Wall Street futures turned positive late on Wednesday evening after the House of Representatives approved a bill aimed at ending the longest ever U.S. government shutdown.
Futures rose after a mixed session on Wall Street, with the Dow hitting a record high on flows into cyclicals, while the Nasdaq retreated on growing doubts over the artificial intelligence trade.
S&P 500 Futures rose 0.1% to 6,882.50 points, while Nasdaq 100 Futures rose 0.2% to 25,684.50 points by 20:35 ET (01:35 GMT). Dow Jones Futures rose 0.2% to 48,449.0 points.
Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) was a standout performer in aftermarket trade, rallying 7.6% after its fiscal first quarter earnings beat expectations on increased network infrastructure demand from the artificial intelligence industry.
House votes to end longest ever govt shutdown The House Of Representatives on Wednesday evening approved a bill to unlock funding and end the longest ever government shutdown.
The measure was approved in a tight 222 to 209 vote.
The bill will now head to U.S. President Trump’s desk to be signed into law, with the White House stating that Trump will sign the measure at 21:45 ET (02:45 GMT).
This comes after the Senate approved the bill earlier this week, following a pivot by eight Democrats.
The bill will provide for government funding until at least January 30, with its passage coming just hours before the shutdown entered a 43rd day. Optimism over the government reopening drove some gains in Wall Street this week, as investors looked to an end to widespread disruptions in federal services.
Tech rotation continues as AI doubts persist Investors were seen rotating further out of heavyweight technology stocks on Wednesday, amid growing doubts over an AI-fuelled surge in valuations.
Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) was the worst performer among heavyweight tech stocks, losing nearly 3%, while Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) lost about 2% each. Palantir Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:PLTR) fell 3.6%, while Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shed 1.6%.
Softbank Group’s recent $5.8 billion sale of its NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) stake rattled stock markets with more fears of an AI valuation bubble, given that it underscored a wide gulf between fundamentals and valuations in the AI sector. The sale was largely to fund Softbank’s $40 billion and $540 billion commitments to OpenAI and the Stargate project, respectively.
Nvidia’s shares had also fallen after the sale, but rose marginally on Wednesday.
Rotation out of tech was also spurred by strong earnings in cyclical sectors such as banks and industrials, which further encouraged investors to diversify after a largely tech-dominated rally in Wall Street this year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average benefited from this trade, rising 0.7% to a record high of 48,225.07 points on Wednesday. The NASDAQ Composite fell 0.3% to 23,406.46 points, while the S&P 500 rose marginally to 6,851.01 points.
