US benchmarks rose Monday and the MSCI All Country World Index had its best day since late June as the White House expressed support for the bipartisan deal to end the shutdown. Separately, President Donald Trump also floated the idea of paying US$2,000 tariff “dividend” to US citizens.
The optimism spread beyond stocks into other markets as well, with a gauge of commodity prices rising to the highest level since August 2022. An index of the dollar inched higher, while gold and bitcoin extended gains.
The cross-asset moves signalled investors were willing to return to riskier areas of the market after the recent selling in technology stocks, driven by concerns over lofty valuations. Many are betting that reopening the US government will restore the flow of key economic data on jobs and inflation, providing greater clarity on the Federal Reserve’s policy path.
“Markets are right now going through a bit of a consolidation phase,” Leon Goldfeld, JPMorgan Asset Management’s Asia Pacific head of multi-asset solutions, said in a Bloomberg TV interview. “Fundamentals, as we look in 2026, remain relatively good.”
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A record-setting 41-day US government shutdown is on a path to end as soon as Wednesday after the Senate passed a temporary funding measure backed by a group of eight centrist Democrats.
The Senate’s 60-40 vote Monday comes amid escalating flight disruptions, food aid delays and frustrations in a federal workforce that has mostly gone without pay for more than a month.
While investors piled on to the riskier corners of the market, bonds declined Monday. Treasuries are also facing a demand test from this week’s auctions totalling US$125 billion. The US bond market will be closed worldwide Tuesday for Veterans Day.
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Commodities also rallied, with aluminium advancing alongside copper and other industrial metals. Aluminium, which reached a three-year high a week ago, has been one of the strongest performers on the London Metal Exchange in recent months, with investors weighing the impact of Chinese capacity curbs at a time of resilient demand.
Gold rose for a third day to trade above US$4,130 an ounce on expectations that the Fed will reduce interest rates further. Brent crude was little changed near US$64 a barrel.
Elsewhere, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi aims to use her first stimulus package to jump-start the economy and initiate a new growth strategy through investment in key industries.
Indian assets will also be in focus as Trump indicated he would reduce the tariff rate on Indian goods “at some point”, and that the US was “pretty close” to a trade deal with New Delhi.
Back to the US government reopening, historical precedent from the 2013 shutdown suggests that September’s employment report could be among the first to hit the wires, potentially within three business days of reopening, according to Jim Reid at Deutsche Bank.
Assuming the government reopens and statistics start moving again, Fed officials will still be confronted with data compiled via retroactive surveys and other methods — if the figures are published at all. And while several private-sector reports on the job market are helping to fill the void of official data, alternatives to government inflation figures are harder to come by and more limited in scope.
Corporate news:
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- Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who turned an ageing textile mill into a conglomerate, said he’s “going quiet”, marking the end of an era for one of the business world’s most-watched investing gurus.
- CoreWeave Inc lowered its annual revenue forecast after suffering a delay fulfilling a customer contract, marking a setback for a company that is racing to keep up with the artificial intelligence boom.
- Gemini Space Station Inc, the crypto exchange founded by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, reported a steeper loss than analysts anticipated in its first earnings release since going public.
- The European Commission is exploring ways to force European Union member states to phase out Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp from their telecommunications networks, according to people familiar with the matter.
- Xpeng Inc shares surged to their highest level in eight months, amid growing optimism over the Chinese electric carmaker’s progress in technologies including humanoid robots.
- Shares of SoftBank Group Corp rose in Japan ahead of the company’s earnings. The company is expected to log its third straight quarterly profit when it announces earnings later Tuesday.
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
- S&P 500 futures were little changed as of 11.57am Tokyo time
- Japan’s Topix rose 0.2%
- Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was little changed
- Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.5%
- The Shanghai Composite fell 0.6%
- Euro Stoxx 50 futures rose 0.5%
Currencies
- The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%
- The euro was little changed at US$1.1553
- The Japanese yen fell 0.1% to 154.37 per dollar
- The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.1262 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
- Bitcoin rose 0.9% to US$106,550.59
- Ether rose 2% to US$3,611.71
Bonds
- Japan’s 10-year yield was unchanged at 1.695%
- Australia’s 10-year yield was little changed at 4.40%
Commodities
- West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.3% to US$59.95 a barrel
- Spot gold rose 0.5% to US$4,137.57 an ounce
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