Stock Market Live October 1: S&P 500 (VOO) Falls as U.S. Government Shuts Down
Key Points
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The U.S. government shut down at midnight last night, cutting non-essential services. It’s unclear when it will reopen.
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ConAgra beat on top and bottom lines this morning, and guided to in-line earnings for the year.
Live Updates
Wednesday Wrap-up
Delta Flies Higher
Jefferies analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu upgraded Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL | DAL Price Prediction) stock to buy with a $70 price target.
Kahyaoglu forecasts both revenue growth and margin expansion for Delta in Q4 2025 and into 2026, noting “domestic yields inflecting positive early in the Q anchored by corporate/premium” travel. Despite the good news, Delta stock is down 0.1% today.
Good Moody's
Deutsche Bank analyst Faiza Alwy upgraded S&P component company Moody’s (NYSE: MCO) stock to buy with a $528 price target this morning.
Credit ratings agencies have “fundamental upside,” says the analyst, both “near-term” and “further upside potential longer-term.” Despite AI risks, Moody’s will “benefit from proprietary data and issuance upside is margin accretive.”
Moody’s stock is up 0.6% and the Voo has finally turned green — up 0.1%.
Nike Races Higher
Things are looking a little better as trading gets underway. The Voo’s loss has been cut in half, now down only 0.2%. Helping with this is buying activity in S&P 500 component company Nike (NYSE: NKE) which beat earnings last night with a report of a $0.49 Q1 profit.
Revenue also beat expectations soundly, at $11.7 billion, and Nike stock is up more than 4% today.
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.
Well, they did it. Or rather, they didn’t do it. Legislators failed to agree on a continuing resolution to keep the government solvent by the September 30 deadline, and so at midnight last night, the U.S. government “shut down.”
Social security payments will still be made, but processing of social security applications will slow. At the FDA, review of drug applications will grind to a halt.
Government workers, both civilian and military, will go without pay until Washington fixes this mess. The Congressional Budget Office estimates 750,000 government employees will have to suspend work.
Essential services, such as air traffic control, will be staffed by workers without pay. Nonessential services will simply not be provided for the time being, because their workers will go on furlough. For example, it’s unclear whether this week’s expected jobs report will be published — but it is clear that unemployment will rise due to all the government workers no longer working!
Speaking of which, ADP (NYSE: ADP) just issued its report on September payrolls among private employers, which the HR company says fell by 32,000 in the month — instead of growing by 45,000 as forecast. Yet another bit of bad news on a pretty bad news day.
Basically, it’s a huge mess and no one knows how long it will remain a mess. Investors are understandably upset, and the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) is down 0.4% premarket.
Earnings
Outside Washington, the economy continues its work. ConAgra (NYSE: CAG) beat on Q1 2026 earnings by six cents, reporting a $0.39 per share profit. Sales edged out expectations at $2.6 billion.
ConAgra’s guidance for $1.70 to $1.85 per share in full year profit basically tracks with what analysts were already predicting, moreover, and ConAgra stock is up more than 2% premarket.
In contrast, egg producer Cal-Maine Foods (Nasdaq: CALM) missed by 53 cents this morning, reporting its Q1 earnings were a worse than expected $4.12, despite revenue coming in ahead of forecasts at $922.6 million.
Joel South covers large-cap stocks, dividend investing, and major market trends, with a focus on earnings analysis, valuation, and turning complex data into actionable insights for investors.
He brings more than 15 years of experience as an investor and financial journalist, including 12 years at The Motley Fool, where he served as an investment analyst, Bureau Chief, and later led the Fool.com investing news desk. He has also co-hosted an investing podcast and appeared across TV and radio discussing market trends.
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