Early Look

Monday, September 29, 2025

U.S. futures are adding to Friday’s gains, as investors eyed a looming US government shutdown, after the top four congressional leaders will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, a day before federal funding would expire if the two parties can’t agree on a short-term spending bill. U.S. stocks closed higher Friday, snapping three straight days of declines as investors analyzed a reading on inflation from the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge that was in line with Wall Street’s expectations. Despite rallying on Friday, the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all booked weekly declines, taking a breather after notching record peaks on Monday. For the week, the Dow fell 0.2%, the S&P 500 shed 0.3% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite retreated 0.7%. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index fell -311 points to 45,043, the Shanghai Index rose 34 points to 3,862, and the Hang Seng Index surged 494 points to 26,622. In Europe, the German DAX is up 29 points to 23,768, while the FTSE 100 is up 62 points to 9,347. Highlights for the week include jobs data Tuesday (JOLTs), Wednesday (ADP) and Friday (nonfarm payrolls), a heavy Fed speak calendar and the potential government shutdown midweek after a short-term spending bill cant be reached. Goldman Sachs strategists recommended buying stocks into the year-end, saying that optimistic growth expectations (driven by AI) and dovish Fed expectations are creating a Goldilocks backdrop.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 299.97 points, or 0.65%, to 46,247.29
• The Nasdaq Composite gained 99.37 points, or 0.44%, to 22,484.07
• The Russell 2000 Index advanced 23.28 points, or 0.97% to 2,434.32

• 10:30 AM ET                Dallas Fed Manufacturing for September

• Earnings After the Close: IDT JEF MTN PRGS TRAK

• European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress is taking place between 9/27-10/1
• China NBS Manufacturing PMI for September

• President Trump’s trade deals with Asian allies are under threat after South Korea said Washington’s terms were unrealistic and Japan hinted that their agreement may need to be reviewed. “We are not able to pay $350 billion in cash,” South Korea’s National Security Adviser Wi Sung lac said. “It is objectively and realistically not a level we are able to handle.” Seoul and Washington agreed in July to a $350 billion investment pledge as part of a trade deal to lower US tariffs to 15% from 25%. A similar pledge made by Japan worth $550 billion also remains unclear. – Yahoo Finance

• Lufthansa announces 4,000 job cuts and higher profitability targets.

• Lockheed Martin’s (LMT) Sikorsky received a five-year $10.9 billion contract from the US Navy to build heavy-lift helicopters.
• Occidental Petroleum (OXY) is negotiating the sale of its OxyChem division, a transaction that could value the unit at minimum of $10 billion, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing two people familiar with the matter as the divestment likely to be announced in the coming weeks.
• TotalEnergies (TTE) has signed an agreement with insurance vehicles and accounts managed by KKR (KKR) for the sale of 50% of a 1.4 GW solar portfolio in North America. This transaction values the portfolio at an enterprise value of $1.25B.
• USA Rare Earth (USAR) announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire LCM, the world’s most established ex-China rare earth metal and alloy producer; USAR to buy LCM for $100 mln cash and 6.74 million shares of co common stock.

• Wells Fargo (WFC) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley while raised its tgt to $95 from $87.
• Western Alliance (WAL) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Wells Fargo but raise tgt to $90 from $85 as believes the shares are pricing in too much of interest rate cut benefits.

• Enanta Pharmaceuticals (ENTA) reports topline results from its phase 2B study of zelicapavir for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in high-risk adults.
• Glaxo (GSK) Emma Walmsley, the first woman to lead a major pharmaceutical company, will step down Dec. 31 as CEO after more than eight years at the head of the London-based drugmaker.
• Merus (MRUS) shares rise after the biotechnology company agreed to be acquired by Danish biotech Genmab (GMAB) for about $8 billion; Genmab said it will pay $97 a share in cash for Merus, a roughly 41% premium to Friday’s closing price of $68.89.
• MoonLake Immunotherapeutics (MLTX) shares plunge over 80% following the release of underwhelming late-stage study data, RBC Capital downgraded shares and slashed its tgt to $10 from $67 (after $61.99 closing price) saying data from the Sonelokimab Phase 3 VELA program in hidradenitis suppurativa look like a “near-miss” from a statistical standpoint.

• DeepSeek announces release of new v3.2-exp AI model with DeepSeek Sparse Attention—a sparse attention mechanism designed to explore and validate optimizations for training and inference efficiency in long-context scenarios.
• OpenAI is launching parental controls for ChatGPT following mounting pressure -Bloomberg