Pre-Bell｜US Stock Futures Fall as Government Shutdown Looms; Big Techs Sink; Lithium Americas Soars 33%; Crypto Stocks Jump with Upexi up 6%

Wall Street futures slid on Wednesday after the deep partisan rift in Washington led to a federal government shutdown that risks delaying crucial economic data and could potentially muddy the Federal Reserve's policy-easing outlook.

Market Snapshot

At 7:50 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 162 points, or 0.35%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 28.75 points, or 0.43%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 119.75 points, or 0.48%.

Pre-Market Movers

Nvidia was down 0.6% after the artificial-intelligence chip maker closed Tuesday up 2.6% at $186.58, an all-time high. The stock has risen for four straight sessions and closed Tuesday with a market cap of $4.533 trillion. KeyBanc maintained its Overweight rating on Nvidia and raised its target price to $250 from $230, noting the company's plans for its next-generation Rubin AI chips, which are set to enter mass production next year.

Nike reported fiscal first-quarter earnings of 49 cents a share, topping analysts' estimates of 27 cents, while revenue of $11.7 billion, up 1% from a year earlier, also beat predictions. Revenue in North America rose 4% from a year earlier to $5.02 billion, driven by higher apparel and equipment sales. The company, however, said progress wouldn't be "linear" as Nike's different businesses "recover on different timelines." Shares of the sneaker and athletic apparel company were rising 4.8% in the premarket session.

Occidental Petroleum was up 1.4% after The Wall Street Journal reported Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway was in talks to buy the oil-and-gas company's petrochemical business for around $10 billion. The deal, which would be Berkshire's largest since 2022, could come together within days, people familiar with the matter told the Journal. Berkshire Hathaway's class B shares slipped 0.3% in premarket trading.

Lithium Americas rose 33%. The U.S. government is taking a 5% stake in the Vancouver-based mining company, and a 5% stake in the company's Thacker Pass mining project in Nevada. General Motors owns a 38% stake in the Nevada mine. GM shares fell 0.3%.

Crypto shares jumped in premarket trading as Bitcoin topped $116K, Ethereum rallied above $4,300. Upexi up over 6%; BitMine, Bitfarms up over 4%; CleanSpark, Strategy up around 3%.

AppLovin, which provides monetization tools to mobile app developers, declined 0.8% in premarket trading. The stock closed up 0.9% on Tuesday at $718.54, a record closing high, and ended the third quarter as the best-performing stock in the S&P 500, rising 105% from the beginning of July to the end of September. AppLovin joined the index in September.

AES was rising 13% to $14.91 after the Financial Times reported that BlackRock-owned Global Infrastructure Partners was nearing a $38 billion deal to buy the utility company.

Pfizer fell 0.4% after shares of the drugmaker jumped 6.8% on Tuesday -- their largest daily percentage increase since Nov. 5, 2021, according to Dow Jones Market Data -- following an announcement from President Donald Trump that the company would be cutting prices for drugs sold into the Medicaid system, and will launch new drugs in the U.S. at lower prices that match those in other wealthy nations. Shares of competitor Merck were up 0.2% after they also gained 6.8% on Tuesday.

Carvana was rising 1.7% to $383.50 after Jefferies raised its recommendation on shares of the used-car retailer to Buy from Hold and boosted the price target to $485 from $375. The stock has gained 86% this year.

Market News

US Begins Government Shutdown With Trump, Democrats at Impasse

Congress blew past a midnight funding deadline, triggering the US government’s first shutdown in nearly seven years — and the third under President Donald Trump.

The White House’s budget office ordered agencies to begin executing their plans for a funding lapse, shuttering the government aside from essential duties, disrupting the jobs of hundreds of thousands of Americans and upending many public services.

With the two parties locked in a stalemate over health care subsidies and using the moment to frame the 2026 midterm elections, the shutdown — and its economic effects — could be prolonged. If the shutdown lasts three weeks, the unemployment rate could spike to 4.6%-4.7% from the 4.3% in August as furloughed workers are counted as temporarily unemployed, according to Bloomberg Economics.