4:10pm: S&P 500 has winning week despite government shutdown
Major US stock indices ended the day mixed as the government shutdown delayed the September jobs report and the AI rally lost steam.
The Dow rose 0.5%, while the S&P 500 finished flat, and the Nasdaq eased 0.3%.
Weighing on the Nasdaq was shares of Tesla, down 1.4%, while Amazon shares gave back 1.3% despite receiving a target price boost from Goldman Sachs analysts, who wrote that the company’s cloud business and advertising tailwinds are “underappreciated.”
12:05pm: Dow up 400 points despite government shutdown
Major US stock indices continued to hit new highs midday even as the government shutdown delayed the September jobs report.
The Dow climbed 1%, while the S&P 500 rose 0.5%, and the Nasdaq gained 0.3%.
The AI stock rally was further propelled by an agreement between Hitachi and OpenAI to partner on energy projects, while Fujitsu plans to do more work with Nvidia.
Notable movers included shares of Applied Materials, which slipped more than 2% after the company revealed in a regulatory filing that new US export restrictions to China would hurt its revenue.
8am: Wall Street likely to open higher
The Dow Jones is expected to lead gains when the market opens on Friday as investors focus on tech and AI stocks, shrugging off the US government shutdown as it enters its third day.
Ahead of the open, Dow futures are just under 0.2% higher, with those for the S&P and Nasdaq close behind, up around 0.1%.
All three indices finished Thursday at record highs as an OpenAI stock sale fueled a rally in AI names. The Nasdaq rose 0.4%, while the Dow was up 0.2%, and the S&P 500 added 4 points.
"There is no upsetting this bull run. Bear markets, let’s remember, are caused by recessions, and so far, the US economy keeps ticking along...even with a government shutdown, the stock market made new highs," commented Saxo Markets' Neil Wilson. "Partly that is because markets usually do look through shutdowns, partly it’s because this remains a late-cycle grind up with momentum and FOMO driving prices higher."
With September's non-farm payrolls data delayed due to the shutdown, after weekly jobless claims were also missed yesterday, economic data remain sparse. That's left investors focused on corporate news.
“News of OpenAI’s valuation reaching $500 billion, making it the world’s most valuable private company, helped fire enthusiasm in the tech sector and push US indices to new records yesterday," commented AJ Bell's Russ Mould.
"How long investors remain relaxed about this state of affairs remains hard to predict, but one worry is that it makes it significantly harder for the Federal Reserve to make informed decisions around interest rates."
European markets are also trading firmer today. In London, the FTSE 100 has climbed 0.7% to a new intra-day record, while Frankfurt's DAX is up 0.1% and the Paris CAC 40 has gained 0.3%.
Asian markets were mixed. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 closed 1.9% higher and Shanghai's SSE Composite gained 0.5%. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng shed 0.5% while Mumbai's BSE SENSEX closed 0.3% firmer and Sydney's ASX 200 added 0.5%.