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NEW YORK (Reuters) -The S&P 500 eked out a record closing high in a volatile session Friday, with interest rate-cut expectations holding up as the U.S. government shutdown went on for a third day. The Dow also posted a record closing high, but the Nasdaq ended lower.  The S&P 500 technology sector eased, with shares of Applied Materials declining 2.7% after the chip-equipment maker late Thursday forecast a $600 million hit to fiscal 2026 revenue. Shares of Tesla were 1.4% lower, while utilities rose 1.2% and led gains among S&P 500 sectors.  The U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for September was due for release on Friday, but was not published due to the government closure. Investors were still able to digest a survey by the Institute for Supply Management, which showed the services employment index contracted for the fourth consecutive month. The news underscored the case for more interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. "It certainly feels like momentum is on the side of investors over the last few days," said Mona Mahajan, head of investment strategy at Edward Jones. It seems like "the market probability of a Fed rate cut has actually gone up since the shutdown began," she said. "Maybe that's because there's the potential impact on the economy or some weaker jobs data this week or this morning's ISM data… the expectation is we're still in this environment where the Fed is going to cut rates." The Fed cut rates in September for the first time since December amid recent labor market weakness. On Wednesday, a report showed a decline in private payrolls of 32,000 and a downwardly revised 3,000 decline in August.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 238.56 points, or 0.51%, to 46,758.28, the S&P 500 gained 0.44 points, or 0.01%, to 6,715.79 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 63.54 points, or 0.28%, to 22,780.51.  For the week, the Dow gained 1.1%, the S&P 500 also climbed 1.1% and the Nasdaq rose 1.3%. The market has historically shrugged off government shutdowns, but some strategists said that a longer shutdown could create more uncertainty for investors and for Fed policymakers. "The market generally looks past government shutdowns because they don't usually last long and they don't have a longer-term negative impact on the economy," said Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial in Troy, Michigan. "But the longer it goes… it means the data collection for really important reports could get delayed, or it could cloud some of the data that we will eventually get because the data collection wasn't happening over an extended period." Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said he was hesitant to commit to a series of rate cuts with inflation still running above the target.  According to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, traders see a 25-basis-point cut at the Fed's October meeting as almost certain and are pricing in an 84% probability of an additional cut in December. Shares of USA Rare Earth rose 14.3% after CEO Barbara Humpton told CNBC the company was "in close communication" with the White House. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.72-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 686 new highs and 55 new lows on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, 2,813 stocks rose and 1,880 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.5-to-1 ratio. Volume on U.S. exchanges was 20.47 billion shares, compared with the 19.01 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. (Additional reporting by Niket Nishant and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri, Pooja Desai and Aurora Ellis)

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(Reuters) -Drugmaker AbbVie said on Friday it has lowered its annual profit forecast, after flagging an expected $2.7 billion charge related to in-process research and development (IPR&D) expenses in the third quarter. The Chicago-based company said in a regulatory filing that such expenses may arise from collaborations, licensing deals or asset buys, but are not forecast due to uncertainty around timing and occurrence. It did not specify how the expense was incurred. Including the third-quarter charge, AbbVie now expects full-year adjusted earnings per share between $10.38 and $10.58, compared with the prior range of $11.88 to $12.08. Analysts were expecting full-year adjusted EPS to be $12.02, according to data compiled by LSEG. The company's previous forecast for full-year adjusted earnings, issued on July 31, excluded any IPR&D expenses beyond the second quarter, it said. AbbVie added that the results for the quarter ended Sept. 30 have not been finalized. "There can be no assurance that our final results will not differ from these preliminary estimates," the company said. It forecast third-quarter adjusted EPS in the range of $1.74 to $1.78, including the impact of the IPR&D expense, much lower than the analysts' estimate of $3.27. Separately, AbbVie said earlier this week it began building a $195 million manufacturing plant in North Chicago, Illinois, expected to produce immunology, oncology and neuroscience drugs and be fully operational by 2027. AbbVie has been leaning on newer immunology drugs Skyrizi and Rinvoq to offset declining sales of its blockbuster arthritis treatment Humira, which began facing biosimilar competition in the U.S. in 2023. The company has spent more than $20 billion on acquisitions since then, and plans to spend another $10 billion on expansion in the country over the next decade. Its shares were down marginally in extended trade. (Reporting by Siddhi Mahatole in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)

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By Marc Jones and Koh Gui Qing NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) -World stocks were on course for a solid weekly gain and more record highs as the seemingly unstoppable rally in tech shares and expectations of lower U.S. interest rates helped to offset uncertainty surrounding the U.S. government shutdown. News late in the day that Palestinian militant group Hamas would agree to some of the terms in U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to end the war in Gaza helped strengthen the Israeli shekel. The group said it would release hostages while seeking further negotiations on more contentious issues such as disarmament, and the shekel rose 0.7% to 3.2912 per dollar, capping a 1.6% gain for the week. Investors have mostly shrugged off the U.S. shutdown, the 15th since 1981, but on Friday it meant traders weren't getting what is probably the single most-watched piece of market-moving economic data: monthly U.S. payrolls figures. Wall Street did not seem bothered, with all three major stock indexes hitting record highs, pushing MSCI's main 47-country index of world shares up 0.3%, while Europe cruised towards its best week since April. [.N][.EU] Still, with no resolution in sight for the U.S. shutdown, some analysts predicted that other U.S. economic releases might be delayed later this month. "Given the lack of talk among leadership, the shutdown is more likely than not to extend through the end of next week," TD Securities said in a note to clients. "We expect the release of jobless claims to remain sidelined, with the CPI (consumer inflation) and retail sales reports at risk the following week." The S&P 500 Index finished flat after hitting an all-time high of 6,750.87 points, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.3%, pulling back a touch from a record peak of 22,925.43 points struck in early trade. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also jumped to a record high of 47,049.64 points, before retreating to finish 0.5% higher. Euro zone services sector PMIs helped the euro to tick up, too, as they accelerated to an eight-month high owing to moderate growth in Germany, Italy and Spain, although France's political turmoil continued to weigh them down. Christopher Hodge, U.S. economist at Natixis, said the lack of payrolls data in some ways bolstered the current view among forecasters that U.S. interest rates will be cut again this month. "The baseline (of a rate cut) is the default in the absence of new information," Hodge said, adding that the markets also had plenty of practice dealing with U.S. shutdowns. "The only thing that could be different this time is that we are in an economic and policy cycle that is a lot more ambiguous." Benchmark government bond yields – the main driver of global borrowing costs – nudged higher in both the U.S. and the euro zone, although they dropped in the UK after poor PMI data there, and all were down for the week. Markets are almost fully pricing in a 25-basis-point Fed rate cut this month and at least four cuts by the end of 2026. GOING FOR GOLD The overnight rise in MSCI's main Asian share index meant it closed with a 2.7% weekly gain and has now risen about 23% this year.  China and some other parts of Asia had been closed for a holiday, meaning trading was thinner than usual, although Taiwan hit a record high and Japan's Nikkei jumped 1.5% ahead of a crucial weekend vote that will determine that country's next prime minister. [.T] Weiheng Chen, global investment strategist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, said investors appear willing to give Washington time to resolve its disagreements, although a prolonged government shutdown might start to move markets. "For now, investors remain more focused on the potential impacts of the Fed's rate-cutting cycle, trade and immigration policy, economic data, and corporate earnings," Chen said. With no government reports on the labor market to offer cues, investors have turned to alternative data from public and private sources and so far they point to a sluggish U.S. labor market. The Institute for Supply Management, for example, said on Friday its non-manufacturing purchasing managers index fell to 50 last month, the breakeven level, from 52.0 in August, as U.S. services sector activity stalled in September amid a sharp slowdown in new orders. That has left the dollar under pressure. It sagged again on Friday against a basket of other top currencies and was on course for its biggest weekly drop since August. [/FRX] The Japanese yen has been a major beneficiary of that dip, although it weakened to 147.4 per dollar on Friday after Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda left markets guessing on when the central bank will next hike interest rates. In commodities, oil prices recovered slightly on the day but were on course for their steepest weekly drop in more than three months. Brent crude futures were at $64.39 a barrel as U.S. trading gathered pace, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $60.69 a barrel. Gold, meanwhile, rose for a seventh straight week to $3,885.99 an ounce, after hitting a record of $3,896.49 an ounce on Thursday. It is viewed as a safe-haven asset during times of uncertainty and thrives on low interest rates. It has surged 47% this year. [GOL/] "As the U.S. dollar's status as the global reserve currency is tested, gold is emerging as the pre-eminent safe haven, and we continue to view it as the ultimate diversifier," said Greg Hirt, global CIO for multi-asset at AllianzGI. (Additional reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Lisa Shumaker)

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By Erwin Seba, Shivani Tanna, Nicole Jao and Shariq Khan (Reuters) -Chevron's 285,000-barrel-per-day El Segundo refinery in southern California had taken multiple units offline on Friday after a large fire erupted in a jet fuel production unit, disrupting supply in the Golden State's isolated energy market. The El Segundo refinery is the second largest in California and Chevron's second-biggest refinery in the United States. The facility supplies a fifth of all motor vehicle fuels and 40% of the jet fuel consumed in southern California. The fire at the facility's jet fuel production unit broke out on Thursday evening. No injuries were reported, and all workers at the refinery were accounted for, Chevron spokesperson Allison Cook said in an email. Chevron on Friday said the fire had been put out.  It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion at the facility in the suburb of El Segundo, which supplies jet fuel for Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), located just north of the refinery. "There is no known impact to LAX at this time," Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said. LAX declined to comment.  The fire broke out in the refinery's Isomax 7 unit, which converts mid-distillate fuel oil into jet fuel, two sources said. On Thursday evening, multiple units at the refinery were shut, including the 60,000 barrel per day (bpd) catalytic reformer, 45,000 bpd hydrocracker, and 73,000 bpd fluid catalytic cracker, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie. The refinery's crude distillation units were still online, two traders said, citing Wood Mackenzie data. AIRLINES HIT MORE THAN DRIVERS On the West Coast, traders were still assessing the extent of damage to the refinery, but early indications pointed to a small increase in motor fuel prices and potentially larger impacts for aviation fuel. Gasoline prices in California, already the highest in the country, are expected to rise five to 15 cents per gallon for now as the refinery's gasoline-producing unit was said to have not been impacted by the fire, said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy. California's nearly 28 million drivers were paying close to $4.70 a gallon for gasoline in the state as of Friday, compared to a national average of under $3.22 a gallon, GasBuddy data showed. However, airlines serving southern California will see much bigger impacts, with price for jet fuel surging by 33 cents a gallon Friday afternoon, De Haan said. California will likely need to pull more jet fuel imports from refiners in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan to make up for the loss of El Segundo's output, Asian trade sources said. Southern California's Long Beach region was receiving around 45,000 to 50,000 bpd of jet fuel imports in recent weeks, and would need to step that up by bringing one more cargo over the next few weeks, a market source said. Fuel prices in California were expected to surge in the months ahead, as Phillips 66 is winding down operations at its 139,000-bpd Los Angeles-area refinery for permanent closure and Valero's Benicia refinery is set to close in April 2026. Those two refineries produce roughly 20% of the state's gasoline supply. "In a region that was already expected to see some tightness in supplies after a refinery shutdown this December, the fire could provide support to (fuel prices) in the area and a scramble ahead of the closure," said StoneX analyst Alex Hodes. FIREBALL TURNED THE SKY ORANGE Local officials said no evacuation orders were issued for nearby residents, some of whom live in apartment buildings across the street from the refinery.  Residents of Manhattan Beach, located southwest of the refinery, were told to shelter in place until 2 a.m.  "Chevron fire department personnel, including emergency responders from the cities of El Segundo and Manhattan Beach are actively responding to an isolated fire inside the Chevron El Segundo Refinery," Cook, the Chevron spokesperson, said on Friday. "All refinery personnel and contractors have been accounted for and there are no injuries," Cook said. Los Angeles residents posted numerous videos of the fire online, saying they were stunned by the noise of the blast. A University of California-San Diego camera captured video of the explosion shortly after 9:30 p.m. PDT (0430 GMT).  A fireball from the blaze, along with the refinery's safety flare – triggered by the fire –  turned the sky orange over western Los Angeles, pictures showed. Safety flares, which emit a tall plume of flame, are used when refineries cannot process hydrocarbons normally.  In addition to Chevron, state and federal safety agencies said they will investigate the fire after the blaze is extinguished. In December 2022, an isolated fire in the refinery was quickly extinguished. In the U.S. so far in 2025, there have been several refinery fire incidents. The refinery's total storage capacity is 12.5 million barrels in about 150 major tanks. The sources said they were not sure how much jet fuel was currently in storage.  (Reporting by Nicole Jao and Shariq Khan in New York, Erwin Seba in Houston, Shivani Tanna, Anmol Choubey, Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru, Stephanie Kelly in London, Trixie Yap in Singapore; Editing by Susan Fenton, Clarence Fernandez, Edward Tobin and Leslie Adler)

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