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▸ Pro­spect of US gov­ern­ment shut­down helps push Wall Street lower

▸ European equity indices more upbeat, led higher by Frank­furt

▸ Gold extends gains but crude oil retreats on sup­ply glut fears

Wall Street edged down yes­ter­day as the chances ticked higher of a US gov­ern­ment shut­down begin­ning at mid­night.

The tech-heavy Nas­daq Com­pos­ite index was 0.2 per cent lower by early after­noon yes­ter­day while the blue-chip S&P 500 was down 0.1 per cent.

US vice-pres­id­ent JD Vance said on Monday after­noon that the gov­ern­ment was “headed to a shut­down” after Pres­id­ent Don­ald Trump and con­gres­sional lead­ers failed to strike a deal in a White House meet­ing.

While gov­ern­ment shut­downs do not have any con­sist­ent read­through for fin­an­cial mar­kets, investors were mostly con­cerned that it would mean a sus­pen­sion of Fri­day’s closely watched non-farm payrolls data release.

The data has been taken as a key baro­meter of interest rate cut expect­a­tions in recent months.