Overview

• The S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq notched record closes on Thursday, and futures pointed higher early Friday.
• Washington’s funding lapse entered day three, delaying weekly jobless claims and the September payrolls report and narrowing the Fed’s official data inputs.
• Markets put the probability of an October rate cut in the mid‑ to high‑90% range, with the 10‑year Treasury yield near 4.09%.
• Tech and chip shares led gains after OpenAI’s Stargate partnerships with South Korean firms, with Nvidia at a record and Japan’s Hitachi announcing an OpenAI cooling‑systems MOU.
• The ISM services PMI slipped to 50 in September, Applied Materials flagged a revenue hit from new U.S. export rules, and Berkshire agreed to buy Occidental’s OxyChem for $9.7 billion.