US stock futures took a breather on Tuesday after their latest record-setting run, as Wall Street weighed worries over the government shutdown against bright hopes for AI.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) traded flat. Contracts on the S&P 500 (ES=F) and on the tech-heavy Nasdaq (NQ=F) were also little changed after fresh record high closes on Wall Street.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) scored their seventh win in a row on Monday, boosted by news of a multibillion-dollar deal between AMD (AMD) and OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) that sent the chip company’s stock rocketing higher.
Overall, the deal added fuel to the AI-based fire that has powered stocks’ bull-market run to records. Strategists are once again lifting their targets for the S&P 500, though much rests on the upcoming earnings season performance by Big Tech names.
Those results will take on even greater prominence than usual for markets during the US government shutdown. The longer the federal stoppage drags on, the more clouded the picture of the economy will become for investors as key data releases dry up — making it hard to divine the path of interest rates.
It has already delayed the September jobs report that was due Friday. Next week’s releases on consumer and producer inflation, crucial to the Federal Reserve’s decision making, could also be postponed.
That’s turned up the focus on the Fed officials set to speak this week. Trump-backed Governor Stephen Miran among those on Tuesday’s lineup, helping set the stage for Fed minutes on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a crack in the Washington gridlock on a funding bill has emerged, after President Trump signaled he was open to negotiating with Democrats over the healthcare subsidies they want.
In corporates, Tesla (TSLA) is thought to be preparing a potential new Model Y launch on Tuesday, after teasing an event in a series of cryptic posts to social media. Shares in the Elon Musk-led EV maker hovered below the flatline in premarket, coming off a 5% stock gain on Monday.
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