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Wall Street sets more records, but bond yields drop following discouraging data on the job market

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Wall Street sets more records, but bond yields drop following discouraging data on the job market
News

News

Wall Street sets more records, but bond yields drop following discouraging data on the job market

2025-10-02 04:18 Last Updated At:04:20

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose to more records on Wednesday, as Wall Street still doesn’t care much about the shutdown of the U.S. government, but yields sank in the bond market following the latest discouraging signals on the economy.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.3% to top its prior all-time high, which was set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 43 points, or 0.1%, to its own record set the day before, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.4%.

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James Denaro works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

James Denaro works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A trader looks at financial information on his computer on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A trader looks at financial information on his computer on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Patrick King, right, and others work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Patrick King, right, and others work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

FILE - The New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

FILE - The New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top right, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top right, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

The action was stronger in the bond market, where Treasury yields dropped after a report suggested hiring may have been much weaker across the country last month than economists expected.

Employers outside the government actually cut 32,000 more jobs than they added, according to the survey by ADP Research, with the Midwest taking particularly hard hits. What’s worse, the survey also revised down its numbers for employment in August, to a loss of 3,000 jobs from a previously reported gain of 54,000.

Usually, traders on Wall Street wait for a more comprehensive jobs report that comes from the U.S. government each month to suss out how the job market is doing. The U.S. government gets its data from a larger sample of employers than the ADP survey, which does not have a perfect track record predicting what the more comprehensive report will say each month.

But the next Labor Department report, scheduled for Friday, is likely to be delayed because of the shutdown of the U.S. government that began just after midnight.

“Whether this is an accurate statistic or not, people in the markets believe that it signals something,” according to Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics. “The signal from today’s headline will not be a good one.”

The hope on Wall Street has been that the job market will continue to slow by a very precise amount: enough to convince the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates, but not by so much that it brings a recession.

That’s a delicate balance to achieve, and every economic report from the U.S. government that gets delayed only increases the uncertainty about whether it’s possible. Stocks have already run to records on expectations for coming cuts to rates, so a lack of them could send the market lower.

To be sure, the stock market and economy have typically powered through past shutdowns, particularly if they are short in duration. But this shutdown could be different in a couple ways, including the threat that the White House may use it to push for large-scale firings of federal workers.

On Wall Street, Nike rose 6.4% after blowing past analysts’ expectations for profit in the latest quarter. The athletic giant reported strong growth for apparel sold in North America.

Lithium America’s stock that trades in the United States jumped 23.3% after the Canadian company said the U.S. government agreed to let it draw from a previously announced $2.26 billion loan. As part of the agreement, the U.S. Department of Energy will take an ownership stake in the Vancouver-based company.

Lithium Americas is developing a lithium project in Nevada with General Motors, and it follows Intel and other companies where the U.S. government has recently taken an ownership stake.

On the losing side of the market was Peloton Interactive, which dropped 3.7%. It got a cold reception to its unveiling of an AI and computer vision system, along with other equipment designed for cross training.

Corteva sank 9.1% after announcing a plan to split into two companies, each with its own stock. One will hold onto the company’s seed business, while the other will focus on crop protection.

Cal-Maine Foods fell 1.2% after the egg company’s profit and revenue for the latest quarter fell short of analysts’ expectations.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 22.74 points to 6,711.20. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 43.21 to 46,441.10, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 95.15 to 22,755.16.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following a mixed finish in Asia.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury sank to 4.10% from 4.16% late Tuesday.

Yields fell as the weaker-than-expected payroll report from ADP firmed expectations for coming cuts to rates by the Fed. So did another report showing that U.S. manufacturing was weaker last month than economists expected.

Several manufacturers told the Institute for Supply Management’s surveyors that they’re still feeling pain because of tariffs.

“Steel tariffs are killing us,” one manufacturer said.

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

James Denaro works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

James Denaro works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A trader looks at financial information on his computer on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A trader looks at financial information on his computer on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Patrick King, right, and others work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Patrick King, right, and others work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

FILE - The New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

FILE - The New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top right, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top right, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to justify deploying troops as protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement persist in Minneapolis.

Trump made the threat to “quickly put an end to the travesty” after a federal officer shot a man in the leg while being attacked with a shovel and broom handle on Wednesday. The incident further heightened the sense of fear and anger radiating across the city a week after an immigration agent fatally shot a woman in the head.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to invoke the rarely used federal law to deploy the U.S. military or federalize the National Guard for domestic law enforcement, over the objections of state governors.

The Latest:

The Associated Press has reached out to the offices of Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for comment on Trump’s latest threat to invoke the Insurrection Act.

During a televised speech before the latest shooting, Walz described Minnesota as being in chaos, saying what’s happening in the state “defies belief.”

“Let’s be very, very clear, this long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement,” he said. “Instead, it’s a campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own federal government.”

Threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act and send troops to Minneapolis, Trump noted that presidents have used the 19th century law many times. This is true — but they haven’t necessarily done it in the circumstances found in Minneapolis, where the tensions have arisen from Trump already sending federal authorities into the city.

In modern times, the act has been used to mobilize troops to help local authorities or to ensure a federal court order is carried out.

The law was last used in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush to help quell riots in Los Angeles after local officials asked for the assistance. Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson all invoked it during the Civil Rights Movement to help enforce desegregation orders in Southern states where state and local governments were resisting.

A 1964 Justice Department memo said the act can apply in three circumstances: when a state requests help, when deployment is needed to enforce a federal court order, or when “state and local law enforcement have completely broken down.”

In a statement describing the events that led to Wednesday’s shooting, Homeland Security said federal law enforcement officers stopped a person from Venezuela who was in the U.S. illegally. The person drove away and crashed into a parked car before taking off on foot, DHS said.

After officers reached the person, two other people arrived from a nearby apartment and all three started attacking the officer, according to DHS.

“Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals, the officer fired a defensive shot to defend his life,” DHS said.

The two people who came out of the apartment are in custody, it said.

Police Chief Brian O’Hara’s account of what happened largely echoed that of Homeland Security. O’Hara said the man shot was in the hospital with a non-life-threatening injury.

Jacob Frey spoke Wednesday night after federal officers wearing gas masks and helmets fired tear gas into a small crowd while protesters threw rocks and shot fireworks.

“This is an impossible situation that our city is presently being put in and at the same time we are trying to find a way forward to keep people safe, to protect our neighbors, to maintain order,” he said.

Frey described a federal force that is five times as big as the city’s 600-officer police force and has “invaded” the city, scaring and angering residents, some of whom want the officers to “fight ICE agents.”

The Department of Homeland Security says it has made more than 2,000 arrests in the state since early December and is vowing to not back down.

Trump made the threat Thursday after a federal officer trying to make an arrest shot a man in the leg Wednesday after being attacked with a shovel and broom handle. The incident further heightened the sense of fear and anger radiating across the city a week after an immigration agent fatally shot a woman in the head.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to invoke the rarely used federal law to deploy the U.S. military or federalize the National Guard for domestic law enforcement, over the objections of state governors.

“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Trump said in social media post.

▶ Read more about Trump’s latest threats to Minnesota

An AP-NORC poll from January found that about 4 in 10 U.S. adults approve of Trump’s performance as president. That’s virtually unchanged from March 2025, shortly after he took office for the second time.

The new poll also shows subtle signs of vulnerability for Trump, mainly regarding the economy and immigration.

Two senators from opposite parties are joining forces in a renewed push to ban members of Congress from trading stocks, an effort that has broad public support but has repeatedly stalled on Capitol Hill.

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Republican Sen. Ashley Moody of Florida on Thursday plan to introduce legislation, first shared with The Associated Press, that would bar lawmakers and their immediate family members from trading or owning individual stocks.

It’s the latest in a flurry of proposals in the House and the Senate to limit stock trading in Congress, lending bipartisan momentum to the issue. But the sheer number of proposals has clouded the path forward. Republican leaders in the House are pushing their own bill on stock ownership, an alternative that critics have dismissed as watered down.

▶ Read more about the cross-party effort

Senate Republicans voted to dismiss a war powers resolution Wednesday that would have limited Trump’s ability to conduct further attacks on Venezuela after two GOP senators reversed course on supporting the legislation.

Trump put intense pressure on five Republican senators who joined with Democrats to advance the resolution last week and ultimately prevailed in heading off passage of the legislation. Two of the Republicans — Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana — flipped under the pressure.

Vice President JD Vance had to break the 50-50 deadlock in the Senate on a Republican motion to dismiss the bill.

The outcome of the high-profile vote demonstrated how Trump still has command over much of the Republican conference, yet the razor-thin vote tally also showed the growing concern on Capitol Hill over the president’s aggressive foreign policy ambitions.

▶ Read more about the war powers vote

While President Donald Trump says he’ll take action on Greenland whether its people “ like it or not, ” his newly handpicked U.S. special envoy is setting off on his own approach.

Gov. Jeff Landry, appointed as envoy in December, said he is not interested in meeting diplomats. The Republican has not visited the Arctic island and did not attend Wednesday’s meeting at the White House that included Danish officials, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. However, the governor was scheduled to travel to Washington on Thursday and Friday for meetings that include the topic of Greenland, Landry’s spokesperson Kate Kelly said.

▶ Read more about Landry 's new role

Law enforcement officers at the scene of a reported shooting Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Law enforcement officers at the scene of a reported shooting Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)

FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)

FILE - President Donald Trump waves after arriving on Air Force One from Florida, Jan. 11, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump waves after arriving on Air Force One from Florida, Jan. 11, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

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