05:07 PM EDT, 09/30/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US equities advanced for a third straight session on Tuesday even as the world's biggest economy appeared to be headed toward a federal government shutdown, while Wall Street concluded another month of gains.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 6,688.5, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 0.3% to 22,660. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.2% to close at 46,397.9. Most sectors ended in the green, led by health care, while energy saw the biggest drop.

The three stock market indexes posted gains for September, with the Nasdaq advancing by 5.6%, its sixth consecutive monthly jump. The S&P 500 and the Dow rose for the fifth month in a row, increasing 3.5% and 1.9%, respectively.

President Donald Trump said the government shutdown was "probably likely" as he blamed the Democrats for a looming funding lapse at midnight, CNN reported Tuesday. A meeting between Republicans and Democrats on Monday yielded no progress on a spending bill to avert a partial government shutdown.

"Shutdowns are unsettling but rarely decisive. They are usually short-term noise rather than lasting signal, and markets tend to recover quickly once funding resumes," Jacob Falkencrone, global head of investment strategy at Saxo Bank, said in a report published Tuesday. "The bigger risk lies in the temporary blackout of economic data, which can leave the Federal Reserve and investors navigating without a compass."

The looming government shutdown is expected to delay the official jobs report for this month, currently scheduled for a Friday release.

Assuming a shutdown is avoided and the September nonfarm payrolls report is released, it is expected to show a gain of 51,000, compared with August's 22,000 rise, Stifel said in a Tuesday note.

US Treasury yields were mixed, with the 10-year rate rising 1.5 basis points to 4.16%, while the the two-year rate dropped one basis point to 3.63%.

US job openings rose to 7.23 million as of the last day of August from 7.21 million the month before, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' job openings and labor turnover survey. The consensus was for a 7.2 million level in a survey compiled by Bloomberg.

US home prices fell sequentially in July, while the annual growth rate was one of the weakest in the last 10 years, S&P Global ( SPGI ) division S&P Dow Jones Indices said.

US consumer confidence this month deteriorated to its lowest level since April amid concerns about the labor market, while 12-month inflation expectations declined, a report by the Conference Board showed.

"We have a situation whereby consumers are nervous about the economic situation, despite last week's activity data looking pretty good," James Knightley, ING chief international economist in New York, said in a report.

Boston Federal Reserve President Susan Collins on Tuesday expressed willingness to support additional interest rate cuts this year, saying she now sees "limited" upside risks to inflation.

Separately, Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson said risks to employment are likely tilted to the downside, while those to inflation are leaning upside.

"I expect the disinflation process to resume after this year and inflation to return to the (Fed's) 2% target in the coming years," Jefferson said. "With the unemployment rate at 4.3%, the labor market is softening, which suggests that, (if) left unsupported, it could experience stress."

West Texas Intermediate crude oil was down 1.5% at $62.52 a barrel in Tuesday late-afternoon trade. "The resumption of oil exports from Iraq's Kurdistan region reinforced market expectations of a supply surplus," D.A. Davidson said in a note.

In company news, Merck ( MRK ) shares jumped roughly 6.8%, the top gainer on the Dow and the second-best on the S&P 500. The company said a phase 3 trial showed that its experimental drug, Winrevair, reduced the risk of clinical worsening events by 76% in adults with pulmonary arterial hypertension at intermediate or high risk, compared with placebo.

Pfizer ( PFE ) was the best performer on the S&P 500, up 6.8%, after the drugmaker said it struck a deal with the Trump administration to reduce prices for prescription medicines. Pfizer ( PFE ) pledged an additional $70 billion for US research, development and capital projects in the next few years.

CoreWeave's ( CRWV ) shares soared nearly 12% after the artificial intelligence cloud provider disclosed an up to $14.2 billion computing infrastructure deal with Meta Platforms ( META ) . Meta was down 1.2%.

Spotify Technology ( SPOT ) said it has appointed Gustav Soderstrom and Alex Norstrom as co-chief executives, replacing Daniel Ek, who will become executive chairman, effective Jan. 1. The audio streaming company's US-listed shares declined 4.2%.

Gold was up 0.7% at $3,880.40 per troy ounce, while silver fell 0.6% to $46.75 per ounce.