Markets Shrug Off Shutdown Fears

US stocks coasted to the finish of their latest winning month on Tuesday.

• The S&P 500 rose 27.25 points, or 0.4%, to 6,688.49 to close out its fifth straight winning month after setting a record last week.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 81.82 points, or 0.2%, to 46,397.86.
• The Nasdaq composite climbed 68.86 points, or 0.3%, to 22,660.01.

The quiet trading came as a potential shutdown of the US government loomed. Past shutdowns have had limited impact on the economy and stock market, and many investors expect something similar this time around, the AP reports.

The S&P 500 has climbed an average of 4.4% during past shutdowns and is positive over the last five, according to Monica Guerra, head of US policy at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. What could make this shutdown different, though, is that the White House may push for large-scale firings of federal workers.

On Wall Street, Spotify Technology sank 4.2% after the Stockholm-based streaming giant said its founder, Daniel Ek, is stepping down as CEO to become the executive chairman. Two of his lieutenants will replace him as co-CEOs: Chief Product and Technology Officer Gustav Söderström and Chief Business Officer Alex Norström. Oil-related companies weighed on the market after the price of crude fell again as traders see too much oil washing around the world. Schlumberger fell 2.1%, and Halliburton dropped 1.6%. On the winning side of Wall Street was CoreWeave, which jumped 11.7%. It said Meta Platforms will pay up to $14.2 billion for a new order for cloud computing power made under its existing service agreement, with the potential for more.

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Treasury yields wavered in the bond market but ultimately held relatively steady following a couple of mixed reports on the US economy. One said consumers are feeling less confident than economists expected, with many respondents in the Conference Board's survey pointing to the job market and to inflation that has remained higher than anyone would like. A second report suggested the job market may be remaining in its "low-hire, low-fire" state. US employers were advertising roughly the same number of job openings at the end of August as the month before.