US stock futures faltered on Tuesday as Wall Street braced for a US government shutdown likely to begin as soon as Wednesday.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) and on the S&P 500 (ES=F) both dropped roughly 0.2%. Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) also edged down 0.2%.

President Trump met with Democrats in the Oval Office on Monday, but both sides left the talks indicating they had made no progress on striking a deal that would avert a government shutdown. Lawmakers have until Wednesday at 12:01 a.m. ET to reach an agreement or else a partial government shutdown is set to begin.

"I think we're headed to a shutdown," Vice President JD Vance said after the meeting.

If a stoppage goes forward, in addition to mass firings and chaos at the airport, the government is set to cease publishing economic data at a time when the Federal Reserve and Wall Street have a particular need for it. The Department of Labor said its Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) would "completely cease operations" during a stoppage, with just one of 2,055 full-time employees continuing to work.

Wall Street and the Fed are anxious to receive Friday's release of the September jobs report as scheduled. A slew of mixed economic data has shaken confidence in the Fed's expectation of two more rate cuts this year as a sure thing, especially as apparent divisions emerge among policymakers.

Despite gridlock in Washington, along with new tariffs announced by Trump on Monday, stocks inched up to start the week.

Looking forward, Nike (NKE) is expected to report earnings after the bell, and investors are set to receive the latest data on job openings from the BLS.

Bloomberg reports:

Gold (GC=F) rose to another record, extending Monday’s surge as the prospect of a looming US government shutdown clouded the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy path ahead of next month’s interest-rate decision.

Bullion gained as much as 0.9% to an all-time $3,867.25 an ounce, eclipsing the peak reached in the previous session when it closed up 2%. A meeting between top congressional leaders and President Donald Trump ended without a deal on the government’s short-term funding. That’s fanned fears of a shutdown, which could hinder the release of economic reports — depriving investors of crucial data needed to assess the US economy.

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