Mixed Day For US Stocks Amid Govt Shutdown Worries

Financial and oil-linked equities were among the Wall Street winners on a mostly down day on Monday, as markets weigh the risk that congressional gridlock could lead to a US government shutdown.

In Washington, negotiations over funding the government and raising the debt ceiling were heating up at the start of a week that could also include a vote on President Biden's one trillion US dollar infrastructure bill.

US lawmakers have until September 30 to pass a funding bill, even a temporary one, to keep the government operating.

Tech shares were also hurt by rising Treasury yields, weighed on equities in the quarter's final week.

Those rising yields hurt some market leaders that had benefited from low rates. Microsoft, Amazon.com, Alphabet and Apple ended the session down between 0.6 percent and 1.7 percent.

Of the three major US stock indexes, only the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average closed in positive territory, buoyed by financials and industrials.

The Dow Jones rose 0.21 percent to 34,869, the S&P 500 lost 0.28 percent at 4,443, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped slightly more than half a percent to 14,970.

The S&P 500 is on track to snap its seven-month winning streak, with the prospect of higher corporate tax rates and hints from the US Federal Reserve that it could start to tighten its accommodative monetary policies in the months ahead. (AFP/Reuters)