
In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude added 17 cents to $60.65 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 21 cents to $64.32 per barrel.
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