#jobs-data

#jobs-data

Wall Street nudged past yesterday's record highs in early trading Friday as investors continue to shrug off the U.S. government shutdown, now in its third day.Futures for S&P 500, Nasdaq and the Dow Jones Industrial Average all added 0.2% before the bell. All three closed at record levels on Thursday, boosted by gains of chipmakers and artificial intelligence companies.Markets have largely ignored the shutdown of the U.S. government after Democrat and Republican lawmakers failed to reach agreement on funding.

Bessent criticized the weak jobs data released Friday, extending recent administration claims that the numbers aren't correct and haven't been collected properly. (Trump fired the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after the August report, and said without evidence that the BLS rigged the data against him.) "President Trump was elected for change, and we are going to push through with the economic policies that are going to set the economy right," Bessent said. "I believe by the fourth quarter we are going to see a substantial acceleration."