OPENING CALL

Stock futures were up as investors turned their attention to jobs data this week and weighed the risks of a potential government shutdown.

Trump and congressional leaders are set for last minute talks on Monday. That's ahead of an expected redo of a Senate vote that will determine whether Congress will keep the government funded.

MUFG said a government shutdown "could delay key jobs data and cloud the Federal Reserve's monetary policy path ."

Friday's jobs data for September will be closely watched by traders, as weaker figures would bolster the case for further Fed rate cuts . JOLTS job openings figures for August, ADP private payrolls numbers for September and weekly jobless claims figures are also expected this week.

Recent weak labor market figures led the Fed to cut interest rates at its most recent meeting and many expect follow-up rate cuts in the coming months.

Stocks to Watch

Alibaba announced plans last week to step up investment in cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Shares rose 4.1%, part of an upswing in Hong Kong-listed stocks.

AstraZeneca plans to list directly on the New York Stock Exchange, part of a push to broaden its investor base. On Friday, it said it would offer discounted asthma and diabetes drugs in the U.S., as Trump pressures pharmaceutical companies to cut drug prices.

Carnival is due to post earnings early Monday. In June, it raised its annual outlook. Shares climbed 1.5% premarket.

Entanta Pharmaceuticals said it plans to present topline trial results for its respiratory syncytial virus treatment. The stock gained 19% after-hours.

GSK : Emma Walmsley will step down as CEO. Luke Miels, currently chief commercial officer, will succeed her. Shares rose 2.5% in London.

JFB Construction entered into a private placement agreement worth $43.9 million. Shares surged after the bell.

Microsoft: Trump on Friday called for Microsoft to fire its head of global affairs, who previously worked for the Biden administration. His demand came a day after the company disabled the Israeli Defense Ministry's access to certain services and subscriptions.

SOS Limited reported an increase in revenue and said it was allocating resources away from its crypto mining business. Shares climbed 32% after hours.

Watch For:

FRB St. Louis President Alberto Musalem speaks at Washington University in St. Louis event; Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams speaks at Rochester Institute of Technology; FRB Atlanta President Raphael Bostic moderates conversation with Delta Air Lines CEO

Today's Top Headlines/Must Reads:

- Trump Faces Democrats as Shutdown Deadline Nears

- The Credit Market Is Humming-and That Has Wall Street On Edge

- Why Microsoft Has Lower Borrowing Costs Than the U.S.

MARKET WRAPS

Forex:

The dollar fell against a basket of currencies as U.S. lawmakers raced to avert a government shutdown .

The euro extended gains against the dollar slightly after data showed Spanish inflation accelerated in September.

Sterling rose helped by improved risk appetite and a renewed rise in stocks.

The currency could fall on any signs the U.K. Labour government could U-turn on plans to reduce the budget deficit through spending cuts , ING said.

Bonds:

Treasury yields declined as markets awaited key labor data due this week.

"We now head into a pivotal week for markets and the Fed, with a heavy slate of labor market data," Danske Bank said.

Energy:

Oil prices fell on growing fears of an impending supply glut , fueled by reports that OPEC+ might increase production once again and that Kurdistan resumed crude exports via Turkey.

Metals:

Gold prices hit a fresh record high, boosted by a weaker dollar.

The precious metal has risen more than 45% this year , supported by Fed rate cuts, central-buying and strong inflows into gold-backed ETFs.

Employment data will be key for gold's next move , according to Pepperstone', as the precious metal continues to scale new highs.

Investors are shunning the greenback and U.S. debt , Swissquote Bank said.

Copper

Copper rose amid supply concerns.

"Sustained supply disruption will squeeze the market surplus that has been present this year, and presents an upside risk to our forecast for the price of copper to fall to $8,750 per tonne by the end of 2026," Capital Economics said.

Iron

Iron ore fell as steel mills have slowed their restocking ahead of a holiday in China, while rising shipments from Australia didn't provide much support, ANZ said.

   TODAY'S TOP HEADLINES 

Auto Supplier First Brands Files for Bankruptcy Amid Accounting Jitters

First Brands filed for bankruptcy Monday after succumbing to a crisis as lenders lost confidence in the reliability of the auto supplier's financial disclosures and its use of off-balance-sheet debt.

The privately held company is bringing on independent directors to examine the off-balance-sheet financing arrangements, which total in the billions, people familiar with the matter said.

Sony Group Lists $9.5 Billion Financial Business to Focus on Entertainment

Sony Group has listed shares of its financial business, valued at about $9.5 billion, in a bid to focus on its game and other entertainment businesses.

Shares of Sony Financial Group were listed in Tokyo Monday and the Japanese entertainment and electronics giant said that a planned spinoff would take effect on Wednesday.

Drug Tariffs Are a Sideshow. Trump's Next Move Could Hit Pharma Harder.

It's becoming increasingly clear that pharmaceutical companies can live with President Trump's tariffs. What the industry can't live with is uncertainty on drug prices.

The sector has long traded at a discount to the broader market, but that gap has widened to its largest in decades as investors fret over Trump's policies-ranging from tariffs and price controls to the unpredictable influence of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

ASML Builds Machines that Make AI Chips. Why It's Missing Out on the Boom.

There should be few companies better placed to benefit from the artificial-intelligence boom than ASML Holding. The Dutch company has a near-monopoly on the specialized lithography machines used to produce the high-performance chips used in data centers, a business booming like never before.

ASML's American depositary receipts are up 11% over the past year. However the gain lags far behind other companies in the AI supply chain, hampered by a warning that it can't guarantee growth in 2026.

Warner Bros. Notches Another Box Office Win. 'One Battle After Another' Tops Sales.

Warner Bros. landed another hit theatrical debut this weekend, taking the top spot in domestic box office sales with One Battle After Another, its ninth No. 1 movie premiere this year.

One Battle After Another sold an estimated $22.4 million domestically, putting Warner Bros. on pace to meet or beat its previous record of 10 top-of-the-charts movie debuts in 2011, according to Comscore. The weekend showing tied the nine top debuts it had in 2009, more than any other studio this year.

First Amazon conquered retail. Now it's quietly building a $35 billion business that's changing how companies operate.

Many consumers treat Amazon AMZN as the go-to source for any number of goods and services. But unbeknownst to most of them, Amazon has been bringing its might to the world of business-oriented commerce as well, supplying ever more companies with essential items that range from toilet paper to machine parts.

Perhaps more surprising: These business-to-business sales make up more than $35 billion in annual revenue, according to Amazon. And that could be just the beginning of something much bigger.

Global Markets Rise as U.S. Lawmakers Race to Avoid Government Shutdown

Global stock markets and U.S. stock futures started the week mostly higher while the U.S. dollar eased as U.S. lawmakers race to avert a government shutdown. The shadow of that looms over important economic data releases this week, with any shutdown having the potential to knock off course policy signals from the Federal Reserve. Jobs data will be the center of attention, notably Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls figures for September, subject to what happens in Washington. President Trump is due to meet with lawmakers later on Monday to try to avoid a shutdown.

Elsewhere, gold hit fresh record highs while oil benchmarks slipped.

Debt Is Fueling the Next Wave of the AI Boom

In the initial years of the AI boom, comparisons to the dot-com bubble didn't make much sense. Three years in, growing levels of debt are making them ring a little truer.

Early on, wealthy tech companies were opening their wallets to out-joust each other for leadership in artificial intelligence. They were spending cash generated largely from advertising and cloud-computing businesses. There was no debt-fueled splurge on computing and networking infrastructure like the one that inflated the bubble 2 1/2 decades ago.

The Credit Market Is Humming-and That Has Wall Street On Edge

U.S. credit markets are running hot-maybe too hot.

Investors are gobbling up corporate debt like it is going out of style-even though the rewards, by some measures, are lower than they have been in decades. The frothy mood has some on Wall Street worried that the market is priced for perfection and ripe for a fall.

Deadline Comes Today in Trump's Big Drug Pricing Initiative

The deadline that President Donald Trump set in late July for 17 large drugmakers to make "binding commitments" to lower U.S. drug prices expires on Monday. Now it's up to the White House to decide whether the industry's efforts to appease the administration over the past few months have gone far enough.

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September 29, 2025 05:54 ET (09:54 GMT)

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