A trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., Sept. 22, 2025.
Jeenah Moon | Reuters
Stock futures are little changed Monday night as investors monitor the risks of a stock market at all-time highs.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 24 points, or 0.05%. S&P futures slipped 0.05%, while Nasdaq 100 futures slid 0.03%.
The three major averages closed at all-time highs, marking three consecutive winning sessions for the S&P 500, and recorded fresh intraday records on Monday. Gains accelerated in the latter half of the trading session after Nvidia shares jumped nearly 4% higher on the back of an announcement from the chipmaker that it will invest $100 billion in OpenAI for the buildout of data centers.
Questions remain on whether the AI trade can continue powering U.S. equities, particularly given the risks tied to elevated market valuations.
Joe Davis, Vanguard chief global economist, noted that the explosive growth and adoption in AI, coupled with the Federal Reserve’s latest interest rate cut, are the two notable factors that have led to higher multiples while “fundamentals are okay.”
“When you’re a little bit at a richer levels, cracks are exposed to bad news,” Davis said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.” “That’s not to say that it’s going to materialize, but I think we need to see acceleration and growth in the back half of the year or some progress on inflation, which remain stubborn. And I think either of those dimensions would help.”
The latest reading of the personal consumption expenditures price index — which is the Fed’s preferred inflation measure — will be released Friday and is expected to give clues on the path of monetary policy for the remainder of the year.
Investors are also watching the increasing chance of a government shutdown ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline after the Senate last week rejected Republican and Democratic proposals to at least temporarily fund the federal government. The stock market has historically brushed off concerns tied to government shutdowns, but this time around could be different as the economic backdrop heading into a shutdown is the weakest in more than two decades.