Stock Market News Today: Dow Set to Open Down
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipped 23 points, or 0.1%, but contracts tied to the S&P 500 climbed 0.1%, after both indexes notched record closing highs the previous session. Futures tracking the Nasdaq 100 added 0.2%, following up on a rally for Asian tech stocks that was sparked by ChatGPT developer OpenAI striking deals with South Korean memory chip makers Samsung and SK Hynix.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was flat at 4.11%. Gold slipped 0.1% to $3,892 an ounce, and the dollar was down 0.1% against a weighted basket of its peers.
Wall Street has been happy enough to shrug off the shutdown so far, while prediction markets like Polymarket suggest that investors expect the funding stalemate could persist for several weeks.
Soft private-sector jobs data published on Wednesday also hasn’t dented enthusiasm. That’s because the market believes that a weak ADP National Employment Report has made it all-but-certain that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates later this month.
Traders are now pricing in a 99% chance of a quarter-point reduction on Oct. 29, according to the CME Fedwatch tool, up from 86% a week ago.
The ADP report matters because investors may not get any more data before the Fed’s next meeting, given that the ongoing shutdown means the Labor Department won’t release its weekly jobless claims and monthly non-farm payrolls figures.