Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Sept. 30th, 2025.
NYSE
Stock futures edged lower Tuesday night as investors assess the ramifications of a looming U.S. government shutdown.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 68 points, or 0.15%. S&P futures and Nasdaq 100 futures both slipped more than 0.2%.
The moves come ahead of the widely expected U.S. government stoppage, which will take place at midnight unless Congress agrees on a deal to fund the government before Wednesday’s deadline. Two attempts made by the Republican-controlled Senate failed to secure a temporary spending bill on Tuesday. Democrats are hoping to use the measure to codify an extension of health care tax credits for millions of Americans.
Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission told employees to prepare for a potential funding lapse, Reuters reported. President Donald Trump called a government shutdown “probably likely” and faulted Democrats, saying “I didn’t see them bend even a little bit.” Lawmakers blamed each other for the impasse.
The stock market has typically glided by previous government shutdowns — but this one could be riskier given the slew of economic factors at play. Investors remain concerned about a slowing labor market and inflation risks as well as historically elevated stock valuations and market concentration levels. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated Tuesday that the shutdown will result in the furlough of about 750,000 federal employees. Over the weekend, Trump threatened mass firings of federal workers under a shutdown.
This time around, the market is likely to focus on the length of the shutdown since a prolonged closure could delay key economic data ahead of the Federal Reserve’s meeting in late October. The Labor Department said Friday it will shut down virtually all activity, meaning the September nonfarm payrolls report would not be released at the end of the week. In the case of no jobs data, a reading on private sector job creation from payroll processing group ADP on Wednesday morning is expected to take on greater significance.
“The lack of government data, especially the all-important BLS jobs report on Friday, does lend a concern as it was due to be released during a recent period in which the labor market showed signs of weakening and was a catalyst for the Federal Reserve to reduce interest rates just a couple weeks ago,” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott.
“If past is prologue, however, these shutdowns usually end fairly quickly and pass without much dislocation to equity prices,” he continued. “In the meantime, investors will lean other data to corroborate evidence that the job market and the economy are stable.”
Indeed, stocks shrugged off worries tied to this shutdown, with major U.S. indexes ending higher on Tuesday to cap off an unusually strong trading month in September. The third quarter, which ended on Tuesday, saw the S&P 500 log a gain of 7.8%.
The stock market typically gains during government shutdowns. Raymond James found that stocks have on average risen in the five previous government shutdowns, with the S&P 500, MidCap 400 and Small Cap 600 all gaining more than 3% over those time periods.
Separately, shares of Nike were up more than 4% in after-hours trading Tuesday after the sneaker giant surprisingly beat earnings and revenue expectations in its fiscal first quarter.