Stock futures rise despite shutdown; Cars in focus
Post# of 102231
Stock futures rise despite shutdown; Cars in focus
MADRID (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures pointed to gains at the open for Wall Street on Tuesday as investors, at least for the moment, chose to shrug off a partial government shutdown that kicked in as a deadline passed without a deal.
Data on tap includes a fresh look at the U.S. manufacturing industry and sales figures from car makers.
In a marked difference to sharp losses seen in Monday’s premarket session, futures for the Dow industrials (CBT JZ3) rose 54 points, or 0.4%, to 15,100. Futures for the Standard & Poor’s 500 index (GLC:SPZ3) gained 7.6 points, or 0.5%, to 1,681.90. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index (GLC:NDZ3) rose 13.75 points, or 0.4%, to 3,222.75.
U.S. politicians failed at the 11th hour to agree on funding for the fiscal year that began just after midnight, owing to moves by lawmakers over the budget and President Barack Obama’s health-care law. A shutdown — the first in 17 years — has begun, furloughing thousands of government workers in the process.
Given the increased uncertainty created by the budget impasse, and with the government needing to raise the debt ceiling by Oct. 17,, there are higher risks of a further correction in stock markets, said Allen von Mehren, chief analyst at Dankse Bank in a note.
“The reaction so far has been fairly muted. But given that markets have been technically overbought, we think it’s likely we will see further declines in coming weeks,” said von Mehren. “This should also add to downside pressure on bond yields. In the short term, the risk is also that the U.S. dollar could weaken further.”
The shutdown means the week’s biggest piece of economic data, September’s monthly jobs report, won’t be released on Friday. However, markets are bracing for the possibility that the data could be released as early as Tuesday. Economists polled by MarketWatch expect payrolls to rise to 185,000 in September from 169,000 in August. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/stock-future...atest_news