Traders on the floor of the NYSE
Source: NYSE
Stock futures were all lower on Wednesday morning as investors kept an eye on the federal debt ceiling debate in Washington ahead of the final trading day of May.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 118 points, or about 0.37%. S&P 500 futures slid 0.34%, and Nasdaq 100 futures inched up about 0.33%.
The move in futures comes after a muted day of trading on Tuesday that saw the Dow shed about 50 points while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3%.
Heading into the final trading day of May, the Nasdaq Composite is up nearly 6.5% for the month. The S&P 500, however, is up only about 0.9%, while the Dow has fallen 3.1%.
The outperformance of the tech-heavy Nasdaq is due in large part to the excitement around artificial intelligence, which briefly pushed Nvidia‘s market cap above $1 trillion on Thursday.
However, many investors and Wall Street strategists are worried that the market’s strength has been too narrow.
“We’re not seeing any signs of broad participation. We’re not seeing signs of early cyclicals on top of A.I.,” said Andrew Smith, chief investment strategist at Delos Capital Advisors in Dallas.
One factor that has weighed on the market in recent weeks is the fight over the debt ceiling. President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced a deal over the weekend to cap federal baseline spending for two years and raise the debt ceiling, but the agreement has not yet been ratified.
The Fiscal Responsibility Act appeared poised to pass a key committee hurdle on Tuesday, with a full House floor vote expected on Wednesday night, according to a tentative House voting schedule.
