US equity indexes rose at the close on Thursday amid gains in materials and technology, with investors taking the Federal government shutdown in stride ahead of two more interest rate cuts priced in for this year.

The S&P 500, which hit a record 6,731.94 earlier in the session, rose less than 0.1% to 6,715.35. The Nasdaq Composite traded up 0.4% to 22,844.05, after touching a fresh all-time high of 22,900.60 intraday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.2% to 46,519.72. Energy led the decliners.

The top gainers in a category of stocks with a market capitalization of $200 billion or more were predominantly technology companies. These mega-caps included Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), ASML (ASML), Broadcom (AVGO), and Nvidia (NVDA).

In economic news, US employers announced plans to cut 54,064 jobs in September, down from 85,979 in August and below year-ago levels, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement firm, on Thursday.

Job cuts so far this year are roughly 946,000, the highest year-to-date total since 2020, the fifth-highest on record in the 36-year history of the data, and on track to exceed 1 million in 2025, according to a note from Scotiabank. Challenger also reported that on a year-to-date basis, only 205,000 jobs were planned to be added this year, compared with 484,000 last year, and 726,000 in 2023, the research note added.

Meanwhile, the weekly jobless claims bulletin, originally scheduled for an 8:30 am ET release, wasn't reported as the partial shutdown of the federal government entered its second day.

According to the CME Group's FedWatch Tool, the probability that the Federal Open Market Committee will cut interest rates by an aggregate of 50 basis points by December is 90% as of late Thursday, up from 61% a week earlier.

The partial shutdown of the Federal government is likely to extend into next week, CNN reported. Senate Democrats are expected to block a GOP-backed short-term funding bill again when they vote Friday, and the Senate is unlikely to be in session this weekend. The White House, which said shutdown-related layoffs of federal workers are "imminent," has outlined that the firings are "likely going to be in the thousands," the news report added.

"The market certainly appears to be taking the shutdown in its stride, in part because the debt ceiling is not part of the debate this time around, removing the threat of default," Stifel Chief Economist Lindsey Piegza said in a note.

Treasury yields were mixed, with the two-year unchanged at 3.55% while the 10-year rate fell 1.9 basis points to 4.09%.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures dropped 2% to $60.56 a barrel.

Gold futures fell 0.4% to $3,881.11, and silver dropped 1.9% to $46.77.