US stock futures rise after Wall St firms past shutdown jitters

Investing.com-- U.S. stock index futures rose on Sunday evening after Wall Street logged a strong week as investors largely brushed off concerns over the impact of an ongoing government shutdown. 

Technology stocks were the main driver of Wall Street’s gains, amid sustained cheer over artificial intelligence and more interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. Wall Street indexes hit a series of record highs last week.

S&P 500 Futures rose 0.3% to 6,782.25 points. Nasdaq 100 Futures rose 0.4% to 25,083.75 points, while Dow Jones Futures rose 0.2% to 47,144.0 points by 19:43 ET (23:43 GMT). 

US government remains in shutdown, critical data delayed 

The U.S. government remained shut on Sunday, as Congressional lawmakers marked little progress towards reaching consensus over a spending bill. 

White House officials had warned that this shutdown could have a greater impact on the economy than those in the past. Historically, shutdowns have had only a limited impact on the economy and stock market. 

Ongoing disruptions in federal agencies indefinitely delayed the release of key nonfarm payrolls data. A continued shutdown is also expected to delay other upcoming data prints, including trade data and weekly jobless claims data due this week. 

The delayed data left investors somewhat in the dark over the trajectory of the U.S. economy, although a host of private economic prints showed the labor market remained on the backfoot.

Several Fed officials are scheduled to speak this week, most notably Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday. 

Wall St logs strong week on rate cut bets, tech strength 

Wall Street indexes hit a series of record highs last week, buoyed chiefly by technology stocks as investors remained confident the Fed will cut rates in October. 

Optimism over artificial intelligence also aided tech, especially chipmaking stocks. 

Investors looked to a host of private readings on the labor market, released last week, for more cues on the U.S. economy. The prints– including Challenger layoffs and ADP payrolls data- showed a sustained cooling in the labor market, keeping bets on more rate cuts squarely in play.

Wall Street ended mixed on Friday, amid some profit-taking in tech. But all three benchmarks logged strong weekly gains. 

The S&P 500 closed flat on Friday at 6,715.79 points, and was trading up 1.1% for the week. 

The NASDAQ Composite fell 0.3% to 22,780.51 points, but rose 1.3% last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5% to 46,758.28 points and added 1.1% last week.