Dow, S&P 500 manage record closing highs; Nasdaq falls in volatile session

Dow, S&P 500 manage record closing highs; Nasdaq falls in volatile session

By Reuters

Fri October 3, 2025 5:24 PM

In the third day of the shutdown, the resulting analysis paralysis is working to the market’s favor as, even though there was no jobs report today, the assumption of a continuing weakening labor force only bolstered the case for more rate cuts, another example of bad news taken as good news. An October cut is now virtually certain while the odds of a December cut are at a whopping 84%. All three indexes were up in the morning, the Dow up some 530 points by 1 pm, before declining to a much more modest close but still in the black.  

Wall Street closes with records as tech support offsets labor, shutdown uncertainties

Wall Street closes with records as tech support offsets labor, shutdown uncertainties

By Sinéad Carew and Niket Nishant

Thu October 2, 2025 4:53 PM  

Given the historical track record of government closures not really seriously impacting the stock market, plus the continuing optimism that there will be two more rate cuts this year, the market just keeping pushing up and up. Because of that, the Nasdaq had a better day. But the soft employment numbers we’ve been seeing for a while now plus the shutdown has at least kept the advances elsewhere modest in this already greatly overvalued market. The S&P for instance rose just 4 points but it was already at a 5-year record high so the 4 points sent it to still another record high, as did the Dow.  

Wall Street closes higher, boosted by healthcare as investors shrug off jobs data, US shutdown

Wall Street closes higher, boosted by healthcare as investors shrug off jobs data, US shutdown

By Sinéad Carew and Niket Nishant

Wed October 1, 2025 4:38 PM  

The groundwork had already been laid for a boost in healthcare stocks when Trump announced yesterday he had a deal with drugmakers to lower their prices for Medicaid. Today that modest boost was apparently all investors cared about as sentiment returned today to brush off the government shutdown and even ignore a weak payrolls report that showed 85,000 fewer jobs than forecast. To be fair, history is on our side. According to Deutsche Bank, the markets have historically been resilient during closures, the S&P rising in each of the last six shutdowns.  

Wall Street indexes close higher with quarterly and monthly gains even as US government shutdown looms

Wall Street indexes close higher with quarterly and monthly gains even as US government shutdown looms

By Sinéad Carew and Niket Nishant

Tue September 30, 2025 4:59 PM  

It was a mixed bag today with all of the indexes spending most of the day in the red before rallying around 1:30 to regain all the lost ground and even close modestly up. But to end Q3, it was almost all upbeat news with the S&P and Dow with five straight monthly gains and the Dow and Nasdaq with two quarters of gains. The Dow was down some 200 twice during the session but the others stayed pretty close to the vest until 1:30. Although yesterday’s trading indicated that investors weren’t particularly concerned about tonight’s potential shutdown, today sentiment changed with more serious concerns that this particular shutdown could cause considerable damage to the economy.  

Wall Street indexes climb as investors brush off government shutdown uncertainties

Wall Street indexes climb as investors brush off government shutdown uncertainties

By Sinéad Carew and Niket Nishant

Mon September 29, 2025 4:42 PM

After last Wednesday’s good real estate report and Friday’s good PCE, investor sentiment has suddenly shifted with investors largely shrugging off the upcoming obstacles – an upcoming government shutdown and doubts about more rate cuts. Today’s attitude was that there won’t be a shutdown and that, despite the cautionary notes re inflation, there will be another rate cut in November, the odds now priced at 89%, and this optimism pushed the indexes modestly higher. AI once again ruled the day, with a 3-digit increase in the Nasdaq.  

Wall Street ends higher after as-expected inflation data; S&P 500, Nasdaq post weekly declines

Wall Street ends higher after as-expected inflation data; S&P 500, Nasdaq post weekly declines

By Caroline Valetkevitch

Fri September 26, 2025 6:42 PM

The indexes got a nice little boost today, after two days of cautionary selling, when the PCE report came in with an annualized 2.7% increase in prices, exactly in line with expectations. The better news was an unexpected and welcome increase in personal income and consumer spending. The Dow gained almost 300, the Nasdaq 100. Despite the good news, after three weeks of gains, all indexes showed losses for the week, but only modestly, averaging less than ½ of 1%.  

Wall Street indexes finish lower, data raises uncertainty for rate-cut outlook

Wall Street indexes finish lower, data raises uncertainty for rate-cut outlook

By Caroline Valetkevitch

Thu September 25, 2025 5:18 PM

With the new uncertainty of the past couple of days of whether the Fed will do any more rate cuts this year, the markets once again went south, though some experts attribute this to yet another day of simply trimming back on overblown valuations. The good news is that unemployment claims are down modestly but other reports show that the economy has continued to grow and even more than expected which is bad news on the inflation front.