Bonds & Stocks
US equity futures were flat after the S&P 500 snapped an eight-day winning streak amid worries about lofty valuations and the billions of dollars pouring into artificial intelligence. Concerns have been growing that the $16 trillion surge in the S&P 500 from its April lows had gone too far, with some market participants seeing an echo of the excesses that led to the dot-com crash 25 years ago. The dollar gained for a third day against major peers, while Treasury yields dipped, and investors are awaiting the release of minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last rates meeting later today.
Economy
The White House is considering not paying federal employees for days they have been furloughed during the shutdown, according to a person familiar with the matter. A memo from the White House's Budget Office argues that furloughed employees can be paid only if the bill that ends the shutdown explicitly appropriates funds for that purpose. Democrats have refuted the memo, with Senator Dick Durbin saying that the law is clear and that federal workers will receive back pay, and that the White House's argument is "an outrage" and "a violation of the law".
World
Russia has reported a growing number of drone attacks deep inside its territory, with some reaching nearly 2,000 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. Drones were detected in industrial hubs in the Ural Mountains and the oil-rich region of Tyumen in Siberia, with some destroyed in the Perm region and the city of Tyumen. Ukraine's President Zelenskiy said "Ukrainian long-range drone-missiles are demonstrating growing effectiveness" in a social media post, but Russian authorities haven’t attributed any of these drones to Ukraine.