US stock futures rose on Monday as the federal government shutdown entered another week, while political drama in France and Japan gripped investors and an AMD (AMD)-OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) deal lifted hopes for the AI trade.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) edged up 0.2%, while those on the S&P 500 (ES=F) gained 0.3%. Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) led the way higher, rising roughly 0.7% amid a near 25% premarket surge from AMD.
In another jolt to the AI outlook, AMD (AMD) said Monday it has signed a multiyear deal with OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) to supply chips that will bring in tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue. It also gives the ChatGPT owner the option to purchase up to 10% of AMD, one of Nvidia’s (NVDA) key rivals.
That served as another AI-related boost to a market that has proved resilient despite the shutdown in Washington. Wall Street on Friday returned to a strong rally that has pushed major indexes to fresh record highs. Eyes are now on the OpenAI developer event on Monday for potentially market-moving news.
Investors have focused on upbeat prospects for AI even as the stoppage delays key economic releases such as the monthly jobs report.
“There’s a certain amount of nihilism,” Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, told Yahoo Finance. “All news is good news, and no news matters. By not getting this [jobs report], that’s one less impediment in the market’s relentless rise.”
But overseas, markets were rattled by political upheavals. In France, the CAC 40 (^FCHI) stock benchmark sank and the euro (EURUSD=X) fell after the sudden resignation of its prime minister pushed the country back into political crisis. And in Japan, the Nikkei 225 (^N225) surged almost 5% to a record high as an ultraconservative was all but confirmed as the country’s next leader in a surprise choice.
On Wall Street, data-starved investors could still get inputs for calculating the chances of two interest-rate cuts this year. On the Federal Reserve front, President Trump-backed Governor Stephen Miran is set to speak on Wednesday, followed by Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday. And data from non-government sources is also on deck, with the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment report for October the likely highlight.
Meanwhile, third-quarter earnings are set to start trickling in, with results from PepsiCo (PEP), Delta Air Lines (DAL), and Levi Strauss (LEVI) on the docket this week.
