New York (AFP) – Wall Street stocks edged higher early Tuesday, extending an upbeat stretch as markets continue to look past a US government shutdown that has curtailed economic data releases. About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was unchanged at 46,694.91. The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.1 percent to 6,745.33, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.2 percent to 22,975.45.
The US Senate Monday night voted down a bill to provide stopgap funding for the government through November 21, ensuring staff furloughs will continue in a shutdown that is now in its second week. “Market participants are looking at the government shutdown with an historical lens and saying that in large part, it doesn’t affect the market or the economy,” said Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management. “If there’s an effect on the economy, it gets picked up quickly once the government reopens.”
Among individual companies, IBM jumped 3.1 percent after announcing a strategic partnership with Anthropic, whose Claude platform is one of the emerging players in artificial intelligence. Ford fell 5.4 percent following a fire in an Oswego, New York aluminum plant that is expected to reduce supplies to the auto giant for months.
© 2024 AFP
