Markets Surge as Longest-Ever U.S. Shutdown Nears End

Did flight cancellations prompt an end to the prolonged government shutdown?

It appears the longest-ever government shutdown is nearly at an end, and the markets responded with a significant surge on Monday.

Almost every sector across the US indices is getting a welcome boost from the news, but tech seems to have benefited the most. The S&P 500 rose 1.8% while the Nasdaq bounced 2.4%.

The world’s richest company, Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA), is up 5% on the day, while Palantir (9.2%) and Tesla (3.9%) also trended upwards. Tech tends to be more volatile than traditional stocks, so it may just be the tip of the spear as the market reacts. Even cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (2%) and Ethereum (1%) got a small bounce from the news.

It remains to be seen whether November will end up being a positive one for the markets but here are some early winners today (at the time this article was published):

Eight Democrats break ranks to hasten end of shutdown

Ultimately, eight Democratic senators chose to side with Republicans in an effort to end the shutdown.

Notably, the deal includes the following:

• Backpay for furloughed workers.
• A promise to hold a vote to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits that were set to expire this year.
• Funding the government at current levels until Jan. 30, 2026.

The Senate advanced the bill, but it still needs to fully pass through the Senate and the House of Representatives before finally being signed by the President.

There is a significant amount of turmoil in the Democratic party as some Democrats believe passing the budget will lead to significantly more expensive healthcare and that some low-income families will lose healthcare altogether.

Thousands of flights cancelled

As of Monday, the government shutdown had reached 41 days, making it the longest in U.S. history. Airlines recently announced that they were canceling flights due to the government shutdown, which may have contributed to motivating politicians to broker a deal.

President Donald Trump threatened air traffic controllers in a speech and said he would dock their pay if they didn’t return to work.

Surprisingly, US airline stock had been relatively unaffected by the shutdown, but that changed over the last few days after news of flight cancellations broke.

You’d think an end to the government shutdown would benefit airlines but the sector was relatively flat to negative on Monday:

US Airline Performance