ASX set to rise, tech stocks weigh on Wall Street

3 hours ago 3

By Stan Choe

October 6, 2025 — 5.26am

Most US stocks ticked higher on Friday, sending Wall Street to more records.

The S&P 500 edged up by less than 0.1 per cent to close out its seventh winning week in the last nine, and the Dow Jones climbed 238 points, or 0.5 per cent. Both added to their all-time highs set the day before. The Nasdaq composite lost an early gain and slipped 0.3 per cent from its own record.

Wall Street’s benchmark index closed higher despite weakness in tech stocks.

The Australian sharemarket is set to advance, with futures pointing to a gain of 29 points, or 0.3 per cent, at the open. The Australian dollar was fetching US65.98¢ at 5.18am AEST.

Usually, the first Friday of each month has Wall Street transfixed on the monthly jobs update that the US government publishes. It shows how many jobs employers created and destroyed, while also updating the unemployment rate.

Such data is particularly important now, given how much on Wall Street is riding on the expectation that the job market is continuing to slow by enough to get the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates. But the shutdown of the US government, now in its third day, is delaying the release.

So far, the US stock market has looked past such delays, including Thursday’s scheduled report on unemployment claims.

Past shutdowns of the US government have tended not to hurt the economy or stock market much, and the thinking is that this one could be similar, even if President Donald Trump has threatened large-scale firings of federal workers this time around.

That leaves excitement around artificial intelligence and the massive spending underway because of it as one of the main drivers of the US stock market, which has been setting record after record.

The industry got another boost after Japan’s Hitachi signed a memorandum of understanding with OpenAI related to powering AI. It followed an earlier set of announcements by OpenAI with South Korean companies, which vaulted stock prices higher there. Hitachi’s stock jumped 10.3 per cent in Tokyo.

AI stocks have become so dominant, and so much money has poured into the industry that worries are rising about a potential bubble that could eventually lead to disappointment for investors.

Nvidia, the stock that’s become the poster child of the AI boom, lost an early gain during the morning to finish with a dip of 0.7 per cent.

Applied Materials fell 2.7 per cent. The company, whose equipment helps make semiconductor chips, said it will take a roughly $US110 million ($167 million) hit to its revenue in the fourth quarter because of a new US Commerce Department rule expanding export restrictions to certain customers based in China.

But gains for oil producers helped offset such losses. Exxon Mobil climbed 1.8 per cent, and Diamondback Energy rose 3 per cent as the price of crude clawed back some of its sharp losses from earlier in the week. Oil prices had been struggling on worries that the amount of crude in inventories will be too high relative to demand.

Entergy climbed 1.9 per cent after saying its Arkansas business will deliver power for Google’s planned $US4 billion investment in the state, including a new data centre.

All told, the S&P 500 added 0.44 to 6,715.79 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 238.56 to 46,758.28, and the Nasdaq composite fell 63.54 to 22,780.51.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was a big winner and rose 1.9 per cent thanks in part to Hitachi’s jump.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.12 per cent from 4.10 per cent late Thursday.

Reports came in mixed on activity for US businesses in the health care, real estate and other services industries. One from the Institute for Supply Management said growth is stalling, while another from S&P Global said it’s still growing slowly.

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