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Wall Street futures turned higher late Wednesday after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to end the longest government shutdown in American history. The move followed a volatile trading session that saw investors rotating out of major technology stocks and into cyclical sectors.
S&P 500 futures climbed 0.1% to 6,882.50, Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.2% to 25,684.50, and Dow Jones futures gained 0.2% to 48,449. The shift came after the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record 48,225.07, lifted by gains in industrials and banks, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.3% amid tech sector weakness.
The House approved the government funding bill by a narrow 222–209 vote. The legislation, already passed by the Senate, will provide funding until at least January 30. President Donald Trump is expected to sign it into law at 21:45 ET (02:45 GMT). The passage comes just hours before the shutdown would have entered its 43rd day, offering relief to investors optimistic about the resumption of federal operations.
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) surged 7.6% in after-hours trading after beating fiscal Q1 earnings expectations, driven by stronger demand for AI-related network infrastructure. However, tech sentiment remained fragile. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) dropped nearly 3%, while Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) each lost around 2%. Palantir (NASDAQ: PLTR) fell 3.6%, and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) declined 1.6%.
Investor caution deepened following SoftBank Group’s $5.8 billion sale of its NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) stake, which fueled renewed fears of an AI valuation bubble. The Japanese conglomerate’s sale, intended to finance its $40 billion and $540 billion investments in OpenAI and the Stargate project, underscored growing concerns about excessive AI valuations.
As optimism builds around the government reopening, market focus remains on balancing exposure between high-growth tech stocks and value-driven cyclical sectors.
