Futures contracts increase
US stock futures rose on Thursday, with investors welcoming an end to the historic federal government shutdown.
As of 02:59 ET (06:59 GMT), Dow futures were up 89 points, or 0.2%, S&P 500 futures were up 6 points, or 0.1%, and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 37 points, or 0.2%.
Major indexes on Wall Street closed mixed on Wednesday. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a new record closing high, while the benchmark S&P 500 also rose slightly.
The Nasdaq Composite, however, fell, reflecting a rotation out of pricey tech stocks. Part of the dampening of sentiment was a media report that OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT, may be spending more and burning more money than previously thought—a prospect that threatens to add to concerns about bubble valuations in artificial intelligence-fueled tech.
However, shares of AI semiconductor group Advanced Micro Devices jumped 9% after it announced a target of $100 billion in data center revenue.
Mr. Trump signs spending bill, ending record US government shutdown
US President Donald Trump signed a bill to unlock funding and end the longest government shutdown in US history on Wednesday night, after the spending package passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
The bill, which would keep the government funded through January 30, passed the House in a largely party-line vote of 222 to 209. The Senate passed the bill earlier this week.
Mr. Trump signed the bill in an Oval Office ceremony, ensuring the reversal of federal layoffs imposed by the White House during the shutdown and guaranteeing those workers’ paychecks. But the core issue that caused the shutdown — the core issue that led to the shutdown — remains unresolved.
For financial markets, the end of the 43-day shutdown is expected to lead to the resumption of key data releases that investors and policymakers use to gauge the health of the US economy.
“With any luck, we could see employment data starting early next week,” analysts at ING said in a note.
However, Trump administration officials have warned that October jobs and inflation data may never be released due to the shutdown, which could leave Federal Reserve officials without key data ahead of their next interest rate decision in December.
Cisco raises full-year outlook
Cisco Systems shares rose more than 7% in after-hours trading after the US networking equipment supplier raised its annual financial guidance.
In a bet on the sustainability of the AI wave and the surge in demand for equipment needed to support massive expansion of data centers, the California-based company said it expects fiscal 2026 revenue to be in the range of $60.2 billion to $61 billion, compared with its previous forecast of $59 billion to $60 billion.
Full-year adjusted earnings per share are expected to come in at $4.08 to $4.14, compared with $4 to $4.06 previously.
Cisco, whose first-quarter results also beat Wall Street expectations, predicts it will generate $3 billion in AI infrastructure revenue in the current fiscal year.
The company’s stock price has soared about 25% this year, underscoring the boost it’s received from a wave of businesses racing to upgrade their data centers and move workloads to the cloud to tap into and ultimately monetize AI’s capabilities.
UK economy grew slightly in the third quarter
The UK economy grew modestly in the third quarter, but actually contracted in September before Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to deliver a tax-raising budget later this month.
Data released by the Office for National Statistics on Thursday morning showed UK gross domestic product grew by just 0.1% in the July-September period, after rising 0.3% between April and June.
The UK economy contracted in September, with monthly GDP falling 0.1%, weaker than the flat reading in August, suggesting a difficult final quarter.
On an annual basis, the UK economy expanded 1.3% in September, slowing slightly from 1.4% growth the previous month.
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