Stock Market Live October 2: S&P 500 (VOO) Rises on Government Shutdown Day 2
Key Points
- The U.S. Government enters its second day of partial shutdown mode as Congress still fails to agree on a new continuing resolution to fund the government.
- Berkshire Hathaway makes its biggest buy in three years, spending $9.7 billion to take over Occidental Petroleum’s petrochemical division.
- It sounds nuts, but SoFi is giving new active invest users up to $1k in stock, see for yourself (Sponsor)
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Thursday Wrap-up
Google's Growing Faster
Morgan Stanley similarly raised its price target on Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG) stock this morning, to$270, and also with an overweight rating.
Amid growing GenAI adoption, says the analyst, and across multiple Alphabet business lines, Alphabet is turning out to be an “AI Winner.” MS is raising its search revenue estimates by about 1% and 2% in 2026 and 2027, respectively, and forecasting 10% and 8% year-over-year growth in the next two years.
In contrast to Apple, though, Google stock is now down 0.3% today. The Voo is now down 0.2%.
The Apple of Analysts' Eye
Morgan Stanley raised its price target on S&P 500 component Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) stock to $298 with an overweight rating this morning.
MS said Apple’s iPhone 17 launch looks modestly stronger than expected and earnings estimates could rise in consequence. The analyst’s actually “more excited” about the upcoming iPhone 18 launch, however.
Apple stock is up 0.4%. The Voo is now down 0.1%, however.
Down on Dow
Citi lowered its price target on S&P 500 component Dow Inc. (NYSE: DOW) stock to $23 with a neutral rating this morning. Previewing Dow’s Q3 earnings report, Citi said seasonal demand growth looks weak and inventories are high, weakening pricing power. The bank responded by lowering estimates for Dow’s earnings in Q3 — and Q4 as well.
Investors shrugged off the news. Despite the PT cut, Dow stock is up more than 3% in early trading. The Voo’s gain, however, has been cut to 0.1%.
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.
It’s Day 2 of the Government Shutdown of 2025, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is warning investors that “we could see a hit to the GDP, a hit to growth and a hit to working America.”
Up till now, though, growth has been pretty good, with GDP rising at a 3.8% annual rate in Q2, a rate that might get even faster — potentially heating up inflation — now that the Federal Reserve has started cutting interest rates. Viewed in that context, one might conclude that a bit of a hit to GDP might not be such a bad thing.
Perhaps this is why investors seem to be shrugging off the shutdown. Yesterday, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) rose 0.4%. Today, the ETF is up another 0.3% premarket.
Meanwhile, in non-Shutdown news, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) announced today it will buy Occidental Petroleum‘s (NYSE: OXY) OxyChem petrochemical division for $9.7 billion in cash.
Occidental stock is up 1% on the news, premarket. Berkshire stock is down 1.1%.
Earnings
Medical device-maker Angiodynamics (Nasdaq: ANGO) beat earnings by two cents this morning, reporting a $0.10 per share loss for its fiscal Q1 2026 on sales of $75.7 million — which was also ahead of estimates.
Also helping the stock was guidance, with Angiodynamics forecasting smaller losses that expected this year, $0.23 to $0.33 per share, on greater sales than expected — $308 million to $313 million.
Analyst Calls
KeyBanc analyst Ashley Owens upgraded S&P 500 component Nike (NYSE: NKE) stock to overweight with a $90 price target after its successful earnings report. Despite “near term choppiness … from tariffs, digital, and China,” the analyst says Nike’s in a good position “for a return to sustainable growth/margin recovery.”
Conversely, Roth/MKM analyst Eric Handler downgraded Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: EA) stock to neutral with a $210 price target after the games company agreed to be taken private in a $55 billion deal.
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