United States stock futures rose modestly on Tuesday night (Wednesday AEDT) as investors weighed ongoing concerns over the prolonged U.S. government shutdown and awaited key Federal Reserve meeting minutes for policy insights.
By 9:20 am AEDT (10:20 pm GMT), futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq 100 were each up 0.1%.
The uptick came after Wall Street’s major averages ended lower in the previous session, snapping the S&P 500’s seven-day winning streak.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%, the S&P 500 declined 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.7%.
The sell-off was largely driven by weakness in Oracle, which lost 2.5% after The Information reported that margins from its cloud business were lower than analysts had projected, and that the software company was losing money on certain deals involving Nvidia chip rentals.
The report reignited investor concerns over the sustainability of the artificial intelligence trade.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government shutdown extended into its second week, raising investor caution even as equities have remained resilient.
While the market impact has so far been limited, sentiment could potentially deteriorate if the political deadlock drags on.
Traders are also awaiting the release of the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting minutes on Wednesday, which could provide more clarity on the central bank’s internal debate following its divisive September policy meeting.
Investors are looking for any hints about the future path of interest rates and the Fed’s assessment of economic risks amid signs of cooling inflation.
